Blondebomber, I don't know how many times you've moved, but it's hard to get a feel for a city in two months, and without that it's going to be hard be your best, whether you're running a desk or writing a column -- aside from the lack of local knowledge, the basic quality will suffer while you try to catch up. I've tried the immersion method -- books, excessive driving around, dining in a different part of the city every day -- and still it takes awhile to get my bearings, certainly more than two months. And, as many writers have discovered, there is a big difference between writing a column a week and writing three or four every week, and that takes an adjustment, too. A professional journalist should give him at least a year to get acclimated. As for how much time the readers give him, well, that is out of the columnist's hands -- but in any case, the people who hired him did so with the knowledge that he'd be a newcomer in town. Perhaps they took a longer-range view in hiring an outsider, rather than promoting someone who knows the city and the people in it but is lacking in other areas.
