It’s that time of year again, the time when the staff members of the Austin Daily Herald combine their efforts to produce your biggest and most requested special edition of the year, “Profile.”

This year’s installment will come with the Feb. 27 edition of the Austin Daily Herald.

It’s quite a massive undertaking as the project features dozens of pages filled with stories and photos of the people who live in Mower County and other portions of southeastern Minnesota.

In past years, this special publication has had different themes, for example: “Applause 2008,” “Generations 2007” and “Journey 2006.” For those editions, we used a newspaper format that was divided into several sections and was packed with articles that fit into those categories. “Applause” was divided into eight sections and spanned 64 pages.

For 2009, we’ve done things quite a bit differently.

This year’s product, entitled “Profile 2009,” is a 76-page magazine format featuring dynamic photo spreads in one easy to handle and read piece, instead of separated into multiple sections of years gone by. While it does include several feature stories, you’ll notice we’ve placed the spotlight on the photo essays.

Inside, you’ll see a new element called, “Nine Who Shine,” which highlights nine of our schools’ most unique and multi-talented students.

Each large photo is accompanied with descriptive paragraphs illustrating what makes that student stand out.

Also new are our double-truck photos, photographs that span two pages each. Inside you’ll find six of them that cover the categories of arts and entertainment; religion; education; health and fitness; our hometown heroes; and agriculture and energy.

Mixed in with these photo categories are eight feature stories that offer some history, some entertainment value and perhaps some information you didn’t know about our communities.

You’ll take a tour of our area’s most notable cemeteries; learn about the region’s small towns; read about the old-time Packer baseball team; how the Hormel Girls were once a successful marketing tool for Hormel Foods; about historic churches; recreation opportunities; the Bel-Aire Estates Winery in St. Ansgar; and a few ideas for some short day trips. Our profile edition is our chance to showcase our communities to you, the ones who live, work and play here. It is only made possible through the hard work of our dedicated employees, the area businesses listed within these pages and you … our readers. Please support the people and businesses that brought this product to you.

We are proud of “Profile 2009,” and we hope you enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed putting it together.