Drip, drip, drip.

The changes have been slow and steady the past few years in your local, local, local newspaper.

Local, local, local didn’t happen overnight. We pointed in that direction, started to move and here we are.

Drip, drip, drip.

We’ve added a feature here and a column there, subtracted a thing or two, and there you have it. Some of the additions have been big, such as Be. Some of the subtractions have been likewise, such as TV Week.

We changed our design nearly three years ago, but it wasn’t radical. We changed our page width almost a year ago, but it wasn’t extreme.

Drip, drip, drip.

We’d like to think we’re a better newspaper than we used to be, and many of you stroke our egos with positive feedback. Some of you tell us we have changed too much. We respect your opinions.

And then there are those who apparently don’t think we have changed enough. Last month, for instance, a voice on “The Cocklebur Blog” suggested that we need to do something to “pull the AIM wagon out of the mud it is mired in.”

As many changes as we’ve made the past few years, that comment puzzled me at first. Then it energized and inspired me.

Is Anderson not satisfied with an improved Independent-Mail? Does it want a new and improved newspaper?

Perhaps it’s a good time to take your temperature, because we are in fact scratching our heads and talking about change. For a change, we’re talking about more than a tweak. We’re talking about a reinvention of our newsroom and a reincarnation of your newspaper.

Internally, change already is under way. We’re knocking down what we call “silos” in our newsroom. No longer will we have city desk reporters and editors, lifestyles reporters and an editor, a news desk, a sports desk, a lifestyles desk and a photo/graphics staff.

What’s emerging is a content staff, a production staff and a visual staff.

As we transform from a newspaper that also publishes online to a Web site that also publishes in print, our challenges are great, but our desire to inform, enlighten and entertain you is greater.

So talk to us. Tell us about your tolerance for change.

Relax. The crossword puzzle isn’t going to go. I promise. But what about horoscopes? How about Snoopy? How about “People” news?

I’m guessing you would protest if we took the lottery numbers away or dropped Straight Talk. But what about daily stock listings and baseball box scores?

How about national and international news? We’re not running much now. Should we print any at all?

Gulp. Does this columnist need to go?

Is this size the right size? Should we shrink or should we grow?

Speak up. Now’s the time. Tell me what content is sacred. Let me know what’s expendable. Tell me what we don’t have that we should have.

Drop, drop, drop me a line.