Changes start today in Sunday Local section

Readers will notice a different look to today’s Local section.

The section is no longer zoned into metro and North County editions. Sunday is now one countywide edition for all subscribers. The previously zoned community news items are now combined onto one page with news from around the region — North, East and South County and central San Diego. The community news is on B14 today.

The changes in the Sunday Local section were planned before the Union-tribune’s ownership change July 10.

North County readers will notice other changes. The (almost) Back Page has moved out of the print edition but remains in the e-edition. All print subscribers have unlimited access to the e-edition, which is a replica of the print edition with some extra features. Print subscribers will need to activate their digital account if they haven’t already. There are instructions on C6 of today’s Business section.

Also, North County columnists Irv Erdos and Lola Sherman will now appear online only at sandiegouniontribune.com, which print and e-edition subscribers also have unlimited access to. Erdos and Sherman run on alternate Sundays.

The (almost) Back Page, a collection of odd, bizarre and light stories and photos, has always been specific to North County. It began around 1990 at the Blade-citizen in Oceanside. It was then called The Back Page because it ran on the back page of a section. The Blade’s parent company bought the Times-advocate in Escondido in 1995 and combined the two papers into the North County Times. The Back Page remained in the new NCT. When the Union-tribune purchased the NCT in 2012 and folded it into the U-T, The Back Page continued its run in the U-T’S North County edition. The name was changed to The (almost) Back Page because the fullpage feature would appear inside a section.

Readers in other parts of the county could see the page in the North County Sunday e-edition, but now it will appear in the one countywide Local e-edition. I think many readers will discover it for the first time.

If readers would like to submit items for the new countywide Community News page, they can email the who, what, where, when and why to community news writer Linda Mcintosh at linda.mcintosh@sduniontribune.com.