Columnist

The examples and perspective in this articledeal primarily with the English-speaking world and Western Europe and do not represent aworldwide view of the subject. You mayimprove this article, discuss the issue on thetalk page, orcreate a new article, as appropriate.(January 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Acolumnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions.Columns appear innewspapers,magazines and other publications, includingblogs. They take the form of a shortessay by a specific writer who offers a personal point of view. Columns are sometimes written by a composite or a team, appearing under a pseudonym, or (in effect) a brand name. Columnists typically write daily or weekly columns. Some columns are later collected and reprinted in book form.

Columnist
Occupation
Herb Caen, who was one of the most renowned columnists in the U.S.
Names	Reporter writer journalist
Occupation type	Profession
Activity sectors	Mass media entertainment newspaper
Description
Competencies	Communication responsibility
Fields of employment	Mass media newspaper magazine broadcasting
Related jobs	Editor reporter writer

Radio and television

edit

Newspaper columnists of the 1930s and 1940s, such asFranklin Pierce Adams (also known as FPA),Nick Kenny,John Crosby,Jimmie Fidler,Louella Parsons,Drew Pearson,Ed Sullivan andWalter Winchell, achieved a celebrity status and used theirsyndicated columns as a springboard to move into radio and television. In some cases, such as Winchell and Parsons, their radio programs were quite similar in format to their newspaper columns.Rona Barrett began as a Hollywood gossip columnist in 1957, duplicating her print tactics on television by the mid-1960s. One of the more famous syndicated columnists of the 1920s and 1930s,O. O. McIntyre, declined offers to do a radio series because he felt it would interfere and diminish the quality of writing in his column, "New York Day by Day".

Books

edit

Franklin Pierce Adams and O. O. McIntyre both collected their columns into a series of books, as did other columnists. McIntyre's book,The Big Town: New York Day by Day (1935) was a bestseller. Adams'The Melancholy Lute (1936) is a collection of selections from three decades of his columns.H. Allen Smith's first humor book,Low Man on a Totem Pole (1941), and his two following books, were so popular duringWorld War II that they kept Smith on theNew York Herald Tribune's Best Seller List for 100 weeks and prompted a collection of all three in3 Smiths in the Wind (1946). When Smith's column,The Totem Pole, was syndicated by United Features, he toldTime:

Just between you and me, it's tough. A typewriter can be a pretty formidable contraption when you sit down in front of it and say: "All right, now I'm going to be funny."^[1]

The writing of French humor columnistAlain Rémond has been collected in books.The Miami Herald promoted humor columnistDave Barry with this description: "Dave Barry has been atThe Miami Herald since 1983. APulitzer Prize winner for commentary, he writes about issues ranging from the international economy to exploding toilets." Barry has collected his columns into a series of successful books. He stopped writing his nationally syndicated weekly column in 2005,^[2] and theMiami Herald now offers on its website a lengthy selection of past columns by Barry.^[3]

In 1950,Editor & Publisher looked back at the newspaper columnists of the 1920s:

"Feature service of various sorts is new", Hallam Walker Davis wrote in a book,The Column, which was published in 1926. "It has had the advantage of high-powered promotion. It is still riding on the crest of the first big wave its own splash sent out." But Mr. Davis did think that in a decade or two the newspapers might be promoting their columns along with their comic strips.The World had started the ball rolling with billboard advertising ofHeywood Broun's "It Seems to Me". TheMcNaught Syndicate was sitting pretty with O. O. McIntyre,Will Rogers andIrvin S. Cobb on its list.The New York Herald Tribune offeredDon Marquis and Franklin P. Adams rhymed satirically in "The Conning Tower" for theNew York World Syndicate. "A Line o' Type or Two", Bert Leston Taylor's verse column in theChicago Tribune, was now being done by Richard Henry Little. Other offerings: humorous sketches byDamon Runyon;O. Henry stories; editorials byArthur Brisbane;Ring Lardner letter; "Rippling Rhymes", byWalt Mason; literary articles byH. L. Mencken.^[4]

Newspaper and magazine

edit

This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(December 2014)

Further information:List of syndicated columnists

In certain instances, a column can prove so popular it becomes the basis for an expansion into an entire magazine. For instance, when Cyrus Curtis founded theTribune and Farmer in 1879, it was a four-page weekly with an annual subscription rate of 50 cents. He introduced a women's column by his wife, Louise Knapp Curtis, and it proved so popular that in 1883 he started publishing it as a separate monthly supplement,Ladies Journal and Practical Housekeeper, edited by Louise Curtis. With 25,000 subscribers by the end of its first year, it was such a success that Curtis soldTribune and Farmer to put his energy into the new publication, which became theLadies' Home Journal.

There is sometimes crossover between being a politician and a columnist. For example,Boris Johnson had a column in theDaily Telegraph, was elected a member of theUK Parliament, becameMayor of London thenUK Prime Minister, then became a columnist for theDaily Mail on being forced out of office.^[5]

Carl Rowan was a famous black columnist who wrote for The Mineapollis Tribune. His articles about racism and international affairs made him famous across the USA. In 1961, he was asked by the presidentJohn F. Kennedy to join his administration. He then became a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs. That was all made possible due to his interview with Mr.Kennedy that happened year before.^[6]

Inpop culture the profession of 'columnist' has been seen as glamorous, and is often used as the career of choice for fictional characters such as Carrie Bradshaw inSex and the City, Rory Gilmore inGilmore Girls, Andie Anderson inHow To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and dozens of others.^[7]