We own what is rapidly becoming an antique piece of office equipment. It is still taking up space in a closet downstairs, and although it is still in pristine working order, I doubt we could get $5 for it at a yard sale.

It’s an electric typewriter. We bought it for our youngest daughter when she was in high school, and at the time, it was a state-of-the-art means of reproducing words in a most efficient manner.

You know the story: Computers quickly put the kiss of death on typewriters of all sorts, and an electric typewriter became as archaic as the running board on a car or a wringer on a washing machine.

I was teaching at Johnston Community College when the computer revolution came along. Almost overnight the typewriters in the business classes disappeared and the ubiquitous PC monitors took over. Research was no longer limited to the sources the library held on its shelves; the Internet made it possible to reach out for information from faraway and obscure places merely by keying in certain key words or phrases and waiting a moment for knowledge to come pouring in.

My point is that many things change rapidly. Right now the newspaper business is changing rapidly. And this paper, The Herald, which marked its 125th year in business only a few months ago, is also undergoing major changes.

On March 5, this twice-weekly newspaper that has reported Johnston County news for more than a century will become a “free weekly publication” that will “more than triple The Herald’s current circulation of 14,000, and it is hoped that it will also boost advertising revenue as businesses look to the paper to reach more households,” according to an article that appeared in the Business Section of the News & Observer on Jan. 25.

“Those who don’t subscribe to The N&O but live in single-family homes in the delivery area will receive The Herald free,” the article continued. “Those who live in apartment complexes or multifamily units can purchase one for 50 cents on Wednesdays inside The N&O or in separate Herald racks throughout the county. People living outside the delivery area will still be charged $24 per year for mail subscriptions.

“By getting the paper and its advertisers into more households, the company hopes to offset lost subscription fees with more advertising revenue,” the article stated. It also pointed out that The Cary News and the Eastern Wake News, also products of the News & Observer Publishing Co., became free publications in 2005. The Smithfield Herald is the final News and Observer Publishing Co. community newspaper to become a free publication.

By changing the familiar Tuesday-and-Friday-delivered-to-our-doorstep publication pattern that those of us who have been reading The Herald for many years have become so accustomed to, we are in for something of a jolt when we receive our first copy of The Herald-in-the N&O on Wednesday, March 5.

We know that change is inevitable, but let us hope that Johnston County’s long and unique identity can be maintained as we lose an old friend and move into unexplored territory.