Poll: Some Columnists Say Writing Is Like Sex; Some Don’t
The prurient pen: An article in Editor & Publisher discusses a recent survey of U.S. newspaper columnists and how they viewed their craft. It came up with some interesting findings:
The University of San Francisco’s J. Michael Robertson unveiled the results of his survey Saturday at the National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC) conference here. Columnists polled included salaried and freelance writers from 38 states and Canada who write in categories such as political, general-interest, humor, and metro.
Writing for PR was like sex insofar as it left them “sweaty, exhausted and slightly nauseous”When asked “what writing a column is like,” 26 percent of salaried columnists called it a job and 17 percent likened it to sex. But Robertson explained that this wasn’t necessarily a positive thing; he said some columnists feel like they’re “married to a nymphomaniac” because they have to start working on another column as soon as they’re finished with the previous one.
Of the columnists who call themselves political, 22 percent identified themselves as Democrats, 44 percent as independents, and 20 percent as Republicans.
Since the poll dealt only with columnists for tree-killing newspapers instead of surveying the more environmentally friendly on-line columnists like those who write for Pensito Review, we conducted a nonscientific poll at PR World Headquarters and found that all of our responses fell within the margin of error.
Thirty percent of Pensito Review columnists likened writing for the site to sex, but said “it’s like the worse sex I ever had.” Another third said writing for PR was like sex insofar as it left them “sweaty, exhausted and slightly nauseous.” The remaining 30 percent of columnists said writing for PR was exactly like sex because they “do it naked at the computer.”
As to the political leanings of the columnists, 30 percent described themselves as “angry, embittered Democrats,” 30 percent as “crushed, hopeless Democrats” and 30 percent as “insouciant, indifferent independents.”
Asked why they contributed to Pensito Review, 100 percent of respondents said they do it for the glory, not for the money.
What did the other 10% of us say? BTW, I think it’s totally different from sex because you can write with a full bladder but not with all the lights out.
The other 10 percent was Marty, the kid from the mailroom, who was not considered a columnist for the purposes of this poll because he’s a Republican.
What if the column is about sex?
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