A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs.

Readers often open a publication with an expectation of reading another short essay by a specific writer who offers a personal point of view. In some instances, a column has been written by a composite or a team, appearing under a pseudonym, or (in effect) a brand name. Some columnists appear on a daily or weekly basis and later reprint the same material in book collections.

In defining a column, Dictionary.com provides a breakdown of a few popular subjects covered by columnists:

Newspaper columnists of the 1930s and 1940s, such as Franklin Pierce Adams (aka FPA), Nick Kenny, John Crosby, Jimmie Fidler, Louella Parsons, Drew Pearson, Ed Sullivan and Walter Winchell, achieved a celebrity status and used their syndicated columns as a springboard to move into radio and television. In some cases, such as Winchell and Parsons, their radio programs were quite similar in format to their newspaper columns. Rona Barrett began as a Hollywood gossip columnist in 1957, duplicating her print tactics on television by the mid-1960s. One of the more famous syndicated columnists of the 1920s and 1930s, O. O. McIntyre, declined offers to do a radio series because he felt it would interfere and diminish the quality of writing in his column, "New York Day by Day."

Jefferson Graham is a Los Angeles based reporter for USA Today covering technology. He is also the host and producer of USA Today's [1] Talking Tech and Talking Your Tech video shows, featuring reviews and newsmakers, companies and consumers on the role technology plays in their lives. Guests on the shows have included musicians Selena Gomez and will.i.am, TV's Carson Daly, Valerie Bertinelli and Drew Carey, magician Penn Jillette, podcasters Adam Carolla and Aisha Tyler, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, directors James Cameron and Barry Sonnenfeld, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, former boxer Mike Tyson, 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager and Pandora founder Tim Westegren. Before switching to the tech beat in 2000, Graham covered television for USA TODAY, interviewing such stars as Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Tim Allen, Roseanne Barr and Bill Cosby. He joined USA TODAY in 1984. He is also a portrait photographer in the Manhattan Beach, California area.

Graham was born in Evansville, Indiana and grew up in New York City. He appeared as a contestant on Rock & Roll Jeopardy! in 2001.

Paul Robin Krugman ( /ˈkruːɡmən/; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. In 2008, Krugman won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences (informally the Nobel Prize in Economics) for his contributions to New Trade Theory and New Economic Geography. According to the Nobel Prize Committee, the prize was given for Krugman's work explaining the patterns of international trade and the geographic concentration of wealth, by examining the impact of economies of scale and of consumer preferences for diverse goods and services.

Krugman is known in academia for his work on international economics (including trade theory, economic geography, and international finance),liquidity traps and currency crises. He is the 17th most widely cited economist in the world today and is ranked among the most influential academic thinkers in the US.