OLD Media Moves

Changes made to Columbian biz section

November 9, 2019

Posted by Chris Roush

Craig Brown, the editor of The Columbian in Vancouver, Washington, writes about changes the paper has made in its business section.

Brown writes, “The biggest changes are to our business section. Years ago, we had a columnist every day, but that dwindled, and we didn’t really do much about finding replacements. Then, earlier this year, two of our columnists died. Kenneth Harney’s ‘Nation’s Housing’ appeared on Mondays, and Malcolm Berko’s ‘Taking Stock’ usually ran twice a week, including on Sundays.

“We replaced Berko’s Sunday column with Helaine Olen’s ‘Life & Money with Helaine,’ which is also distributed by Berko’s syndicate. Her softer, Dear Abby-style approach hasn’t been a hit with Berko’s red-meat readers. I like the column, but I have gotten several complaints. So we moved her to the Life section on Saturdays, where we think she will be a better fit.

“I haven’t found another Berko, who regularly offered a few stock picks wrapped up with a lot of sharp opinions about companies and politics. So our new Sunday column is from Tribune Media Services and focuses on financial topics relevant to retirees. On Mondays, we’ll focus on real estate. We have a couple of columns to choose from here, so it will be a ‘best of’ situation, at least for a while.”

Read more here.

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