Times-Dispatch introduces Bill Lohmann as new regular columnist
GLENN PROCTOR
TIMES-DISPATCH EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Published: June 22, 2009
Updated: August 5, 2009
The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a fine group of local columnists.
All of our columnists have not retired, left the paper or ended up working on television or writing for the local mature American magazine.
One reason we're proud of our staff members is because they are not only good local columnists, but they are some of the best reporters and writers in the Richmond area.
Me? I am only borrowing this space this week to talk about our columnists.
Whatever opinion one might have about his columns, Michael Paul Williams makes people think about race, government failings and the human condition. His job is to grate on your nerves. Either way you nod your head or furrow your brow after reading Michael's columns or seeing his videos on TimesDispatch.com, the key is that he gets readers' attention.
Paul Woody, who has collected numerous national sportswriting awards over the years, brings home the nongame side of sports. His Friday column about fathers' roles in sports was a winner.
Melissa Ruggieri knows Richmond and the intricacies of pop music in the region and elsewhere. Her column runs Thursday in Weekend.
Jeff E. Schapiro, who can match punditry and government knowledge with anyone in the commonwealth, brings a biting wit and watchdog approach to his columns. In many conversations about state politics, Jeff's name seems to always surface. In a recent visit to Capital One's headquarters, one of the company's lobbyists introduced himself to me and said his job is to "stay out of Schapiro's column."
Added to the rich columnist mix are freelancers Stacy Hawkins Adams, a former Times-Dispatch reporter and successful author who writes about family, fitness guru Maria Howard and cooking expert and author Kendra Bailey Morris. For a glimpse at outdoor activities and policies, we look to Andy Thompson. Those four freelancers run on varying Sundays in the Flair and Sports sections. Andy's column also runs most Fridays.
Dana Craig, who weighs in on Thursdays in Weekend, gives readers a close-up of local restaurants. Her columns have bite, but they are not meant to be malicious. If her reviews cause a restaurant to spruce up, spice up or service up, all the better for the restaurant and the customer.
So, that's our lineup. Not really.
We have listened to readers -- again -- and we are expanding our group of columnists.
Veteran features reporter Bill Lohmann, most recently our food writer, debuts on Wednesday as our second Metro columnist. His columns will appear on the front of the Metro section on Wednesday and Friday, while Williams will continue on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Schapiro has the Metro front position on Sunday.
With that stellar staff lineup six days a week, the only question is "What about Monday?"
We have a fix for that as well. That day will belong to the community with the debut next Monday of the Guest Columnist. For readers, that means a new face and new voice each Monday on the Metro front.
For the guest columns, we have lined up about a dozen folks so far. We will cross the demographic, political and ideological spectrum in finding folks -- some known, some unknown -- to write columns.
The writer of Monday's debut column asked the most obvious question, "What do I write about?" My answer: "Have a point of view."
I told her and others who will be writing in the weeks ahead that we wanted three things: a point of view, a column about an issue of broad interest and that they not focus on their own organization or issues they are working on. We're excited about the prospects of having so many new, and hopefully varied, opinions grace our pages and our Web site.
It's obvious to me and my T-D colleagues that we're not ready to write our obituary. Despite the industry critics who are pushing our demise and local critics who are vying to be us -- the region's best edited news source -- we're facing our challenges with the future in mind. That is why we are adding columnists to the fold, focusing our coverage in the greater Richmond region and making TimesDispatch.com a site worth a number of return visits.
So, I ask our devoted subscribers: Don't give up on us. As you travel around the country, compare us to similar-sized daily newspapers. A good newspaper is good for democracy, government accountability, public debate, news and entertainment. You're reading a good newspaper right now.
Now, get ready for Bill Lohmann. He promises to be very good.
Glenn Proctor is vice president and executive editor of The Times-Dispatch. He can be reached at (804) 649-6265 or
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Reader Reactions
Outstanding news that Bill Lohmann will get a much-deserved column. It’s long overdue and it’s the first good news about the T-D in a very long time.
This column by Glenn Proctor, however, is beyond strange and speaks volumes about his lack of leadership at this once proud and useful newspaper. He comes across as petty and defensive in his own inarticulate way. What a sad commentary on what’s happened to the paper.
If you don’t like MPW, fine. But he has every right to express an opinion different from yours. He makes people think, even if it’s thinking in the opposite direction of the point he’s trying to make.
So? A couple of shots of Johnny Walker make me think too. “Making people think” is commendable I suppose, but a far nobler goal is making people “act.“
I don’t care for Proctor’s defensive and condescending tone as he opens this article to introduce another columnist. It’s obvious RTD is feeling the pinch of having lost many valued writers. And to say they “retired, left the paper or ended up working on television or writing for the local mature American magazine,“ without admiting that many were simply terminated, is deceptive and shameful. Good writing—even controversial—brings in loyal readers. RTD, sadly, is learning this lesson too late.
And is there anything wrong with a “mature American magazine”? I’d say better than an immature Foreign magazine, or a local rag with no insightful writers.
Interested Read - there is a big difference between expressing one’s opinion and merely complaining.I would beg to differ that these posters are narrowminded. Most people are willing to listen the opinions of others; what bothers most people is the method with which they are expressed and the fact that many people, yourself included, seem to be able to dish it out but not take it, instead resorting to calling everyone else narrowminded.
Most newspapers,including this one, follow the New York Times template.You can tell the slant of the story simply by reading the byline.Basically in todays RTD its liberal,more liberal, and most liberal.The editorial page pretends to be ‘conservative’ but I don’t think they really are.The poster was right who says a ‘white’ MPW wouldn’t last five minutes.
But to get a good overview of what’s going on in this world you can’t get ALL your info from one source whether its FOX or MSNBC.I like to read and view both liberal and conservative viewpoints, average it together, and form my own opinion which usually comes down conservative(hence the screenname)Most posters on the RTD forum seem pretty wellread on both sides,but both sides have their nut jobs,too.I cancelled my subscription over price and the way the Tahliek Taliaferro case was covered in Powhatan.But I do like to glance at the RTD for one of my liberal news sources and read the columnists and editorials.
Bill Lohman is a good writer.I look forward to reading his column.
I cannot believe the narrowmindedness of posters.
The mark of an intelligent individual is the ability to listen or read BOTH (OR ALL) SIDES and to form your own opinion. No one is right or wrong. To paraphrase a bumper sticker “minds are like parachutes, they function when open.“
To claim your side is right does not make it valid nor to claim someone else is wrong, is, not valid.
There are some columnists whom I don’t agree with 100% of the time, but then that does not make them wrong, either.
The fact that most of you claim the RTD is becoming liberal are too lazy to analyze and form your own opinion. It’s called THINKING.
I’m a conservative, but realize many people don’t think like me, but accept it for what it is.
Intelligent individuals can separate fact from opinion and understand the difference.
acwrva is right—I agree 100% and dogtown is correct. Let’s keep the headlines true to the story and not skew the meaning of the news item. Sometimes the AP skews the headline and RTD is merely copying it.
Okay, this is what I don’t get—yet another management mea culpa. ‘We screwed up’ and now ‘we’ are (finally) listening to the readers and are going to fix it. With all the mismicromanagement going on in that paper, why do people like Proctor still have a job? Clearly the top floor doesn’t know what it’s doing and yet, and yet, it’s the reporters, editors and other sundry peons getting the can?
Bill Lohmann is a wonderful writer. What a treat to see him slightly unfettered with his own column. I am sure the folks on the 4th floor will interfere with him, but at least his mandate will be broader. You go Bill!!!
+2. What Rayzor said.
What a pathetic turn for a once proud newspaper.
Glenn Proctor comes off desperate and angry and needy here. I don’t *remember* ever dating him but clearly I did and we had an ugly breakup. Time to change my number…
I stopped subscribing to the RTD years ago after I was a 911 supervisor and what I relayed to them from that position and what they wrote were so different the paper was obviously a comic book. The prejudice, lies and deceit they inject is horrible and I have no respect for them. I read the obits and headlines usually on the other stations and that’s it. The public has no idea who brainwashed they are and it is sad.
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