Included with your edition of the Ventura County Star this morning was an eight-page special section on the life and legacy of Pope John Paul II.

Aware of the pontiff's ill health, Star editors and reporters began work on this special section months ago to have it ready for the time of his death, giving local perspective and views to this global story.

It was nearly finalized Friday morning, ready to be pushed out to the press to be included in the next edition of The Star.

But we have a problem ... it's a good problem for a newspaper ... but it's a problem. Our Sunday edition includes so many sections that we keep our presses busy from about 7 a.m. Saturday morning until the final copy is printed around 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning. We fill the press to capacity and run various sections, put them in a pile and then run the next series of sections, ending with the final news and sports sections, and then insert them all together to make your Sunday paper.

The problem is that there is no additional time or space for any additional sections to run after 7 a.m. Saturday. And, as you know, the pope's death was announced shortly after noon Saturday. If that had been any other day of the week, the special section would have appeared in the next day's paper. But the only way to do it Saturday would have been to absolutely cancel certain news and classified ad sections or push back the press runs (and then delivery) so you wouldn't receive your paper until mid-morning Sunday.

The only option that seemed to make sense was to wait a publication cycle until Monday. The stories from the section were posted online at www.VenturaCountyStar.com shortly after the death was announced Saturday. But the actual keepsake package, with its elegant design, simply couldn't come off the press and onto your doorstep until today.

The last time we pre-prepared a special section was for Ronald Reagan. It was done several years in advance, to be honest with you, and just updated with dates.

As you remember, President Reagan died on a Saturday. Well after 7 a.m. The section did not appear until Monday morning.

We are not currently planning any more special sections like that.