Newspaper column

Characteristics

Columns are published on a regular basis (usually weekly, but sometimes daily or monthly) in the same section in the same publication (which can be a newspaper, a magazine, a newsletter or a website), and their authors may be either guest writers or members of the publication's staff. A column may be written by a single person or by a group of people. A column may be syndicated, in which case the columnist, or the column's primary newspaper, sells the column to multiple newspapers that will also publish it; often the newspapers that buy syndicated columns do so because they cannot afford to hire columnists. Newspaper columns are on the reverse side of the first page. Columns are bylined, and some columns are accompanied by a picture of the columnist. Columns range from 500 to 1200 words, with newspaper columns falling on the short side of that scale and magazine columns falling on the long side. Columns are sometimes compiled retrospectively by their news organisations and sold as books.