For as long as I can remember, there has been a newspaper open on my kitchen table in the morning. That’s where I still prefer to read the paper, now with my coffee and Wheaties.

In front of me, I guess for more than 50 years, have been two constants – the Seattle P-I and, growing up in Tukwila, the Renton Record-Chronicle. From the PI, I clipped the exploits of the seven Mercury astronauts in the early 1960s, saving them in a slotted wooden box for each of their journeys into space. Sadly, that box is long-gone.

In the P-I I saw the world.

But it was in the Record-Chronicle that I saw my own little universe.

Tukwila Hill then overlooked farmland and now reaps the financial benefits of one of the largest shopping complexes on the West Coast. Before Southcenter, Tukwila didn’t have much of a business district, just the Locks’ grocery store and the Post Office at the bottom of the hill on Interurban. So, my family bought groceries at the Renton Shopping Center and the kids watched movies on Saturday, either at the Roxy or the Renton Theater, depending on what was showing.

Renton was and is a shopping and entertainment destination.

The weekly Record-Chronicle was the closest thing I had to a hometown newspaper; it ran the honor rolls from Showalter and Foster. I even still have the clip (with my picture) when I was selected as editor of The Daily Evergreen at WSU. Yes, scrapbook journalism really does matter.

Fast forward through 40 years.

The Record-Chronicle became a daily, then lost, along with other community newspapers in South King County, their identities as the Valley Daily News. The decades-long march to consolidate suburban newspapers ended almost two years ago to the day, when the daily King County Journal was closed.

Now, the Seattle P-I is on its deathbed.

Sound dire? For daily newspapers, yes. For community newspapers like the Record-Chronicle in its heyday, no. Ask that question about the Renton Reporter today and the answer is still no.

So, what’s different about the Renton Reporter that gives it strength and sets it apart from the dailies? Simply, our focus – news and advertising – is intensely local. Unlike the King County Journal, the Renton Reporter has never lost sight of its core audience.

Then there’s the sheer weight of a daily’s bureaucracy on the company’s financial bottom line. The PI is heavy on storytellers (a good thing), The Seattle Times (note the capital T) is heavy on editors, which over the years contributed to its stuffiness.

Take a look at the photo with this column. It was taken by me, the editor, showing my photographer, Matt Brashears, showing my sports reporter, Adam McFadden, how to use our new videocamera. We are interchangeable parts. We are nimble, like the PI. What’s important to us is “the story,” told in ways old and new.

Anyway, I’ll get off memory lane, although if it comes to that, I’ll mourn the loss of of the PI as I did the history of the King County Journal.

I write about this because by now you’ve probably noticed something very new about the Renton Reporter. Finally, our look has been updated, we have new tools to present information to you. We are excited. Coupled with the advances made and yet to be made at rentonreporter.com., Renton’s own media house is on the move.

But we won’t stray far. You can, though.

Today, with rentonreporter.com, we all can get a close look at our own universe here in Renton and use it as the launching pad for parts unknown on the Internet. Yup, everywhere is just a few clicks away.

Like the headline says: RentonReporter.com: Where Renton starts.