This week once again marks the return of the University of Colorado's student body, an annual late-summer ritual in Boulder that the Colorado Daily -- both under that name and its original moniker, the Silver & Gold -- has been documenting since 1892.

This year, however, we greet the opening of the fall semester with a fresh new look and a renewed sense of purpose. As you can see, today marks the debut of the new Colorado Daily.

Visually, we've given the newspaper a sharp, reader-friendly makeover designed to highlight the great stories and photos our writers and photographers are producing daily. More importantly, though, we're beefing up what's inside these pages in an effort to be the definitive source of news, views, sports, entertainment and culture on the CU campus and throughout Boulder.

We're bolstering our local news coverage of the university and the broader community; devoting more space to photography, both our own pictures and our readers'; expanding our daily entertainment offerings to include regular coverage of the disparate worlds of fashion and video gaming; and introducing a new back-page section called Sweat, which, as its name implies, will cover everything from CU varsity and club teams to outdoor recreation and adventure sports.

It's not just the paper we're improving, though.

ColoradoDaily.com also has undergone a top-to-bottom overhaul. The site not only carries the stories and features you'll find in print, but it's updated throughout the day and over the weekend with local breaking news about CU and Boulder. It also features comprehensive coverage of the CU Buffs and other university athletes, courtesy of our sister site, Buffzone.com.

ColoradoDaily.com now features a video player -- be sure to watch "Out There Guy" Ryan Van Duzer's hilarious dispatches from the Beijing Olympics -- as well as a hefty restaurant guide and a comprehensive list of Boulder happy hour specials. We've got a directory of local bands, too.

Best of all, the paper and Web site are totally interactive. On this page, you'll see instructions about how to give us feedback (or just spout off) via text message -- dispatches that instantly are posted at www.coloradodaily.com/rant. You can leave comments at the bottom of any story online. And you can also send us photos of your friends and activities; upload them at www.coloradodaily.ning.com and you just may see them in print, too.

Bottom line, our goal at the Colorado Daily is to document what's important in the day-to-day lives of our readers at CU and in Boulder. We hope you continue to enjoy reading our paper and Web site.

If you'd like to let us know how we're doing, feel free to drop me a line at sebastian@coloradodaily.com.