Next month the Napa Valley Register — the good old-fashioned, paper-and-ink Napa Valley Register — will make a long-contemplated change.

We will become what’s known in the trade as a “true a.m.,” reaching readers from Pope Valley to the Vallejo Ferry Building by sunrise.

This is a significant departure from the way we do business now. We have been an afternoon newspaper (except on weekends) for as long as anyone, or at least 50-year Register employee Geraldine Nalley, can remember. That began to shift five years ago, when we started delivering some weekday papers as early as 6:30 a.m.

Based on positive reader reaction to the earlier delivery, we are going full sail into the morning breeze as of April 7. The Register will be delivered by 5:30 a.m. on weekdays and 6:30 a.m. on weekends.

This is a bold step for the paper, though one consistent with reader requests and industry trends.

Time was that every town had an afternoon newspaper. Afternoon papers had an edge of sorts on their a.m. competitors, containing news about events that occurred on the very day the papers were published.

That edge has been eroded — especially among big-city newspapers — by several factors, led by the speed in which news travels via electronic and online media.

For the news business, the Internet is both a competitor and a companion. A competitor because there now are countless sources of news when there used to be just a handful; a companion because news operations remain vital to gathering and publishing important and credible information.

For example, the second-most popular source of news about Napa County, after the Register, is napavalleyregister.com.

I’m excited about the Register becoming a morning paper.

It drives me nuts when I walk into ABC or Sweetie Pies (always for a cup of green tea, darling, never a cookie) early and only see other newspapers in people’s hands.

It’s not that I mind people reading other papers. I read them and I love them. But it frustrates me that copies of those papers are stained by hot chocolate spills and muffin grease (not from me, dear, I promise) before we are even in the news racks.

Those days are about to end, and I believe the change will serve our readers, advertisers and the people of the Napa Valley well.

The shift has required considerable ingenuity and sacrifice on the part of many of my colleagues, and I am grateful for their commitment to the Register and its readers.

Why the change?

Because we want to be on your driveway, in the rack outside the post office or leaning against the door of your workplace as early in the day as possible. We want you to be able to see the news of the day, or the horoscopes or ads, just as soon as you wake up.

As of April 7, we’ll see you in the morning.