Our search for a new columnist has attracted several applicants, all of whom have provided interesting points of view. We still have a bit to go before we pick a replacement for Ken Schram, who decided to step away from his weekly column.

We think we’ll find someone good.

More on our survey

I am impressed by how carefully people read the Bellevue Reporter – and how much some of you still miss the Eastside Journal. Of course, there are some of you who didn’t like the expanded daily that suddenly had news from south King County. I understand.

We now concentrate on Bellevue, perhaps a bit more than we should, according to some of you. You’d like to know a little of what’s happening in our neighboring cities. We’ve done a little of that, but we probably should do more – within reason.

Others want us to not just concentrate on downtown. I think we make an effort to get out to the eastern and southern neighborhoods, but your perception is what counts and I’ll take a closer look at this. I live in the east side of Bellevue, too.

Many of you want us to do more: more business, more features, more school news, more, well, just more. I hear you and we’re trying.

One constraint is staff size. We don’t have nearly the number of writers and photographers you’d find in a daily newspaper covering this city this size. However, we hope to grow.

I think we also can do a better job of tightening up and shortening our stories. That would give more room for other news and/or more photos. And that would mean wider coverage of what’s going on in Bellevue.

I’ll come back to more of your comments in the coming weeks. There are some things we ought to try, others that we probably can’t. I’ll try to explain why.

For those of you who thought the survey was just too long, don’t despair. You still can send me your thoughts and suggestions. I’d love to read them – and they will be considered.