This week, you've been witnessing the uncovering of a new age on The Daily Collegian front page.

Like many other features of the Collegian's news coverage, we're going out with the old and in with the new. New Web page, new extra features, so why not a new flag?

"Flag?" you say.

Flag is the term used in the newspaper biz for the top of the front page. It's the trademark, the first thing everyone thinks of when they think of a newspaper. Think The New York Times or USA Today and you can picture their respective flags right off the bat.

That's what we're doing with the Collegian. We're re-creating our trademark. Why, after having our old flag since 2000, would we do such a thing? We had our reasons.

First of all, from a technical standpoint, the font of the flag is hard to work with for design. The new flag will allow for more freedom with design on the front page.

We're not just being lazy. The old flag was, in our staff's opinion, an eyesore. Our main objection was the inclusion of Old Main in such a prominent spot on the newspaper. How can we maintain credibility when reporting on the administration when its signature symbol is staring the reader right in the eye?

Imagine if Penn State football fans painted themselves half-blue, half-gold this Saturday. There's a very obvious conflict there.

The new flag will be the seventh in The Daily Collegian's history, and while that may seem somewhat volatile, keep in mind that times change and that a four-year college, by definition, can't maintain lasting stability. Our mission with the new flag is to maintain some classic stability while still appealing to a youthful college audience. We're being professional without being pretentious.

The final touches to the flag go beyond the font and design aspects of "The Daily Collegian." In addition, we've made our Web page address more prominent. The Internet has become vital to the newspaper business. With the revamping of our new Web page, the address needs to stand out.

Another final touch is the importance we've stressed on "published independently." While we are Penn State's student newspaper, we are run completely independent of the university. Our whole News Division is made up of students, and we feel that's an important part of what makes us The Daily Collegian. Along with the removal of Old Main from the flag, this is an important change for us as a student newspaper.

Now that the flag has been completely uncovered, most of all we'd like to stress two important things:

We Are Penn State.

But we are also independent, classic and good-looking.