Newspapers have been around as long as the printing press. But as the technology has changed, so have they - and today's Telegraph & Argus stands in the front line of 21st century technology.

No other medium can match the good old printed page for convenience; you can read your T&A on the bus from work, then fold it up and put in your pocket.

But the colour edition you have in your hand represents just one of the ways you can now catch up with what's happening in and around Bradford.

If you have a WAP mobile phone, you can dial up T&A news and sports stories and read them on your handset. Soon, you'll be able to see them on your digital TV, too.

But it is the internet that has revolutionised the way the world reads about Bradford. Each month, our award-winning website This Is Bradford registers up to half a million 'hits' as computer users the world over log on to the city.

It isn't just the day's news and sport they're after - though there's plenty to browse - but a complete package of information, from cinemas to curries. Last month, This Is Bradford was recognised as the best news site in the north of England, in the BT Media Awards.

Newspapers and the internet complement each other perfectly, and what the computer sometimes lacks in convenience it makes up for in completeness - delivering a depth of information that would be impossible to carry in print every night.

You can read not only today's news (it's updated far more often online than in print) but also browse through a three-year archive. You can use the site to help track down long lost friends or relatives. And if you're a fan of the T&A's children's Press Gang, you can even play interactive games.

The site is a mine of information for tourists. And popular features from the paper are supported with valuable reference material.

Juliet Proud, a former Bradfordian now settled in New Zealand, is among many who have discovered This Is Bradford. She first visited after being alerted by her mum, Carmel, back home in Wyke.

Juliet said: "She thought it would be a good way of keeping up with the play in Bradford day to day, and I'm extremely glad she did."

Juliet, who emigrated in 1996, says she now sees life from a different perspective, and shares her views by using the website's facility to contribute letters to the editor.

The online world has opened many other gateways. Almost anyone can start their own publication - and the T&A has stepped in to help charities and community groups do just that.

More than 170 have used This Is Bradford to set up websites of their own; digital newsletters for Bradford and the world to see. It takes less than ten minutes to set up a site in this way and it doesn't cost a bean.

The T&A's parent company, Newsquest Media Group, operates a network of websites around the UK. Last year they earned a place in Revolution magazine's Top 100 UK Online Properties.

It is the strength of the newspaper itself that enables us to do this. No one knows Bradford like the T&A, and no one else can harness the depth and quality of information that makes This Is Bradford such a valued resource.

So, however the technology changes, our resolve remains the same: to bring our readers the very best service of news and information... however they choose to access it. In an age of information, local newspapers have never been more relevant.

lSee our website at www.ThisIsBradford.co.uk