Experience Of A Magazine Columnist

College Student Journal, March, 1999 by Koh Aik Khoon

This article describes the events leading to the offer a columnist post. The encounter may be useful tips for aspiring columnists. The rewards and challenges faced by a columnist are reported. The moral of the story is that having a good track record and an ability to deliver will put one in good stead as a columnist. Prominent columns in the Malaysian premier press are also highlighted.

Introduction

It is the dream of every writer or journalist that one day he/she will be given an exclusive column. In view of the shortage of space in most newspapers or magazines, to be given a column is an honor indeed. In Malaysia our premier English press, the New Straits Times has several columns written by prominent Malaysians. Its Monday column called `Outlook' is penned by an ex-politician who is now a prominent social activist. He touches on current social issues such as drug abuse, the fostering of a caring and civil society and the like. The Thursday column is penned by an ex-judge and it is appropriately called the `Bench Mark'. The columnist among others used to muse of his heydays on the bench. He has told us many interesting anecdotes. The Friday column called `Personally Speaking' is from an ex-chief editor of a newspaper. His perspective is more global. His write-ups are interesting and informative. Saturday's column includes one called the `Western Viewpoint'. The writer who is based in London touches on current economic and political issues in the world. The Sunday anchor column called the `Other Thots' is perhaps the most popular of all. It is written by the Group Chief Editor himself and is considered a `must read' among the English speaking Malaysian public. There are also columns on economics, sports and others in the premier press to cater for public consumption. I used to read most of the above-mentioned columns and I write for the premier press in my spare time. My experience as a freelance writer has been reported (Koh, 1995) in this Journal. Writing for a premier press brings many advantages. For one thing it certainly makes you visible especially when your articles appear regularly. The many articles you have written can be published as a book. This exactly what I have done. My book called `Musing from the Ivory Tower', has received an encouraging review (Lim, 1996) in the New Straits Times.

Invitation to be Columnist

In 1996 I was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from the Chief Editor of a weekly magazine inviting me to write for their Guest Column. He must have read my articles in the New Straits Times and felt that I could contribute to his newly-launched magazine called MASSA. I felt honored to be noticed and invited. Immediately I pulled all the resources together to write a piece on Trends in the Academic Publishing World. It was written in Malay. These trends have been reported by the Institute for Scientific Information based in Philadelphia, U.S. In short there were three major trends. They are (i) the emergence of so-called new academic tigers in the research world. I call them new kids on the academic block. The emerging countries are Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. (ii) the increase in the number of publications which are described as multiauthored (15 to 50 authors) as noted in the 2 October 1995 issue of Current Contents and (iii) the slackening of cooperation among countries in international publishing. This is apparent since 1994. As a writer I not only have to report on the trends but to offer my views as to the reason for each of every trend. Since then I have kept writing for the magazine on issues pertaining to science. I have four cardinal objectives all starting with the letter "I". Namely each article must be interesting, informative, international and insightful. I also remember the remark by Ricki Lewis (1990) which says `The secret to good writing is to make the paper reads as if composing it were effortless'. If I find any of my articles lacking in any of the aspects I will try to refine and improve it so that it fits the bill of my own self-censorship. Since MASSA cannot publish my articles very week in the Guest Column lest being accused of overexposing me, they sometimes resort to slotting mine in their `Opinion Column'.

When they found that such measures are still not adequate, they finally offered me a column on science so that I could write regularly every week with no restraint and constraint. They really have tried and tested me. The main thing is that I could deliver. I never lapsed in any week. To do that I must have a stock of say (3 or 4 articles) with them and at the some time I continue writing on topics of public interest in science, Nobel prize, science reward system, scientific research, scientific culture and the like. Table I shows a sample of the titles of my articles. Each article covers a full page together with my colour photograph. So far the various comments (solicited or unsolicited) are positive. In the middle of 1997 when my article did not duely appear because the magazine needed the pages for a readership survey, a reader wrote to me expressing her concern. It is good to have ardent fans like her. This is the rewards one gets as a writer or a columnist. What I have learned as a science columnist is that one must read a lot especially popular science magazines like the New Scientist, Nature, Science, Discovery and others. I source a lot from them quoting them in the process of course. An ability to put two and two together is also important. One must know how to synthesize besides how to analyze.