 |
|
|
Your connection to industry & member news | June 5, 2025
|
PALMY Ad Contest entries head off to judging2025 PALMY Ad Contest entries will head off to Kentucky for judging early next week.
Winners will be announced for proofing on June 26, but are not for release until July 17. Best of Show, Best Overall, Designer of the Year and the digital presentation of all winning ads with judges’ comments will be available on July 17.
Awards will be presented in person or mailed to winners in mid-to-late July. After winners are announced for proofing, SCPA staffers will reach out to see if you’d like to have a recognition event or if you’d prefer us to mail your awards.
Thanks to everyone who entered!
| |
|  If you plan to attend our quarterly FOI and libel training next week, you must register by Friday, June 6. There is no cost to attend and this event is only open to SCPA members. If you are new to the Palmetto State or just need a refresher, sign up for this helpful session.
| |
| | |
|
Alford retiring as Lancaster News editor after 25 years
The Lancaster News Editor Jane Alford has put down her red pen, cleaned off her desk (at last) and left the Woodland Drive newspaper office late at night for the very last time.
After 25 years with the Lancaster paper, it’s time, she said.
“I’m ready to move on and explore other opportunities and adventures that align with my passions,” Alford said, as she piled bins of recycling on the dock this week.
While she won’t miss the late nights or the deadline pressure, Alford said she will miss the people she worked most closely with, especially the freelancers, interns and new reporters she shepherded over the years, along with the many relationships she forged with regular contributors to the papers and sources in the communities.
“I’ve been so surprised by how many really complimentary things people have said or sent to me when they learned I was leaving the papers,” Alford said on her last day with the papers, Friday, May 30. ...
Her retirement won’t last long though, as after a road trip with her mother, Alford will be returning to Lancaster as the development director for the Lancaster County Council of the Arts.
From The Lancaster News | Read more
| |
 | Among the graduate students from Syracuse University who are working with the Charleston City Paper and other organizations are (first row, l-r): Mathilde Refloch, Sara Atencio-Gonzales, Madey Lynch, Tori Wyffels, Colette Goldstein and editor Leah Stacy. Second row: Rutkowski, Ally Watkinson, Henry O’Brien, Olivia Meier and Ankit Bandyopadhyay. (Photo from Syracuse University)
|
| Syracuse grad school journalists expand arts, news coverage for City Paper
The Charleston City Paper again welcomes Syracuse University journalism graduate students as the backbone of the newspaper’s amplified arts and news coverage during the 2025 Spoleto Festival USA and its Piccolo Spoleto counterpart.
“Thanks to the 30+ stories already penned by Syracuse students, plus those from our staff and freelance writers, the Charleston City Paper has the best and most comprehensive coverage of Spoleto Festival USA and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival,” said Andy Brack, the newspaper’s editor and publisher. “For the fourth year running, these graduate students have provided valuable insights and information as part of a living journalism laboratory.
“We all should be thankful for their expanded, locally produced news stories about the festivals and what’s happening in the area.”
From Charleston City Paper | Read more
| |
Leaders sparred as a hobbled SC town considered raising water rates after damning audit
CALHOUN FALLS — A chaotic council meeting frustrated officials and residents alike in a beleaguered Upstate town of about 1,700 that's at the center of three state investigations and is struggling to move forward after a damning forensic audit that detailed mounting debt, unpaid utility bills and troublesome spending habits.
And at the center of all of it was Calhoun Falls Mayor Terrico Holland, who repeatedly chastised attendees and threatened to throw people out, cutting off a council member he disagreed with and storming off as a Fox Carolina reporter tried to interview him afterward and an attendee tried to record the interview.
Holland, who left before The Post and Courier could speak with him, did not respond to a message left at a phone number he used in candidate filing paperwork.
"It was the worst example of a meeting I've ever seen," said Brian Dixon, mayor of the town of Troy southeast of Calhoun Falls in Greenwood County. Dixon attended the three-hour May 27 Calhoun Falls meeting. He has spent more than a decade in elected office.
He described Holland's conduct as "unprofessional."
"I've never seen the chair ever lecture the public. ... It was like a king talking to his court," he said.
By Matthew Hensley, The Post and Courier Spartanburg | Read more
| |
Column: Release the information — now!
There have been mountains of conjecture about what led to the closing of Limestone University.
Many blame the football program while others blame the number of athletic programs in general.
Others think the building of athletic facilities, which are indeed first-rate, are the culprit.
Another suspicion is the lack of oversight by the school’s Board of Trustees, which were indeed entrusted with fiduciary oversight.
The construction of the Hines-Riggins Center and the USDA loan used to pay for it is still another cause supported by many.
One more theory is the amount of payroll, number of employees and programs offered.
And then there are those who are sure embezzlement occurred.
Perhaps the closure is a result of all of these or a combination of two or three.
Several of the board members are friends of mine and they are just as distraught about what has happened as all of us are. It’s easy for us to look in from the outside and question why they did not know the situation was so dire.
I’ve been a member of numerous nonprofit boards over the past years and one of the main items on every agenda is discussion of the financial report.
Income and expenses are scrutinized and questions asked. In the end, though, board members rely on the numbers presented as being complete and factual.
I’ve been told some believe that was not always necessarily the case.
So many theories and so much chatter.
The only way the absolute truth will come out is for the board to release all minutes of their meetings and financial reports and statements from the past several years.
And even then we still might know the whole story.
By Cody Sossamon, The Gaffney Ledger | Read more
| |
SC legislator threatens to withhold money from Chester if it doesn’t fill his request
The city administrator of Chester, a rural city between Charlotte and Columbia, is accusing a state representative of misusing his power after the legislator threatened to withhold state funding.
Rep. John King, D-Rock Hill, submitted a request shortly after midnight on Wednesday seeking detailed financial and administrative records from the city. If officials don’t provide that information, King said in his request he would ask state leaders to halt Chester’s state aid until they comply. It’s unclear how much aid is at stake. ...
Jay Bender, a leading South Carolina attorney on open records cases, said both parties are wrong to some extent.
King’s threat to withhold funding is an “inappropriate abuse of legislative authority,” Bender said. The appropriate remedy is to file suit in court if Chester refuses his request.
And the city should take the matter to court, too, if it believes exceptions apply to fulfilling King’s request. Financial records relating to federal grant expenditures should be accessible.
“Two wrongs do not make a right,” Bender said.
By Nick Sullivan, The Herald | Read more
| |
Editorial: The $4.3 million barn renovation and the continuing cult of SC secrecy
When The Post and Courier gave the public its first very limited glimpse of the exclusive $3.4 million lodge S.C. taxpayers had helped build as a “welcome center” adjacent to Shaw Air Force Base, our reporters hadn’t been able to step foot on the property and had a lot more questions than answers about how and why our tax dollars were being used.
We didn’t know who could access the gated property, how much it costs to operate, where the money to operate it comes from or to what extent it’s used as a private hunt club. We also knew practically nothing about a caretaker who previously worked at a private hunt club, is paid $81,000 a year by the city and is allowed to live rent-free in a three-bedroom house on the property.
Five months later, we still have more questions than answers.
City officials said last fall they were just too busy to give our reporters a tour of the place; this spring, they simply ignored a follow-up request. After a lot of cajoling, they did offer to give one Sumter activist a tour — as long as she agreed not to take any pictures or shoot any video, which strikes us as a bizarre demand for government officials who have nothing to hide.
Sumter Mayor David Merchant agreed to talk to reporter Tony Bartelme about the welcome center and the $4.3 million barn renovation that’s underway. But as Mr. Bartelme reports, he didn’t seem to know a lot about the project that’s being funded by state taxpayers through a grant his city requested from the South Carolina Department of Veterans Affairs. What he knows is that Shaw Air Force Base “is a huge economic engine and great neighbor, and we do whatever we can for them.”
From The Post and Courier | Read more
| |
Records show Lexington school bus in fatal crash passed inspections but had 3 prior tire issues
LEXINGTON — Despite passing its annual inspections, the Lexington Two school bus involved in an April crash that killed a 13-year-old student had been through a revolving door of repairs since 2023 — and as recently as two weeks before it flipped on Interstate 77.
Over the course of a year and a half of repairs that kept the bus mostly unusable, the school district paid at least $81,000 for the work — more than two-thirds what the $116,000 the bus originally cost.
The account of the bus's troubled history leading up to the crash that killed Pine Ridge eighth-grader Jose Maria Gonzalez Linares during a field trip to North Carolina is gleaned from records The Post and Courier obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
After providing the public records, Lexington Two officials said they won't comment on the documents' contents or the April 17 fatal crash because of the ongoing investigation.
The S.C. Highway Patrol also has not released its report that would show the cause of the crash and other contributing factors.
Troopers are still investigating the crash and cannot confirm reports that the bus flipped after a front passenger tire blew out, Highway Patrol Sgt. Tyler Tidwell said in an interview.
By Tiffany Tan, The Post and Courier Columbia Free Times | Read more
| |
USPS PRC approves rate increase
The U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission approved the Postal Service’s proposal to raise rates for Market Dominant products consistent with applicable law on May 30. According to Commission regulations, proposals for rate changes that comply with the applicable legal requirements may take effect. In its decision, the Commission strongly encouraged the Postal Service Board of Governors to consider exercising their business judgment, consistent with statutory and regulatory requirements, not to increase rates by the full amount permitted by law. In response to The Alliance’s comments submitted on May 9, on page 130, the order states: “The Commission also shares N/MA’s concerns about Periodicals’ costs and continues to strongly encourage the Postal Service to take steps to address them.” Regarding the Flats Operations plan, the order says: “The Commission nonetheless remains concerned about the issues raised by N/MA and is continuing to review them in Docket No. SS2022-1.”
Price changes are scheduled to take effect July 13. The proposed adjustments, approved by the governors of the Postal Service, would raise Periodicals rates by an average of 9.385 percent and Marketing Mail prices by an average of 7.385 percent.
Senator Hawley Introduces Postal Legislation
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced S. 1604, the No Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) Act on May 6. The legislation would:
Prohibit the U.S. Postal Service from implementing the RTO plan or any similar initiative that the Postal Regulatory Commission concludes would negatively affect rural communities.
Protect mail service in rural communities across America from further degradation.
By Holly Lubart, News/Media Alliance | Read more
| |
| Compelling Writing with Jerry Bellune
| |
 |
By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach
|
| Are you and your readers easily distracted?
Every day we face a choice to pursue deep or shallow work, podcast host Srinivas Rao explains.
Shallow work gives us the temporary illusion of accomplishment, he writes, but little of significance results from shallow reporting and writing.
He could be talking about us hurriedly writing up the latest sordid crime or tonight’s council actions.
It’s part of what our readers expect of us journalists. We keep an eye on the cops, public officials, whatever our sources tell us or breaking news that’s available.
Now let’s think about our readers. Is shallow reporting all they need and want? Probably not. Deeper work such as uncovering the facts someone doesn’t want revealed takes time we don’t always have.
“I know I’d get more done and be happier if I just slowed down and focused more deeply on one thing at a time,” writes blogger Harris Sockel. “Yet I’m always sucked back into shallow attention.”
Paying attention seems simple. But with the flood of information coming to us every minute, what do we need to pay attention to?
It’s more than just focusing. But we can start by getting off the internet and social media.
We may have something more important to do such as write, post or edit an article or check a news source, the cops or the prosecutor’s office.
Check your email only as needed unless you are close to deadline. Here’s an example of what I mean. Read more
| |
|
|
|
