Column word count

Thanks for the advice, dad.

It's a legitimate discussion, and not driven by any particular agenda except curiosity.

 

What if you use multiple polysyllabic words?

 

Fill the column down the left-hand side of the front page, leaving space for your column logo and the 1-3-30 headline.

If you want to write any more than that, you have to buy the beer for the guy who's doing the jump page.

Honestly, depends on the column. 15-18 max I would say, unless it's a story column that is really a take-out feature anyway.

 

650 words. Period.

 

It's another thing that's wrong with our industry. Our columnists are our highest-paid guys, yet we create page formulas that tell them they only have 15-17 inches to say something.

And then we let guys who have been there for only a few years write 40-inch stories that can be told in 25 inches. And they write the full 40 because they're not good enough to say it in 25.

Meanwhile, the columnist only ends up writing 45 inches in a week -- 60 if it's his week to write four times.

 

Also depends on the width of the web. When we went to a narrower web, the word count dropped from 35 to 30 an inch.

 

If they cannot say it well in that time, they should be feature writers.

And there should be nothing wrong with a columnist writing features. (Although they are not blogging).

Seriously though, I don't think any of our columnists who needed jumps were actually told they couldn't have it. And the jump allows a photo if one is needed.

 

I'm never allowed more than 15 inches. Most of the time I only get 12.

 

If you can't do it in 650, they you need some help. I could see longer in a few cases, but it better be good.

 

Write what it's worth.

 

In your eyes or the copy desk's eyes?

 

Yours. And then they'll ask to have it trimmed or ask you.

We have a guy where I'm at who weaves his stuff so well it's tough to cut. And his stories and columns always vary in length. He writes what he thinks it's worth and ties it together tight.