mPress averaged 736 visitors a day on its online site during Convention 2009, with readers spending an average of 8 minutes and 18 seconds following the news from Columbus.

Among visits from the United States, Ohio led the way, numbering 995; Pennsylvania tallied 612 visits; Indiana, 567; and Kansas, 318.

There were a total of 3,750 visits between Wednesday and Friday, July 1 through 3.

The mPress audience extended into 33 countries. Excluding the United States, Canada led the way, with 37 visits; readers also hailed from Israel, which totaled 3 visits; Belgium, 3; Peru, 2; China, 2; Palestinian Territory, 1; and South Korea, 1.

Tuesday evening two books walked away from the Peace Tax Fund table in the adult worship area: “Register Citizen Opinions” and a new book about Marian Franz. Sorry, but they were marked “Display Only.” Please return the books to the Peace Tax Fund table.

A recent cartoon in The New Yorker shows a woman standing by a table with scissors in hand. A newspaper is spread out before her with rectangular holes here and there, and she’s taking the scissors to the paper yet again. She pauses briefly to explain things to her husband, who looks perplexed there with coffee cup in hand: “I’m cutting articles out of the newspaper while we still can.”

The cartoon is funny and sad to those of us who believe that newspapers belong on a continuum with air, water and bread. These are not easy times for a paper, even one that tries to publish all the news that’s fit to print. Over the years people came to expect free news and information on the Internet, no matter how expensive gathering it may be. Then came the double whammy of an economic meltdown and an advertising recession.

It’s no wonder that the Newspaper Association of America has been running ads in our local paper, The Goshen News, in effect reminding people that newspapers are still in business. The association noted that 104 million adults read a print newspaper every day; that’s more than watch the Super Bowl (94 million) or “American Idol” (23 million). The ad goes on: “Newspapers are reinventing themselves themselves to focus on serving distinct audiences . . . across media channels.”

The transformation of the news business, as painful as it may be in some quarters (like Denver, where The Rocky Mountain News shut down this spring), is forcing some very positive changes in journalism. Two that quickly come to mind are transparency and interactivity. Editors and reporters have emerged from behind walls, engaging readers with blogs, tweets, Q&A exchanges, ombudsman columns.

And newspapers are arguably offering better coverage than ever because readers once consigned to armchairs are contributing to the published product. One of my favorite sections is now the listing of the “most popular” e-mailed articles. Readers regularly share their work in photo galleries; they enrich (and correct) articles with easier access to news desks.

As we gather here in Columbus, we’re hoping that mPress will become one of the meaningful “side” spaces at the convention. To make that happen, we need your contributions. If you have an idea for an article or see a photo opportunity, please let us know. Though we don’t print letters in the limited space of our eight-page print edition, we welcome your comments online.

With this iteration of mPress, we’ve added several new features that are dependent on audience participation. One is Bio on a Card, which you might think of as a profile in miniature. Suzanne Ehst, an academic counselor at Goshen College, invites students to share their life stories on no more than one side of an index card. The Record, the weekly newspaper on campus, generally prints one a week. We borrowed the idea, thinking it could help people to introduce themselves and learn to know neighbors at the convention. Please submit a card; we have plenty on the table in front of the mPress office. We’ll publish some of them and post all of them on the wall out front.

Through the Frugal Diner column, we invite you to share tips on inexpensive but good places to eat in town. Modeled on the Metropolitan Diary in The New York Times, our Convention Diary aims to share memorable comments and stories and scenes throughout the week. We definitely need your help in recording those moments. At the top of the home page, you’ll see Photos from the Floor. This is intended as a “best of” gallery of photos from all of you, including impromptu snapshots from a cellphone in a crowded convention floor.

So we hope to hear from you, in one form or another. And we trust you will have a good week, a very good week – that you will breathe and be filled.