MORE observant readers will have noticed from a single glance that something has changed on the Internet page.

Yes, your columnist Val Cowan has either (a) changed name and gender or (b) gone on to other things, and left you with a new columnist.

Well, it's (b) and I am he. So, just to introduce myself...

My name, as you may have gathered, is Richard Lewis, and, as well as writing this column for the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, my official job title round here is web producer.

And what, you may ask, exactly does a web producer do?

Well, I'm responsible for the content and promotion of our website, www.thisislancashire.co.uk, specifically the bits containing news from the Telegraph and the Citizen newspapers throughout Lancashire.

I make sure the news is updated several times a day, make sure the right pictures go with those stories and develop exciting initiatives to keep our loyal readers amused and coming back to see our site on a regular basis. I also write the on-line movie section (more of which elsewhere) which appears on thisislancashire, and generally promote, advertise and make people aware of what our site is, what you can find on it and what it can do.

My background is in journalism -- I came here from the Bury Times, where I was news editor for the five weekly newspapers produced there. Like the Telegraph, the Bury Times group is owned by Newsquest Media Group, and I started my involvement with the Internet when the BT started going on-line three years ago.

The Telegraph, as you may already know, was the first regional newspaper to be published on-line, and I am the first web producer.

My new job started at the end of last year when Newsquest Media set up a special digital media division, devoted to developing our newspapers on the Internet, and to further develop our existing Internet business.

So my colleagues in the digital media department can not only sell you an advert to appear on-line, but also sort you or your company out a website, a shop in our virtual Shopping Mall Shoppers World, link your existing website to ours or to Fish4It!, the national on-line business directory which we have on thisislancashire.

In coming weeks I will keep you up to date with new developments on our site, and with the services our department can offer, as well as looking at the Internet at large.

I hope to tell you about useful sites, local sites, amusing sites and some downright strange sites; I also want to know about your favourites (just remember this is a family newspaper!), and even get a bit technical occasionally by trying to answer any questions about the Internet, the world-wide web and the part we play in it. You can email me at rlewis@newsquest.co.uk