Working around load-bearing columns in any retail situation can be difficult.
I have seen some newsagents use mirrors effectively. I have seen others not use a column at all, treating it as a frustration.
In one of my stores we have premium slat-wall attached and we use each side of the column to promote a different category or product. What we promote is dependent on the product adjacencies.
Sales determine the frequency with which we change what we have located where on the column.
Sometimes we dress the column completely in a colour to best feature the product placed there and other times we use the original fixtures as the background.