RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK — Local Tech Wire achieved an interesting milestone last week, so I wanted to take a few minutes to update you about what’s happening with us.

Matt Burns, who covers the venture capital beat for LTW, broke the story on MediaSpan not only getting $4.5 million in new VC but also the management shuffle that included the resignation of Steve Vetter, the firm’s founding chief executive officer.

The story was number 4,000 in the LTW archive.

That’s 4,000 stories since we launched LTW in January of 2002. Today’s batch lifts us to 4,051.

All about VC, technology, biotech, life science and entrepreneurship, in approximately 320 business days of publishing since our official launch date.

Who says there isn’t much news in tech, biotech, VC, entrepreneurship and life science these days? Not us.

Numbers don’t mean much. It would be easy to copy and republish press releases to reach that total in an even shorter time frame.

But the 4,000 total does capture one key fact about LTW: On average, we publish 12 or more stories — ranging from briefs to in-depth coverage such as Matt’s MediaSpan story — every business day.

You could read some other publications and not get that much tech coverage in a week.

As one can see from checking our front page daily, we have added both story count and advertisers/sponsors since we switched LTW to a “free” content model to open 2003. Of course, we still have a long way to go in terms of coverage and in attracting financial support. But we definitely are getting more traction each and every week.

The news is flowing in so much, in fact, that LTW “tweaked” its front page in order to add more content.

Instead of six major by-line or feature stories, the front page now contains seven.

Instead of five “Hot Off the Wire” briefs, we now include 10.

And as news happens each day, we will update the front page as needed.

Those readers who don’t check in during the course of the day will get all the day’s news and our freshest postings in the 8 AM “First Edition” delivered by e-mail. (It’s free, but you must register to receive it. Check the banner on the home page for details.)

We’ve also changed the format in which we cover some events. Stories will include many more items, many more names — and some scuttlebutt, too. The idea is to publish even more names and news.

In addition to breaking news, our daily feature lineup breaks down this way:

MONDAYS: Our weekly recap of venture happenings in the Carolinas and Georgia plus our Week in Review

TUESDAYS: A Q&A with a thought leader in technology

WEDNESDAYS: Charlotte Beat from Charlotte-based writer Bea Quirk

THURSDAYS: RTP beat from Durham-based Cal Chang Yocum

FRIDAYS: Biowatch by Allan Maurer.

Special features on the Triad, the Mountains and Atlanta also are included — as often as we can get it.

LTW recently launched our “Guest Opinion” Op/Ed pieces, a lineup that is highlighted by John Yates, one of the Southeast’s leading tech drivers. The “Guest Opinion” will be published virtually every day. (Contributions are welcome. Send your ideas or opinions to me at Rick@localtechwire.com or rsmith8@nc.rr.com.)

Further expanding our content, LTW has added the “News Feed” for national and international news. Check the link at the bottom of the front page.

LTW also recently had its first networking (“Tech Exec”) event, something we will be doing on a quarterly basis. More details soon.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, your story ideas, and your news tips. Send them along.

Rick Smith is managing editor of Local Tech Wire.