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The Course of Words

Newspaper Stat, NSNC Stet

There’s been e-talk among the membership about renaming the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. I was for it, liked some of the proposals, but now I’m agin it. It’s not that I’m sore that my suggestion, International House of Toast (nod to Bob and Ray) was ignored.

We would be following the path of a larger, older and more prominent group, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, that earlier this month voted itself the American Society of News Editors. Never mind that most print journalism outlets dub the chief copy editor the “news editor,” the name is otherwise restrictive, because news outlets both offline and on offer more than news content.

Our group — columnists, former columnists and would-be columnists — aren’t anything but what we are, and that will hold for a few more years. So let’s stick with the moniker under which it was founded some 32 years ago. The name we pick once the news media upheaval begins to settle will be better than our best guess now.

By a rather elementary fashion, I will show word by word why the National Society of Newspaper Columnists will be apt for a few more years. This is being posted today because it’s National Columnists Day, held on the anniversary of the killed-in-action death of one of our heroes, Ernie Pyle.

  • Society. It could become Organization or Association, as long we’re cleaning house, but if we change the form of group, it should remain lean and clean. Society is easy on the tongue. Besides, it indicates class. If journalists have any class, and we do, as much as any profession can claim (more fun than lawyers and slightly better hours than doctors), then columnists in general would have the highest status. Or almost, second to copy editors.
  • Of. To the extent we remain an exclusive organization, “of” must stay. “For” works for the National Organization for Women so men can belong. The NSNC exists to support our sort of writer, not associates, fans or other third parties. On principle, every group should be inclusive, right? Yes, this is a defensive move. If we post the Keep Out sign then we won’t get our feelings hurt when no one shakes the ladder of our tree house.
  • National. For years we have welcomed our few Canadian members. Two have served on our board. This year a Swede has joined. Like “national” groups of America and those of other countries, we have some international components but acknowledge a trace of xenophobia. We are primarily Americans, and our focus remains U.S. media. When we start acting like PEN, then we can revisit this.
  • Columnists. The form of essay by which we have defined ourselves is concrete. It’s a column of type, straight down the page. Many of us who still write columns don’t have a vertical format but two or three columns wide and 3-5 column-inches down, “modular,” as page designers call it. Either way, we are measured by the column. All sorts of writing comprise the text portions of the Internet. Bona fide columnists when online are not restricted to text but orate from podcasts and video streams, or series of tweets. The kind of online writing now honored and explored by the NSNC are column-like pieces, written or otherwise recorded by columnist sorts of newsies.
  • Newspaper. No other type of journalism defines what columnists did, do and will do. Radio and TV don’t have columns, but commentaries, and with a few exceptions their journalism ethics and credentials are looser. At least for a few more years, I suspect newspaper Web sites will be called newspaper Web sites. “Aggregator” or “portal” or another word yet to gain favor likely will not encapsulate what washingtonpost.com or arkansasonline.com do and stand for. Newspapers, print and virtual, are fallable, but no other journalism medium has its ethics, breadth and ambition.

As humans we think and speak (and write and text-message) in metaphors. A newspaper doesn’t have to be ink on paper to communicate reporting and analysis of news. A literal column, depending on point size, can be 400 to 900 words or so. Anything shorter is a brief, blog or tweet, and those much longer turn into those section-front think pieces, the kind only its editors read. If we drop “newspaper,” then we must drop “columnist,” and we cease to exist in an implosion of logic rather than wait for market forces and society to tell us which way the winds really will blow.

We are the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

At least until after the Revolution. Has it started yet?

-30-

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