Is there any thought process in the newspaper management on who should write a column and on what?As you go through the columns in various newspaper,this question is sure to crop up.
Lets talk about DNA.There is a reason I am taking this newspaper first.When it started it had a set of columnists who used to write on predefined but clearcut areas.Today it is difficult to understand.Most of the Sundays they have some column reproduced from a US newspaper or syndication on any topic.It seems they are not meant for readers but are just "space fillers".
Hindustan Times has a good set of columnists writing on their predefined areas..Karan Thapar,Indrajit Hazra,Manas Chakrabarty and Vir Sanghvi...Hazra is HT's answer to TOI's Bachi/Jug style.But what value add Vir's column does to readers is not clear to me as it comes out more as a self popaganda .At least in his "food articles" he gave some "food for thought" along with standard self promotion but his Sunday column is a "space filler".Vir must be at a high level of HT mangement thats why he can write anything which has to be published though as MINT has shown a strong editor can stop "space fillers" even if written by "high fliers"..Vir had a bad history..Imprint & Sunday folded up during his editorship..though he went up in career.
Times Of India seems to have a clearcut column strategy..you can laways see the position and frequency of columns gtting changed.Though am not sure it must be an outcome of Readers Feedback.Also it goes on including new columnists at a regular frequency.Even the old and stable ones like "Jugular Vein " and Bachi Karkaria got edged out of STOI middle space.
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