Despite all the warnings heeded from my University of Alabama professors, friends and colleagues, I chose to go into print journalism because I knew there were still communities that appreciated being able to pick up the morning paper from their driveways and mailboxes.

Although my beliefs were challenged last week when three of the state’s major newspapers — The Birmingham News, The [Mobile] Press-Register and The Huntsville Times — cut their production to three days a week, I still stand by my opinion.

However, I do now realize that many in every community want to read their news online. If something major happens in the community, not everyone will have the time and patience to wait until the next morning’s edition comes out to read about it.

So we’re trying something new.

Each staff writer at the Times-Journal­ — Robert Hudson, Ashley Johnson and myself — as well as our editor, Tim Reeves, and our publisher, Dennis Palmer, have all recently launched Twitter accounts to help break news faster. The accounts also give you, the reader, a little better insight to the daily happenings here at the office and out around the city of Selma, as well as a glimpse of our personalities.

Although I can’t promise a flawless transition to Twitter, I can tell you that we’re tweeting multiple times each day, sometimes with pictures and links to bigger stories, and other times with a simple thought that’s come to us while we’re sitting at our desks or at one of your events in the community.

All of our accounts, also known as Twitter handles, are uniform and can be found by typing in @STJ_ and then adding our first names. For example, if you’re looking to follow me on Twitter, you’d go to the Twitter website and type in @STJ_Taylor. If you’re looking for Tim, you can type in @STJ_Tim. And so on.

What we hope to do is create an online presence to complement our print coverage as we continue cover Selma and begin to expand to both Perry and Wilcox counties.

So this week’s column is more of a shameless plug than anything else, and I apologize for that, but if you log on and follow us, I believe you’ll gain a better understanding of who we are — as writers and people — and get an even more in-depth look into what’s happening around town.

What I hope to achieve through this Twitter account is a better connection with the community in which I live and the readers of the Times-Journal. To do that, I ask you (beg you, even) to tweet us about your events, send us pictures that you took at something we attended, show us what you’re doing on summer vacation, tell us you’re favorite or least favorite parts of each respective edition, anything. We’ll need your help if this social media project is going to work.

I’m excited to see where this new endeavor takes us, and I hope you’ll help us spread the word. My Twitter page is up as we speak.