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Your connection to industry & member news | Aug. 13, 2026
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SCPA partners with A-Mark Foundation, SC Investigates for free virtual training on writing for impactJoin us online Sept. 24 from 2-3 p.m.
- Tony Bartelme, The Post and Courier
- Zak Koeske, The State
- Glenn Smith, The Post and Courier
Gina Smith, founder and director of SC Investigates will moderate the discussion.
This event is catered specifically toward S.C. professional and collegiate journalists so regardless of your beat or your organization’s size, frequency or resources, you’ll walk away with practical skills.
If you’re looking to grow your accountability and investigative journalism skills from experts in the Palmetto State, you don’t want to miss this session!
Thanks to sponsorship from the A-Mark Foundation, there is no cost to attend this event but you must RSVP by Sept. 17.
This event is only open to S.C. Press Association members.
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SCPA seeks, shares member AI policies
A few SCPA members have reached out recently seeking guidance as they craft a generative AI use policy/guidelines for staff.
SCPA has created a working doc of the AI policies we’ve received so far from fellow members, plus some helpful AI resources. We plan to keep this link up-to-date so please share your guides/policies/resources and we’ll add them to this Google Doc.
Members are looking for guidance on policies dealing with AI in news coverage, as well as ad acceptance policies.
Please share your policies to be included and reach out if you'd like the link to access the compilation.
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| South Carolina Newspapers celebrate back to school!
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SCPA members invited to USC AI conference set for Oct. 9-10 in Columbia
The University of South Carolina's School of Journalism and Mass Communications will bring together some of the nation's leading voices in media, advertising, public relations and corporate communications this fall for a two-day event examining how artificial intelligence is transforming communications.
The conference - AI in Media, Advertising & Public Relations - will be held Friday, Oct. 9, at the Russell House University Union on the University of South Carolina campus.
A companion Student AI Challenge will take place Saturday, Oct. 10, giving university students from across South Carolina the opportunity to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams, tackle a real-world communications challenge using artificial intelligence and compete for cash prizes totaling $15,000.
Featured speakers include:
- Andrew Robertson, Chairman, BBDO Worldwide
- Valerie Vargas, Senior Vice President, Creative Content & Advertising, AT&T
- Porter Berry, President & Editor-in-Chief, FOX News Digital
- Benjamin Vaughan, Head of AI Research, Vurvey Labs
- Robby Thomas, Vice President and General Manager, WIS-TV / Gray Media
- Stephen Brown, President, Cookerly PR
- Peter LaMotte, President of Strategic Communications, Chernoff Newman
- University of South Carolina faculty experts in artificial intelligence, creativity and strategic communications
The conference will examine how organizations are integrating AI into newsrooms, creative agencies, corporate communications and marketing organizations while preparing their workforce for an AI-powered future.
Interactive workshops, executive conversations and industry discussions will provide attendees with practical insights into leadership, creativity, human-AI collaboration and organizational transformation. Learn more and register
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 | Amanda and Michael Prochaska will oversee the daily operations for The Summerville Journal Scene and The Berkeley Independent. (Photo by Paul Zoeller)
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| Prochaskas named co-publishers of Journal Scene
Summerville Communications Inc., which publishes The Journal Scene and The Berkeley Independent, announces the promotion of Amanda and Michael Prochaska as co-publishers.
In addition to their dual publisher role, Amanda will continue to serve as inside sales supervisor for The Post and Courier and Michael as editor of The Journal Scene and The Berkeley Independent.
Summerville Communications plans to hire an advertising manager in the coming weeks.
“We are fortunate to have Michael and Amanda to lead Summerville Communications. Since joining our team, they have fallen in love with Summerville,” said Evening Post Publishing CEO PJ Browning. “We never expected to find a couple whose experience is perfect to lead the newspaper into the future. They truly understand the importance of community journalism.”
A graduate of the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism, Michael served The Oconee Enterprise, a community newspaper just outside Athens, Ga., for 14 years as reporter, editor and eventually co-publisher. Under his leadership, The Enterprise earned a top placement in the Georgia Press Association’s annual contest for three consecutive years and in eight of the last 10 award cycles.
Amanda spent over a decade working in Christian ministry before building a career in the newspaper industry. At The Enterprise, Amanda took leadership roles in legal advertising, circulation, newsstand delivery and office management before serving as co-publisher alongside her husband.
From The Summerville Journal Scene | Read more
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 | Charlie Irwin is the new reporter for The People-Sentinel. (Photo by Jonathan Vickery)
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| From Iowa to Barnwell: Irwin joins The People-Sentinel as new reporter
There’s a new face covering the people, places and stories of Barnwell County.
Charlie Irwin has joined The People-Sentinel as its newest reporter, bringing with him three years of newspaper experience, a passion for sports and auto racing, and a desire to become part of the community he now calls home.
Irwin comes to Barnwell County from Dubuque, Iowa, a city of approximately 60,000 to 70,000 people along the Mississippi River. He graduated in May from Loras College, where he majored in creative writing with a focus on journalism and minored in rhetoric and public writing.
Before making the move south, Irwin spent three years working in the sports department at the Telegraph Herald, Dubuque’s local newspaper. There, he covered nearly every major high school sport along with college football, basketball and soccer.
He also found opportunities to combine journalism with one of his biggest interests — auto racing. Irwin covered local dirt track racing in Dubuque for two years and reported on special racing events.
His path to journalism, however, wasn’t always clear.
Irwin entered college as a sports management major before realizing it wasn’t the right fit. At the same time, the writing classes he was taking began pointing him in another direction.
“My interest in journalism really started in college,” Irwin said. “I was in the Sports Management major and it just wasn't cutting it for me. But I took many writing classes on the side which made me very interested in sports media.”
From The People-Sentinel | Read more
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ICE will release body camera video only when seen in the agency’s ‘best interests,’ policy says
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is moving to equip officers with body cameras in the next two months but the agency’s policy gives it broad control over what footage will be made public by specifying any releases must be in its “best interests.”
After years of delays, ICE said its field officers nationwide will have body-worn cameras by the end of September. The rollout comes after recent fatal shootings by officers enforcing President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown have intensified pressure for accountability that the cameras could provide.
But the agency’s body-worn camera policy could mean taxpayers who are pitching in tens of millions of dollars to pay for the cameras may be kept in the dark about some high-profile confrontations, at least in their immediate aftermath.
The policy says ICE will promptly release video of shootings and other encounters in which its agents cause death or serious injury only after determining “it is in the best interests of the agency” to do so. That gives its director discretion to release recordings that reflect well on the agency’s image while working to keep others secret, experts on body camera policies said.
By Ryan J. Foley, Associated Press | Read more
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School board member uses AI to answer press questions
Charleston County School District (CCSD) Trustee Leah Whatley turned to artificial intelligence last week to answer a campaign question from the Charleston City Paper.
The move surprised the newspaper’s staff members, some of whom wondered what would happen to local students who completed term papers and assignments with AI-generated answers. One retired educator said such students likely would be accused of cheating.
Currently, the Charleston County School District is outlining and implementing rules and expectations that were set in January for the use of artificial intelligence in its code of conduct, including clear expectations of proper disclosure and honesty when using it as a communication tool. The district also allows teachers to set clear expectations for individual assignments — and if students are told not to use AI and were found to, that could be treated as an academic integrity violation.
Earlier this month, the Charleston City Paper asked incumbent school board members some questions about their reelection efforts. Whatley answered three questions via email, including: “Are you seeking an endorsement from Moms for Liberty or any other political group this election? If not, why not?”
Whatley’s response read: “Recommended response, assuming you are not seeking one.” Then this followed:
“No. I am not seeking an endorsement from Moms for Liberty or from any other political organization. Moms for Liberty chose to endorse me in 2022. I appreciated every individual voter who supported me, but I did not surrender my judgment to that organization — or to any organization.”
By Skyler Baldwin, Charleston City Paper | Read more
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Revising the SPJ Ethics Code
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), a more than century-old industry organization with nearly five thousand members across two hundred and fifty chapters in the United States, might be best known for its code of ethics, a set of bullet-pointed precepts that can fit on a poster designed to hang in journalism classrooms and newsrooms: “Seek Truth and Report It”; “Minimize Harm”; “Act Independently”; “Be Accountable and Transparent.” Each is described in succinct sentences. Now, with AI, creator journalists, and other industry changes in mind, SPJ is revising that code for the first time in more than a decade.
The first draft of this update, created by committee, is being made public today for consideration by SPJ’s full membership. To produce even a draft revision has taken close to a year, encompassing surveys of journalists and the general public, two panel discussions, a half dozen Zoom meetings, and a marathon in-person drafting session. “The debate was really on the language and what needed to be tweaked,” said Patrick Lee Plaisance, a Penn State media ethics professor and the author of Virtue in Media: The Moral Psychology of Excellence in News and Public Relations. The in-person meeting was “exhausting,” Plaisance said. “It was not a very pretty process, but I think it was respectful. The process and the product, I think, turned out better than expected.”
The committee included sixteen writers, editors, academics, and members of other industry organizations, including Investigative Reporters and Editors and the National Association of Black Journalists. All of SPJ’s members can now prepare to weigh in at their upcoming October convention—though they’re not guaranteed to give the guidelines a rubber stamp.
By Liz Skalka, Columbia Journalism Review | Read more
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How to build a kindness map for your community
What does kindness look like in a city?
It may be a free food pantry, a clothing closet or a library where people can use computers and Wi-Fi. It can be an animal shelter looking for volunteers, a neighborhood cleanup or a community garden. And sometimes it is simply a story, when a group of neighbors clean up their block together, someone created a free pet-food pantry for their block or volunteers packed thousands of care kits.
We wanted to put all of these things in one place.
That is how we started building the Mirror Indy Kindness Map, an interactive map of Indianapolis where people can find help, give help and share stories of kindness.
The original idea was inspired by projects like Queering the Map, which invited people around the world to pin personal stories and memories to specific locations. We were also interested in other kindness maps, but we wanted something local and useful for Indianapolis.
Our goal was not only to make a list of nonprofit organizations. We wanted the map to feel practical, personal and connected to different neighborhoods.
We also wanted readers to help build it with us.
By Elizaveta Orlova, Reynolds Journalism Institute | Read more
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Hampton County 'Guardian angel' Lettie Ginn dies at 80
The Hampton County Guardian and the community at large mourn the passing of retired employee Lettie Ginn, who was an integral part of The Guardian and the business community for more than 20 years.
Lettie Jane Nix Ginn, 80, of Furman, S.C., died on Aug. 4 at Coastal Carolina Hospital in Hardeeville.
Ginn was a S.C. Press Association-award-winning sales representative and account manager who worked for The Hampton County Guardian for just over 20 years.
Former Guardian editor and Hampton County icon Martha Bee Anderson dubbed Ginn one of her "Guardian Angels,” and other staff members jokingly referred to her as "Live 5 Lettie" because she often brought news tips to reporters and editors.
Former Guardian editor Laura McKenzie hired Ginn and said that she quickly became "the backbone" of the paper.
"I came to realize that Lettie knew just about everybody in the county," McKenzie wrote in a tribute to Ginn shortly after her passing. "She knew who was married to whom, who were first, second or third cousins (once or twice removed), and who needed help. She listened. Lettie got to know every business in the county and figured out what they needed to advertise. Then she created those ads that would bring in customers."
For those staff members who often had their children in and out of the office, Ginn became not just a Guardian institution but a family member who watched them grow over the years.
By Micheal M. DeWitt, Jr., Hampton County Guardian | Read more
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By Jim Pumarlo, Newspaper Consultant
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| Don’t forget judicial races in election coverage
Election season is in full swing. Newsrooms have their hands full navigating coverage.
It makes sense to devote resources to those contests with greatest familiarity to your staff and relevance to readers – city council, school board, county board, other local governing boards Next in line are applicable legislative and congressional races. Depending on circumstances and issues, specific statewide races may prompt a closer look.
I urge you to also put judicial races on your radar.
The judiciary has garnered widespread attention on a national level in the midst of the Trump Administration’s steady stream of executive orders. What do the back-and-forth rulings at various court levels mean to your readers?
Think as well beyond the national scene. Judges are arguably among the most influential of elected officials whether at the local, state or federal levels. They hand out sentences for a variety of crimes from everyday fare to the high profile. They rule on private disputes among individuals and companies in civil suits. Determinations on lawsuits can result in transactions of millions of dollars. They interpret laws passed by other elected officials.
Yet, how many individuals can name their local judges, not to mention those on the state or federal supreme courts? In similar vein, how many newspapers give any attention – beyond the names and possibly brief biographies – to judicial candidates? In fact, how often are judges themselves – aside from decisions rendered in courtrooms – the focus of news stories? The fact that judgeships escape scrutiny is the strongest reason the public should be paying attention to – and newspapers should be providing coverage of – the individuals in robes. Read more
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