Now the newspaper does have that glut of columnists, and we’ve all been watching.

And evidently so has the new editor.

Well, actually, it looks like he’s tired of watching.

The buzz around the newsroom is that Paul Anger, the editor, told Shirley Ragsdale that the Register has too many columnists and that he’d like her to move to another job.

Naturally, that didn’t come as pleasant news to Ragsdale, whose columns have been appearing on the Register’s editorial pages. Sources say she at first told Anger she didn’t want to move to another job.

But editors always win in those kinds of discussions, and Anger won that one.

Unless Anger changes his mind at the last minute, the word is that Ragsdale will soon quit writing her column for the editorial pages and will instead become the Register’s religion writer.

"The religion beat will be given some fancy name—faith and values, or something like that,’’ said a source familiar with the situation.

When Ragsdale at first balked at being removed as an editorial page columnist, Anger offered her a chance to produce one column a week for those pages in addition to writing stories about religion.

However, she turned that down. And, for a while, it seemed her only future tie to the editorial writers department would be her desk. At first, it was thought she’d be allowed to remain in that part of the office instead of being moved to the newsroom.

But now that has changed. Ragsdale will be writing in the newsroom, with all the other working stiffs.

When Anger was brought in by Stier earlier this year, he knew that the Register would have six columnists who write for the news sections and editorial pages, plus two sports columnists.

For a paper the Register’s size, that’s a bunch.

In addition to Ragsdale, the columnists include David Yepsen, who also writes for the editorial pages; Rekha Basu, who writes for the editorial pages on Sundays and for the Iowa Life section two days a week; Rob Borsellino (Basu’s husband), whose columns appear on page 2 of the general news section, plus Marc Hansen and John Carlson, who write columns for the Metro & Iowa section.

The sports columnists are Sean Keeler and Nancy Clark. Keeler was Hansen’s replacement as the primary sports columnist.

The rumor when they came back to town was that their salaries would be $80,000 each.

That’s pocket money in some businesses, but pretty fair paychecks when it comes to newspapers owned by Gannett, a tight-fisted media company that is operating in tough economic times.

I have said all along that Basu and Borsellino weren’t brought back to Des Moines to play second-fiddle to any of the other columnists. When they again landed on the fourth floor of the Register building, you had to figure something would give.

Way back on Dec. 17, I wrote this as part of a column:

So the report that Ragsdale is being dropped as a columnist comes as no surprise. Her exit obviously opens up a vacancy in the editorial pages, and my thought was that the columns Basu now writes for the Iowa Life section would be placed there instead.

But, for now, I’m told Basu’s columns will continue in Iowa Life twice a week and in the Sunday editorial pages.

However, among the other essays that have appeared on the opinion pages recently that had even less zip than the columns produced by Ragsdale was the first "Editor’s Notes’’ written by Anger, who obviously should stick to editing and decision-making and leave the writing to others.

"I don’t know how many columns Ragsdale wrote, but she never wrote one that I got all the way through,’’ says a veteran of a number of newsrooms. "I usually just gave up after four or five paragraphs.’’

Ragsdale was hired at the Register when Dennis Ryerson was still the editor. But if Anger wants to undo all the troubles Ryerson created for the paper, he’ll have to work there until he’s 100 years old.

Stay tuned. There may be more changes on the way. Don’t forget, Anger was brought in to be a problem-solver.

There’s still a long, long way to go at a paper that’s been on a steady decline in circulation since Gannett bought it.

Well, they’re working on that.

In a memo to newsroom employees Thursday, Anger and managing editor Rick Tapscott said, "As we prepare to launch expanded and enhanced Business coverage next month, Dave Elbert will shift his emphasis from managing the department to writing a full-bodied weekly business column and taking on revelatory enterprise writing assignments.

"While remaining business editor, Dave will bring his encyclopedic knowledge of Iowa business to bear in ways that will help make the Register Business sections must-reads. To give Dave time to report and serve as our prime link to the business community, Assistant Managing Editor Randy Evans will take over day-to-day management of the Business Desk.

"Randy lends the desk an experienced eye for news and the energy of one of the Register’s very best editors. Dave and Randy will make the switch in late April so we are ready to roll out separate Business & Money and Agriculture sections in mid-May....

"Managing Editor/Staff Development Diane Graham will oversee the Features section and Marsha Mills will supervise the News Library staff and operations.’’

After reading through all of that, here are my impressions: Elbert is now a writer, not an editor. Evans is the business editor. And the question asked a few weeks ago by a Register retiree about what in the world Graham does at the newspaper has perhaps been answered.

The retiree said he was spending time (hopefully not much time) wondering what Graham’s job consisted of. Now we know. She’ll oversee the Features section.

Some of you may not be aware that, once upon a time, Des Moines had an afternoon newspaper called the Tribune.

And the Tribune, once upon a time, had a sports columnist named George Shirk.

But he made up for it with personality. In those days, he was an interesting young guy who did, and wrote, things to get attention—and usually succeeded.

Shirk also was no dummy. At least he was smart enough to bail out of Des Moines before the Tribune died. He had other newspaper jobs in cities such as Philadelphia and San Francisco before going on to what he thought were greener pastures.

According to New.Com, Shirk plans to resign by the end of the month as editor in chief of Terra Lycos’ Wired News.

Shirk, who has been editor of the online technology news site since 1998, will be replaced by managing editor Alison Macondray on an interim basis.