View source for Columnist

{{Short description|Person who writes for publication in a series}}
{{Globalize|article|the English-speaking world and Western Europe|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox occupation
| name               = Columnist
| image              = HERB_CAEN_newspaper_columnist,_1994.jpg
| imagesize          =
| alt                =
| caption            = [[Herb Caen]], who was one of the most renowned columnists in the U.S.
| official_names     = {{hlist | [[Reporter]] | [[writer]] | [[journalist]]}}
| type               = [[Profession]]
| activity_sector    = {{hlist | [[Mass media]] | [[entertainment]] | [[newspaper]]}}
| competencies       = {{hlist | [[Communication]] | [[personal responsibility|responsibility]]}}
| formation          = 
| employment_field   = {{hlist | [[Mass media]] | [[newspaper]] | [[magazine]] | [[broadcasting]]}}
| related_occupation = {{hlist | [[Editor]] | [[reporter]] | [[writer]]}}
}}
{{Journalism sidebar}}
A '''columnist''' is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. [[Column (periodical)|Columns]] appear in [[newspaper]]s, [[magazine]]s and other publications, including [[blog]]s. They take the form of a short [[essay]] 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.

==Radio and television==
Newspaper columnists of the 1930s and 1940s, such as [[Franklin Pierce Adams]] (also known as FPA), [[Nick Kenny (poet)|Nick Kenny]], [[John Crosby (media critic)|John Crosby]], [[Jimmie Fidler]], [[Louella Parsons]], [[Drew Pearson (journalist)|Drew Pearson]], [[Ed Sullivan]] and [[Walter Winchell]], achieved a celebrity status and used their [[Print syndication|syndicated]] 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==
[[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 during [[World War II]] that they kept Smith on the ''New York Herald Tribune'''s Best Seller List for 100 weeks and prompted a collection of all three in ''3 Smiths in the Wind'' (1946). When Smith's column, ''The Totem Pole'', was syndicated by United Features, he told ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'':

{{blockquote|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."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Totem Column |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851433,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114124338/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851433,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 14, 2007 |date=November 10, 1941 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=September 7, 2017 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>}}

The writing of French humor columnist [[Alain Rémond]] has been collected in books. ''[[The Miami Herald]]'' promoted humor columnist [[Dave Barry]] with this description: "Dave Barry has been at ''The Miami Herald'' since 1983. A [[Pulitzer 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,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Curtis |first=Bryan |date=January 12, 2005 |title=Dave Barry: Elegy for the Humorist |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_middlebrow/2005/01/dave_barry.html |work=[[Slate (website)|Slate]] |access-date=September 7, 2017}}</ref> and the ''Miami Herald'' now offers on its website a lengthy selection of past columns by Barry.<ref>{{cite web |title=Dave Barry Living Columns & Blogs |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/ |work=[[Miami Herald]] |access-date=September 7, 2017}}</ref>

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

{{blockquote|"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 of [[Heywood Broun]]'s "It Seems to Me". The [[McNaught Syndicate]] was sitting pretty with O. O. McIntyre, [[Will Rogers]] and [[Irvin S. Cobb]] on its list. ''The New York Herald Tribune'' offered [[Don Marquis]] and Franklin P. Adams rhymed satirically in "The Conning Tower" for the [[New York World]] Syndicate. "A Line o' Type or Two", Bert Leston Taylor's verse column in the ''Chicago Tribune'', was now being done by Richard Henry Little. Other offerings: humorous sketches by [[Damon Runyon]]; [[O. Henry]] stories; editorials by [[Arthur Brisbane]]; [[Ring Lardner]] letter; "Rippling Rhymes", by [[Walt Mason]]; literary articles by [[H. L. Mencken]].<ref>{{cite web |last=McMaster |first=Jane |date=July 29, 1950 |title=News of Yore 1950: News of Yore 1924: A Glance Back to 1924 in First E&P Directory |url=http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2009/07/news-of-yore-1950-news-of-yore-1924.html |work=[[Editor & Publisher]] |via=Stripper's Guide |access-date=September 7, 2017}}</ref>}}

==Newspaper and magazine==
{{Expand section|date=December 2014}}
{{further|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 the ''Tribune 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 sold ''Tribune and Farmer'' to put his energy into the new publication, which became the ''[[Ladies' Home Journal]]''.

There is sometimes crossover between being a politician and a columnist. For example, [[Boris Johnson]] had a column in the ''Daily Telegraph'', was elected a member of the [[UK Parliament]], became [[Mayor of London]] then [[UK Prime Minister]], then became a columnist for the ''Daily Mail'' on being forced out of office.<ref>{{cite web | last=McDonald | first=Andrew | title=Boris Johnson lands 'six-figure' Daily Mail column. Good luck getting him to file on time | website=POLITICO | date=16 June 2023 | url=https://www.politico.eu/article/boris-johnson-to-write-six-figure-column-for-the-daily-mail/}}</ref>

[[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 president [[John 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. [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] that happened year before.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 24, 2022 |title=Carl T. Rowan: From Journalist to Diplomat |url=https://diplomacy.state.gov/stories/carl-t-rowan-from-journalist-to-diplomat/ |website=Diplomacy US State Government}}</ref>

In [[pop 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 in [[Sex and the City]], Rory Gilmore in [[Gilmore Girls]], Andie Anderson in [[How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days|How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days]] and dozens of others.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Knibbs |first=Kate |date=2019-11-25 |title=An Exhaustive Ranking of Movie Journalists |url=https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/11/25/20974644/movie-journalists-ranked |access-date=2022-10-31 |website=The Ringer |language=en}}</ref>

== Events ==
National day of Columnists is on April 18.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Columnist's Day |url=https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-columnists-day-april-18 |website=National Day Calendar}}</ref>

==Types==
* [[Advice column]]ist
* [[Critic]]
* [[Editorial]] opinion columnist
* [[Gossip columnist]]
* [[humour|Humor]] columnist
* [[Food columnist]]

==See also==
*[[List of newspaper columnists]]
*[[List of syndicated columnists]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary}}
*{{Commons category-inline|Columnists}}
*[http://www.columnists.com/ National Society of Newspaper Columnists]

{{Journalism}}
{{Blog topics}}

[[Category:Columnists| ]]
[[Category:Journalism occupations]]
[[Category:Opinion journalism]]