It's been 20 years since I entered the news business as a young entrepreneur. It was my first job -- lugging 54 copies of Newsday in a milk carton tied to the handle bars of my silver Schwinn.

    I never did master the art of paper throwing, but the money was pretty good for a 'tween. I even pulled in a couple extra bucks picking up the routes of couriers who bowed out under the seven-day-a-week pressure. (Anything for my comic book collection.)

Turns out I was one of the area's last paperboys. Soon after the job was handed over to station wagon-driving subcontractors.

But I never left the business.

I've been a reporter, an editor and journalism advocate. Recently I added the role of -- let's make it simple -- Web producer. A print guy by training, I see the value and potential of the Web, especially as it relates to creating powerful new relationships with the community.

Some say the whole profession is on its way to joining paperboys in extinction. They're wrong. We're working on the future. It's just going to be a wild ride getting there.

Sounds like fun to me.