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Your connection to industry & member news | April 2, 2026
Editor's Note: There will not be an eBulletin next week. We'll be back on April 16.
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 | Claflin University student Alexis Wilson was named Lee Harter Collegiate Journalist of the Year in the Under 10,000 division.
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|  | Staff of The Daily Gamecock celebrates First Place General Excellence in the Over 10,000 division.
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|  | Claflin University Senior Damaia Davis (center) accepts The Panther's First Place General Excellence award in the Under 10,000 division.
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| SCPA honors collegiate journalists on March 27
More than 80 college journalists from across the Palmetto State attended SCPA's Collegiate Meeting & Awards Presentation at SCPA Offices last Friday.
Students attended training and roundtables, networked and celebrated during the Awards Presentation.
Thanks to our panelists and presenters: Sydney Cramner of The Daily Gamecock at USC, Caleb Bozard of The Post and Courier Columbia, Alaysha Maple of The Sumter Item, Emmy Ribero of the Morning News and Madison Sharrock of Coastal Observer.
SCPA presented awards from the 2025 Collegiate Contest, including General Excellence winners: - The Panther, Claflin University (Under 10,000 division)
- The Daily Gamecock, University of South Carolina (Over 10,000 division)
Our Lee Harter Collegiate Journalist of the Year winners are:
- Alexis Wilson, The Panther, Claflin University (Under 10,000 Division)
- Kylie Tutterrow, The Tiger, Clemson University (Over 10,000 Division)
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SC law now says athlete pay is a secret as legislature overrides governor’s veto
Aside from a highly active rumor mill, the public may never know how much South Carolina colleges are paying their athletes.
On April 1, the S.C. Senate joined the House in overriding the governor’s veto, officially shielding universities’ revenue-sharing deals from public view.
The Senate voted 30-12 in favor of overruling Gov. Henry McMaster, who quibbled with a broad carve-out in open records law that not only protected individual athletes’ revenue-sharing contracts but also how much public institutions are paying to each sport.
The state’s law will only allow colleges to share how much they disperse to all athletes in a given year, which was a maximum of $20.5 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year and will increase to $21.3 million in 2026-27.
Those maximums — for all intents and purposes a “salary cap” on how much universities can pay — were put into place by the NCAA’s resolution of antitrust lawsuits, commonly referred to as the House settlement.
As a result of this latest amendment to the state’s name, image, and likeness (NIL) law, the public will not know exactly how much athletes in sports such as football and men’s basketball are paid opposed to women’s basketball and softball aside from speculative NIL valuations promoted by recruiting sites like On3.
There will continue to be a lack of transparency around how much the highest-paid players on a football team actually make, muddying a transfer portal market where, according to Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, “flat-out extortion” is committed by agents.
By Jon Blau, The Post and Courier | Read more
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SC lawmakers near adopting 25-foot legal perimeter law covering first responders, including policeCOLUMBIA — A bill that could threaten bystanders with jail time for standing too close to first responders in the line of duty could soon reach Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk despite concerns the policy could potentially criminalize members of the public recording police.
Dubbed the Helping Alleviate Lawful Obstruction — or HALO — Act, the bill proposes new criminal penalties of up to 60 days in jail for any member of the public — journalist or not — who fails to comply with first responders’ direct orders to stand a distance of up to 25 feet away from them while they are in the performance of their legal duties.
Supporters of the legislation say the intent is to protect law enforcement and other first responders, like medical professionals, from harm or harassment in the line of duty.
Critics say obstructing first responders in the line of duty is already against the law and punishable under state law.
“This is preventative,” state Rep. Case Brittain, a Myrtle Beach Republican and one of the bill’s cosponsors, said during debate in early March. “Waiting until someone throws a punch is not a strategy.”
By Nick Reynolds, The Post and Courier | Read more
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Editorial: Frivolous lawsuits silence critics by running up the bill. SC can stop this.On Tuesday afternoon, with a simple motion from S.C. Senate Republican Leader Shane Massey, the upper chamber waded suddenly into unfamiliar territory: its contested calendar, where so many bills that make it out of committee go to die. A bill becomes contested when a single senator objects to debating it. Really.
The first bill senators encountered was an effort to protect innocent victims from frivolous political lawsuits aimed not at righting wrongs but at silencing criticism. The bill, H.3305, passed the House more than a year ago but has been stranded on the Senate’s contested calendar since May 1.
Unfortunately, without a moment’s hesitation, senators skipped over it, and two more bills, in their rush to pass the formerly smart bill about gubernatorial appointments that they contaminated with a measure to force out the only qualified candidate who’s interested in serving as our state’s Public Health director.
There’s a lot bad about the Senate’s tradition of allowing a single senator to kill a bill that lacks near-universal support and enthusiasm from the 45 other senators. Although the initial purpose of these holds was to accommodate senators who couldn’t make it over flooded creeks to be present for debate, today they operate as effortless, single-senator filibusters, requiring more than a majority to agree to give up one of the coveted debate spots to the objected-to bill, which could mean their favorite bill dies a lingering death instead.
From The Post and Courier | Read more
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| | Thanks 2026 Annual Meeting sponsors!
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 | Harter received SCPA's Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2025 Annual Meeting.
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| Lee Harter, longtime Claflin journalist-in-residence, Panther adviser announces retirement
By Lee Harter, Claflin University
In fall 2000, I began teaching a reporting course in the fledgling mass communications program at Claflin University.
The experience began a career paralleling and complementing my position as editor of The Times and Democrat.
My Claflin role expanded to teaching a second reporting course, media law, feature writing and today’s multimedia reporting. Along the way, I was named journalist-in-residence at the university.
Claflin is and has been a key part of my journalism career spanning 50 years. I will forever be grateful for the university extending my teaching opportunities beyond the newsroom and into the classroom.
A quarter century later, it is time for me to turn over the reins. I plan to retire from teaching journalism courses and advising The Panther at the end of the 2025-26 academic year. I do so with mixed emotion, but the time is right for both Claflin and me.
I hope to forever be a part of Claflin as the university will always be a part of me. I am very proud of what has been accomplished.
Some highlights:
- Students moving into notable and high-profile careers in journalism and other fields after having experienced in-the-field journalism as part of their Claflin education. I continue to communicate with many of them.
- A Claflin student being named South Carolina Collegiate Journalist of the Year for seven of 10 years from 2014-23. The unprecedented run is testament to the quality of students having completed the mass communications program. (Editor's Note: Claflin student Alexis Wilson was named 2025 Collegiate Journalist of the Year on March 27, 2026.)
- The Panther winning dozens of awards from the South Carolina Press Association and other organizations for reporting, photojournalism and general excellence
- The SCPA’s major collegiate award being renamed in my honor: the Lee Harter Collegiate Journalist of the Year.
I plan to remain connected with the mass communications program and Claflin via contact with students and colleagues. I may not be a Claflin graduate, but I forever will be a Claflinite.
Thank you and many others for more than 25 years at the university.
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By Nate Abraham Jr., Carolina Panorama
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Saving Local Community News
The future of community news will be decided less by technology than by whether communities like ours still believe our stories are worth fighting for. As a second generation publisher who has lived both the glory days of print and the brutal math of the digital age, I can tell you: the model must change, but the mission cannot.
To help us with this mission, we need your help. We can no longer print everyone’s announcements without compensation. Spending thousands of dollars to print everyone’s news and announcements and trying to cover those costs with advertising revenue is unsustainable. Going forward, we must ask for financial contributions from the organizations who send us information to publish.
We now plan to print twice a month. Despite this, the electronic edition of the Carolina Panorama will still be available every week on our website. In addition, you can also continue to get local news on our website, social media and newsletters.
We are also launching fundraising campaigns. Our goal is to raise $100,000 in donations and contributions during 2026. We have several donation levels available, beginning at $25, and every gift—no matter the amount—makes a meaningful difference. Contact us at (803) 256-4015 or visit our website at www.CarolinaPanorama com to make a donation.
We are also asking for your support through advertising – both in print and on our website. We now have some of the most unique and innovative digital ad units for our website in the media business. We are also offering special print+digital advertising packages for small businesses.
The founder of the Carolina Panorama Newspaper, Nat Abraham Sr., would have been 92 on April 28. On April 29, we will print our 40th anniversary commemoration issue. This special issue will be a look back at some of the people, organizations and news that we have featured over the years. If you have been featured in the Carolina Panorama Newspaper, we want to hear from you. We would love to include your story in this special issue. Read more
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|  Mundy Price, president/publisher of the Index-Journal; Jonathan Vickery, publisher/owner of The People-Sentinel; and Taylor Ysteboe, director of audience for The Post and Courier graduated from America's Newspapers Executive Development Program this week at the MEGA Conference in Austin. Our state's news leaders have spent the past eight months meeting with the the 20-member cohort building the skills, perspective and relationships needed to lead a modern local news organization. Group photo by Corporate Event Photography by Sharper Visuals.
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|  | USC’s College of Information and Communications brought print, broadcast and internet journalists from around South Carolina and the country to Columbia last week for Media Law School, which provided them the opportunity to develop a better understanding of the key stages of civil and criminal proceedings and to learn enough basic law to report accurately on many important issues in the news. The program was offered in cooperation with the Joseph F. Rice School of Law, and sponsored by the American Board of Trial Advocates and the American Board of Trial Advocates Foundation. Photo by J. Scott Parker, USC
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Some on Lexington School Board thought special meeting was wrong. 3 met with lawyer anyway.
LEXINGTON – A school board is under fire again after a former board member accused the body of breaking transparency laws in a closed-door meeting with legal counsel.
The Lexington One Board of Trustees stirred up controversy earlier this month when board member Katie McCown posted photos of a Black History Month fashion show at River Bluff High School, calling the student’s outfits “disgusting” and “disgraceful.”
In response to the backlash, the board swiftly arranged a special-called meeting. The agenda said the purpose of the meeting was to enter executive session, which is not open to the public, to “receive legal advice regarding board member conduct.”
Four members decided not to attend the meeting, with McKenzie Flashnick and Nick Pizzuti taking to their own Facebook pages to cite their “belief that any actions taken by the board should be handled in a manner that is fully consistent with our policies, the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, and the responsibilities entrusted to us by the public,” as the reason for their absence. The board ultimately did not have a quorum present to start the meeting.
But at a March 19 “community conversation” hosted by the board, Jada Garris, who formerly served on the board, asked members to explain why they met with the attorney anyways.
By Chloe Barlow, The Post and Courier Columbia | Read more
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Beleaguered Upstate charter school’s leader under scrutiny. Board is mum on why.
GREENVILLE — Amid financial strain, parent demands for leadership change, ongoing litigation over a sex-abuse scandal and an order from its authorizer to address academic declines, an Upstate charter school’s governing board has delivered a job review to its executive director — but won’t disclose what it says.
GREEN Charter School Executive Director Tom Cronin has run the seven-campus, statewide GREEN network since 2021. Since he took over, the network has opened a new high school outside Greenville and a K-8 school in Simpsonville. Under Cronin’s tenure, the network has taken on about $62 million in bonded debt — nearly equal to the value of its assets, records show.
In a March 27 letter to the newspaper, GREEN board chairwoman Stephanie Gottler declined to release the board’s correspondence to Cronin, citing state law that protects personal privacy.
GREEN’s board referenced the correspondence to Cronin in a March 12 meeting during which they voted unanimously to share it with him. The Post and Courier asked to review it the next day.
“In sum, to protect the privacy interests of GREEN Charter Schools’ employees, GREEN Charter School will withhold all personnel information related to job performance, including but not limited to evaluations, commendations, reprimands, and internal and external complaints,” Gottler wrote in her March 27 letter to the newspaper.
The performance review of Cronin — the executive director of a publicly funded school — is a public record subject to disclosure, said Jay Bender, a long-time First Amendment attorney in South Carolina.
"One of the challenges the public has in getting access to records is that people like this board chair don’t read the law and invent exemptions from mandatory disclosure that they wish existed,” Bender said.
By Anna Mitchell, The Post and Courier Greenville | Read more
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Fairfield County shuts down shelter volunteers after volunteer exposes safety concerns
Editor's Note: A bloody kennel, a deceased dog, and allegations of inmate-led dog fighting—all followed by a total shutdown of the volunteer program. After a Fairfield County Animal Shelter volunteer emailed county officials to expose serious safety concerns and animal neglect, the county responded by "shutting down" all volunteer activity. From claims of starving dogs to a lack of management experience, read the details on the turmoil at the Fairfield County Animal Shelter. The Voice requested county employment records through a FOIA request that was denied by county administration on March 24. SCPA Attorney Jay Bender disagreed with the denial.
FAIRFIELD COUNTY – On the morning of Jan. 31, 2026, Fairfield County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the Fairfield County Animal Shelter regarding a fight between two Fairfield County Detention Center trustees (inmates who work at the shelter), according to an incident report obtained by The Voice.
The report states that trustee Thomas Richard Johnson Jr. told deputies that he observed two trustees [“A” and “B”] spraying dogs with water inside the shelter in an attempt to make them fight, and that he made them stop. Johnson stated that trustee “A” then told him, “Wait until we get back to the dorm.” That prompted Johnson to retrieve a shovel because he believed a confrontation would occur, the report stated.
Johnson admitted to striking trustee “A” on the head with the shovel.
By Barbara Ball, The Voice of Fairfield County | Read more
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How the Post and Courier is turning subscriber retention into a growth strategy
For many publishers today, subscription growth is no longer just about attracting new readers — it’s about keeping the ones you already have. At The Post and Courier in South Carolina, that reality has reshaped how the company approaches reader revenue. President of Newspaper Operations PJ Browning and Subscriber Experience Manager Mary Fox have built a strategy that treats retention not as a back-office function but as a core part of the business.
Working alongside marketing partner Newspaper Subscription Services (NSS), the organization has developed a structured subscriber lifecycle that focuses on habit formation, proactive engagement and targeted win-back strategies. The approach has helped the Post and Courier drive unusually low churn while expanding its newsroom footprint across the state.
“Today what we’re faced with from a publisher standpoint is just the noise that’s out there,” Browning said. “Content is king, but platforms and distribution is King Kong.” For Browning and her team, that environment makes retention as critical as acquisition.
From Editor & Publisher | Read more and watch the recording
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Understanding young news audiences at a time of rapid change
For more than a decade, the Reuters Institute Digital News Report has documented fundamental shifts in how young people (defined in this report as those aged 18–24) interact with and think about news during a period of significant technological, media, and political transformation. As ‘social natives’, this demographic is moving away from traditional news media like television, print, and even news websites, gravitating instead towards a social-first and audiovisual-heavy media diet, where news is one type of content consumed among many. ...
Based on secondary analysis of Reuters Institute research, we present the following key findings that summarise young people’s news attitudes and behaviours, and how they have changed.
- Young people (aged 18–24) are now clearly social-first rather than online-first when it comes to news. Ten years ago in 2015, young people’s main way of accessing news was through online news websites and apps of publishers. Today, their main source is social media.
- The 18–24s have embraced audiovisual platforms. They now rely on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for news, overtaking Facebook, which was the dominant platform ten years ago.
- On social and video networks, young people say they pay more attention to individual news creators (51%) than to traditional news brands (39%), in contrast with those 55 and older, who say they pay more attention to the news media.
By Dr. Craig T. Robertson, Dr. Amy Ross Arguedas, Mitali Mukherjee and Dr. Richard Fletcher, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford | Read more
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4 tips for using history content to build trust with audiences
For many Americans, current events can lead to feelings of news fatigue or overwhelm. However, we still look for ways to learn more about where we live and what makes the places special to us unique. Short-form video can help make those community connections.
Historian Kwasi Hope interacts with journalists, museum professionals, local officials and community members on his travels and work as an independent creator. He shares what he learns about people and places of historical significance through short-form videos, which have 6 million views across Instagram and TikTok combined.
In a February 2026 “Ask Me Anything” session, Hope joined Samantha Ragland, the American Press Institute’s senior vice president, to answer questions from news leaders about how local media and independent creators can work together to spotlight local history. They also shared these practical tips for navigating partnerships with creators:
By Jan Ross P. Sakian, American Press Institute | Read more
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By Jim Pumarlo, Newspaper Consultant
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| Election season: Keep coverage local, start early
Election season is under way. Many would say the cycle never ends. No sooner are votes tallied than strategists eye the next election. Make no mistake, many lawmakers routinely cast votes with one eye on policy and one eye on politics, especially if they are in swing districts.
Office-holders are scrutinized more than ever in today’s political dynamics. In turn, media are under the microscope.
The scope of coverage will vary by newspaper and community. Election season strains newsrooms already strapped for resources. Consider these starting points:
First, keep the focus local. Do what you know best and do what no one else is doing for your readers.
Second, introduce yourselves early to candidates. Promote the roles of both the news and advertising departments.
I place public affairs coverage at the heart of a newspaper’s responsibilities. In that sphere, nothing is more than the selection of candidates who will shape policies affecting readers’ everyday lives.
Think about your bread and butter. What’s more likely to receive a front-page headline: An action in Washington, D.C. or at the State Capitol – or debate at a packed meeting of the city council, school board or county board? Read more
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