What it takes to make a columnist

http://www.crosscut.com/mudville/9458/The+essential+Seattle+newspaper+columnist/
The essential Seattle newspaper columnist

The prominence of the big city newspaper personality has diminished, but the job remains important. Danny Westneat is the best of the lot in Seattle.


O. Casey Corr writes the Mudville blog for Crosscut. He is a Seattle-based writer and consultant who previously worked for The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He also worked as a senior advisor to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and ran for Seattle City Council in 2005.

In a column on columnists, Casey lists these necessary skills for the metro columnist: :
* Have something to say. This sounds rudimentary, but there are many opinion writers who assemble facts that lack a point. Call that "analysis," and yes, time will tell, government must look seriously at this issue, blah, blah, etc., etc., but don't call it a readable column.

* Show courage. It's easy to criticize a politician. It takes real guts to call b.s. on conventional wisdom. Westneat does that.

* Have a brain. The best columnists see things the rest of us miss. Or ask questions that cut to the issue.

* Get out of the office. It's amazing how few columnists actually leave the newsroom. Westneat recently traveled to Portland to ride that city's rail system.

* Have a voice that wears well. Scolds get tiresome. (I know, I've failed that standard.)

* Show range. The worst columnists get stuck on a few subjects. Tom Wolfe once warned columnists never to quote their kids or their spouses. A good columnist can move from cops to sports to the arts, from Roxbury to Northgate, and make them all interesting to a broad audience. From that we get a true sense of place.

* Do it in 750 words or less. Not all good writers succeed in both the short and long form. One successful example is Terry McDermott, who wrote a fine column for The Seattle Times before moving to Los Angeles.


Click on the headline to read Casey’s essay or you can e-mail him at casey.corr@crosscut.com.