Charles Apple

As you read this, I’m busy toiling away in beautiful uptown Charlotte, N.C — just a couple blocks away from the NFL stadium there — on the first edition of the new daily sports e-paper that debuts Wednesday.

It’s called Sporting News Today. And if you’re into sports, I think you’ll like it. The sample pages are terrific.

And you can’t beat the price: It’s free. Sign up here. You’ll receive a fresh link in your morning e-mail. One click pulls up the paper in your browser. You can read it on screen, print it out — whatever you like.

It’s a really cool new business model, just when we need a fresh one. It’ll be a blast making it work.

I’ve not seen it yet, but someone told me USA Today did a piece today on our publication. The NYT published a story last month.

They’re still moving people in and around, here in our building — they’ve hired a lot of talented editors and reporters away from papers across the country. For example, I sit next to the talented Lisa Pazdric, recently laid off from the Charlotte Observer, who started work the same day I did. Plus, they moved a number of Sporting News veterans here from that publication’s former headquarters in St. Louis.

Because of this — believe it or not — I am temporarily situated smack in the middle of the IT help desk. I’ll pause for laughter from those of you who know how famously unskilled I am in technical matters. I’m told we’ll be moved to permanent cubes in a month or so.

On a personal note, my wife and daughter helped find me a temporary apartment in Rock Hill, a half-hour or so south of Charlotte, where I lived for many years in the 1980s and 1990s. They zipped home last week for some furniture and helped me get set up this weekend. We went out househunting for the first time Monday. We’ll buy something as soon as we sell our condo in Virginia Beach.

Sharon and Elizbeth headed back first thing this morning. They’ll be back in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, it’s time to start work on our first edition.