George Will is the king of column syndication, running in more newspapers across the country than anyone else -- hitting the pages of 368 newspapers at least once a month. This spearheads an analysis by liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America:

"'He reaches half of the newspaper readers in America,' said Paul Waldman, the study's author. 'He has a huge megaphone, probably bigger than anybody else in America.'

His group found that 60 percent of the daily newspapers print more conservative syndicated columnists each week than liberals. Twenty percent of the papers are dominated by liberals and 20 percent are balanced. Media Matters had no information on local columnists.

It's similar to how conservative talk radio voices dominate, although to a much more limited extent.

Waldman called it 'one more nail in the coffin of the myth of liberal media bias.' Better balance should be the goal, he said."

As a syndicated columnist, I can say that newspapers that are consistently accused of liberal bias or feature left-leaning opinions from their editorial boards are always on the hunt for right-leaning columnists. Featuring such columnists gives them weight to deflect criticisms of bias. Therefore, in an assessment of newspapers' balance, any analysis should weigh the editorials in addition to the featured syndicated columnists.

The choice of columnists also depends heavily on reader demand. And over the years I've noticed that right-leaning readers tend to be more vocal about their favorite writers (and, following the same trends, talk-show commentators). If newspapers don't respond to demand -- be it columnists or syndicated cartoons -- it hits their pocketbooks.

It would be offensive to a columnist, though, to suggest that his or her distribution and success was just based on political football in the editor's office. One has to remember that the top columnists make reasoned points in an engaging way. Will and other successful columnists have worked hard to get where they are, and continue to work at keeping and increasing a following of readers.

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