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Your connection to industry & member news | Nov. 14, 2024
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Contest publication period ends tomorrow, Dec. 6 deadline approachingSCPA's digital entry platform is accepting contest entries until Friday, Dec. 6.
Tomorrow, Nov. 15, is the final day of the 2024 SCPA News Contest period. This means that anything published in print or digitally from Nov. 16, 2023, through Nov. 15, 2024, can be entered in this year’s News Contest.
All editors should have received log-in information for the site.
Let us know if we need to resend it or if you have questions about the contest.
Don't let the Dec. 6 deadline sneak up on you...start entering soon!
Awards will be presented at the SCPA Annual Meeting, set for April 3-4, 2025, at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in downtown Columbia. More details coming soon!
Get organized for the 2025 Contest!While you're thinking about the contest, make a copy of this Google Sheet to help you prepare for next year's News Contest. This tool can help you stay organized as you try to determine what to enter next December.
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By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications
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| Trump and Media Law
Back when Donald Trump was about to be inaugurated for his first term as president, I wrote a column on “What Trump can do to thwart the press.” Much of what I wrote was based primarily on his campaign statements and actions. But he also now has a track record both during his first term and during his campaigns that can be examined to predict what actions he and his administration could attempt to do regarding freedom of speech, and particularly freedom of the press. In the end, although the first Trump administration took several actions to impede the media, he was largely thwarted by the courts and administrative processes, and not much actually changed regarding media law rules and principles. For his second term, Trump has pledged to rollover such obstacles. Whether he can do so remains to be seen. Read more
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Results are in – Trump triumphant
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|  SCPA is launching a group for early career journalists (targeted at members with 10 or less years of experience) and kicking off activities with Happy Hour next Wednesday, Nov. 20, from 6-8 p.m. Drop by WECO Bottle & Biergarten in West Columbia to network with your peers and get plugged in to opportunities. The drinks are on us, thanks to sponsorship by the S.C. Newspaper Network! Food will be available for purchase. Please RSVP if you plan to attend.
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Post and Courier hires Marilyn W. Thompson as senior reporter and investigations coach
Marilyn W. Thompson, who has worked on major, awarding-winning investigations for some of the nation’s top newsrooms, is joining The Post and Courier as a member of its investigative and special projects team.
Thompson is returning to her South Carolina roots to continue a storied career that has included key jobs at The Washington Post, Reuters and Politico.
Most recently, she was an investigative reporter and editor at ProPublica, where she worked with its local news initiative and played a key role in establishing the nonprofit news operation’s Washington, D.C., bureau.
Holding governments accountable has been a hallmark of Thompson’s career. At the Post, she co-edited a project on reckless police that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1999. She directed a team that won the public service prize again in 2000 for stories on abusive conditions in homes for the mentally challenged. She also lent her editing firepower to a package on gun violence that was a Pulitzer finalist. In addition, Thompson is a four-time book author, including two biographies she co-wrote on longtime South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond.
At The Post and Courier, Thompson will work as a senior reporter and investigations coach, joining a public service and investigative team frequently lauded for its impactful, award-winning work.
From The Post and Courier | Read more
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|  | Retired Executive Director Bill Rogers recently presented Lee Harter with SCPA's Lifetime Achievement Award honoring his distinguished career at The Times & Democrat and his long and outstanding support of the Press Association. SCPA is also renaming our top collegiate honor the Lee Harter Collegiate Journalist of the Year Award! We'll also recognize Harter at SCPA's Annual Meeting on April 4, 2025.
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Editorial: SC is helping Google keep public in the dark. It's time to stop.
For more than a year, utility executives have been telling South Carolina lawmakers we’re running out of electricity and need to build a massive amount of new generating capacity — and they need the Legislature to loosen the protections it put in place after it allowed SCE&G and Santee Cooper to charge ratepayers $9 billion for two unfinished and abandoned nuclear reactors.
There’s been talk about South Carolina’s massive population growth driving the need, but this fall, those executives admitted to a special Senate panel that two-thirds of the new generating capacity is needed to feed data centers that politicians are paying to move to our state. That’s significant because building new capacity is the chief way utilities make a profit, which means our rates wouldn’t have to go up as much if new capacity wasn’t needed.
That’s the background you need to keep in mind when you consider the latest news about Google’s super-secret efforts to build a second taxpayer- and ratepayer-supported data center in Dorchester County.
The Post and Courier’s David Wren reports that the S.C. Department of Environmental Services is seeking public comment on Google’s application for an air permit for that data center. The problem is that more than a fifth of the application's pages are marked confidential. That includes the detailed emissions calculations the public is supposed to comment on, the number of emergency diesel generators that will be installed and how much fuel their tanks will store. The data center's manufacturer specifications and data related to the use of renewable diesel are also marked confidential.
From The Post and Courier | Read more
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Skip Hoagland sentenced to jail time by Beaufort Co. judge for repeated meeting violations
Already facing thousands of dollars in fines for his brash behavior at public meetings, local government critic Calvin “Skip” Hoagland was sentenced to five days in county jail for a decorum violation, an exasperated judge ruled Wednesday morning.
In reality, Hoagland would likely be promptly released on bond following his booking at the Beaufort County Detention Center on Wednesday, according to Magistrate Judge Erin G. Vaux. If he was not released by Thursday, Vaux would order his release, she said.
As the criminal charges for decorum violations and interrupting public meetings continued to stack up, the judge said she thought imposing jail time was her only option.
“Jail time is meant to be punitive. It is meant to change the behavior. It is meant to deter.” Vaux told Hoagland during Wednesday morning’s proceedings. “Clearly, a fine does not deter you — and in fact, you ignore them. You refuse to pay them.”
By Evan McKenna, The Island Packet | Read more
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A record election night for AP
With more elections customers than ever before, AP delivered data, live video, outstanding photos and engaging interactives to audiences worldwide to tell the story of the 2024 U.S. election.
AP's elections results, considered the gold standard for trusted information on election night, were used by 30% more elections customers than the 2020 presidential election.
APNews.com received a record 87 million page views on Election Day and broke that record the next day with 92 million page views. In all, AP News received nearly 232 million page views between Nov. 4-6, the most ever for AP during a three-day period.
Additional highlights underscoring the wide reach of AP journalism include:
- AP photographer Evan Vucci’s photo of President-elect Donald Trump addressing his supporters in the early hours of Nov. 6 (above) was used by AP customers on virtually every continent and seen around the world.
- AP’s election night livestream hit a record 13 million views, more than doubling AP’s previous high-water mark. Viewership peaked at 250,000 concurrent viewers and the broadcast became the No. 2 trending video on YouTube across all topics.
- AP’s election results map interactive, used by thousands of news outlets in the U.S. and globally, received nearly 25 million page views. State-specific maps for battleground states Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin each received between 1.5 and 4 million page views.
- AP’s Election Day live blog, which ran Nov. 5 and 6, received 67 million page views and is the most-viewed piece of content ever on AP News.
By Lauren Easton, The Associated Press | Read more
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Giving Tuesday fundraising tips, best practices for news organizations
The annual global event Giving Tuesday is just around the corner on Dec. 3.
Thousands of nonprofits around the country and in your city and state are likely to participate. Does your news organization plan to join them?
If you’re still pondering this question, here is my advice: Never miss an opportunity to educate your audience about the value of your journalism and the impact of your work.
While you may think you are competing with local charities, a well-executed and thoughtful campaign can bring philanthropic support your way, and also help raise awareness of your work.
Here is our team’s advice from several years supporting the work of year-end giving campaigns for hundreds of news organizations through the Local News Fund and the Lab for Journalism Funding.
By Penny Riordan, Local Media Association | Read more
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By John Foust, Advertising Trainer
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| I shot an ad into the air
When I was a kid, my family went on a family vacation to the mountains of North Carolina. For a couple of nights, we stayed at a motel which had a play area with a few activities for children. The thing I most remember was a small archery range, which consisted of a couple of straw-filled targets, a bow and an arrow. One of the motel employees – probably a college student with a summer job – was there to make sure no one got hurt. Along the way, he taught a few basics about shooting a bow. The only advice I recall was to make a T-shape with the arm that is extended to hold the bow and the arm which is bent at the elbow to pull back the string. The bowstring arm should be straight back, not against the archer’s side.
I think about that little archery range every now and then, because I’ve been relating advertising to archery for more than 30 years. Archery provides us with a good comparison – and an easily understood visual image – to share with advertisers. When you narrow the subject to three elements – the bow, the arrow and the target – you have the key ingredients of an advertising campaign. Use the bow to shoot the arrow at the target. It’s that simple.
Let’s take a closer look at this comparison. Read more
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