We’re very fortunate at The Herald Bulletin to have a group of local columnists who write with expertise about a variety of subjects.

To make the publication dates of these columns more consistent — and to open up more space for news reporting — we’re adopting a few changes in the schedule for these columns, as well as changes in placement, format and length.

The most substantial change is that we’re moving some locally written columns from the Local page, where many have been published in the past, to the People & Places section. This move is designed to create better separation between our news report and columns that convey opinion.

My weekly column will remain on the Local page because it will most often communicate news about decisions we make here at the newspaper and why we do what we do.

The general-interest column written by Jim Bailey (Monday), humor columns written by Rod Richey (Sunday) and Theresa Timmons (biweekly Saturday), and the Steve & Lynelle relationship-advice column (Tuesday) will be placed on the left-hand side of the People & Places cover. Special-interest columns by Linda Teeple (faith, Saturday) and Maleah Stringer (pets, Friday) will be published weekly inside People & Places.

Community-service columns by Dennis Lanane (Triad), Lois Rockhill (Second Harvest Food Bank) and Nancy Vaughn (United Way), will appear once a month in a rotation with Don McAllister’s column about military veterans. These will be published inside the People & Places section on Thursdays.

Local architect and Anderson Plan Commission President Jesse Wilkerson will start a new column about community planning and development issues. His column will be rotated biweekly on Monday’s business page with John Williams’ column about Social Security.

Big Joe Clark’s financial-advice column will continue to run on Sunday’s Money cover. Primus Mootry’s take on politics and social issues will continue to be published Wednesdays on the Opinion page. In sports, Rick Bramwell’s outdoors column is published Thursdays and Ken de la Bastide’s auto racing column Wednesdays. Sports reporter Rick Teverbaugh’s column generally appears Thursdays, and Sports Editor Adam Wire’s column generally runs Tuesdays.

We’re also asking our local columnists to write more concisely. This generally forces better writing and also opens up space for a greater selection of local and wire news.

We hope you like these changes. Let me know what you think.

Scott Underwood is managing editor of The Herald Bulletin. Beginning next week, his column will appear Mondays on the Local page.