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Your connection to industry & member news | Oct. 17, 2024
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News Contest entry platform accepting entries through Dec. 6 The 2024 News Contest entry platform is live and accepting entries through Friday, Dec. 6.
Annual contests include the News Contest, Associate and Individual Member Contest, and the Collegiate Contest.
Each member editor should have received an email with log-in credentials for the site. Reporters, photographers, designers and other staff members should get the login from their editor.
New for 2024 – General Excellence will now be recognized in separate print and digital contests. News organizations are welcome to enter one or both!
The contest period is for work published between Nov. 16, 2023 through Nov. 15, 2024.
View SCPA members by division, as well as how each division is determined. Active member news organizations are allowed to compete in a larger division. If you are interested, contact us before submitting entries.
Please reach out if you have questions about the rules or need help using the digital entry platform
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By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications
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Appeals Court requires details in FOIA fee fight There are several issues with South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), but one of the laudable provisions—also present in the federal FOIA and in freedom of information laws in 44 other states and the District of Columbia—is a section allowing courts to order state agencies to pay the legal fees of parties who prevail in FOIA lawsuits.
But even though former South Carolina state representative and Richland One school board member and chair Wendy Brawley won her FOIA case against Richland County over her request for records regarding a federal grant, on Sept. 25 the South Carolina Court of Appeals rejected a trial court’s award of attorney fees in the case.
The reason? Because the trial court simply approved the attorney fee amount claimed as a lump sum by Brawley’s lawyers, without any documentation or breakdown of the fees and the work done.
In 2013, Richland County applied for a grant and loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development office to fund the Lower Richland Sewer Project, which has built sewers in Hopkins and Eastover. The project was opposed by some residents in the area, who made various FOIA requests and sued to stop the project.
Among these was a FOIA request by Brawley seeking a copy of the application and supporting documentation for the federal grant. In response, in October 2014 the county provided only six pages, including a one-page, signed but undated application for federal assistance. Considering this response inadequate, Brawley sued the county in March 2015. Read more
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Thanks to all who participated in National Newspaper Week
Thanks to everyone who participated in National Newspaper Week by sharing your columns and stories about why newspapers matters to you. We shared a recap in last week’s eBulletin but here’s some more content we've spotted:
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|  Earn Your Press Pass is a virtual, self-paced training course that covers journalism basics like interviewing and reporting skills, sourcing considerations, news judgment, AP Style and basic photography. The training is especially helpful for early-career journalists, collegiate journalists, freelancers and employees with limited journalism training or experience.
Thanks to funding from the SCPA Foundation, there is no cost to participate.
Members who complete the entire course will receive a certificate of completion.
Interested? Email us!
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 | Williams (right) is pictured with his children - Sean, Denise and Caroline.
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|  | Williams moved to Union in 1984 to become editor of The Union Daily Times.
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| Union County News Editor Graham Williams calls it a career after 47 years
People choose to celebrate their birthdays in different ways.
Union County News Editor Graham Williams chose his - Oct. 15 - as his retirement day. Graham, who turned 70, is trading his pen and pad to pursue traveling and other interests. In his 47 years as a journalist, he has covered everything from sports - including NASCAR racing - to tragic accidents, fires and governmental meetings.
For the past 15 years of his career, he has greeted customers at the newspaper office from his desk near the front window.
He said these are some of the folks that he will miss the most.
"The people - the interaction with folks who come in to pay for their subscription or pay for an ad, as well as those who just stop by to chat (as long as I'm not too busy)," he said. "I will miss seeing my friends at city council, county council and school board meetings on a regular basis. I will also miss looking out the front door from my desk and seeing the different people walk past our office on the way to someplace else on Main Street. I will also miss my friends here in the office – Rick and Wanda Drain, Brenda Dillard, and the carriers who come in on Monday afternoons to pick up their papers – especially Roger Harris, who I've known for at least 40 years. I will miss talking about sports with Richard Brown, the only true Chicago Cubs fan in Union. Finally, I will miss Anna and Robert Brown, who threw me a lifeline when my life was at its lowest point."
Graham's newspaper career began in high school where he was sports editor of his high school newspaper in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was also a correspondent for the Twin City Sentinel's Saturday feature page, “Today's Teen-Agers,” where high school students were assigned stories and, when needed, they would schedule one of the paper's photographers to accompany them.
In 1977 he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
His first newspaper job after college was as a staff reporter for The Tribune, a tri-weekly publication in Elkin, N.C.
During his seven years there he was also sports editor and then senior reporter.
By Anna Brown, Union County News | Read more
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Lawrence named metro editor of The State
Reporter Jordan Lawrence recently announced that he’s transitioning to a new role at The State – metro editor, leading a talented team of reporters as the newspaper strives to report and dissect all of the local government, development and business news that Midlands readers need to know.
His most recent beat was covering Lexington County.
Lawrence has worked for newspapers in the Columbia area for more than a decade, having previously served as the lead editor for Free Times and the Lexington County Chronicle.
He has won several South Carolina Press Association Awards, including recognition for breaking news reporting, business reporting and arts and entertainment writing. He was the weekly recipient of the 2023 Ken Baldwin Award for Excellence in Business Journalism.
Lawrence is a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill.
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|  | Gina Smith, regional projects editor for The State, The Island Packet, The Sun News and Beaufort Gazette is currently studying at Harvard University as a 2025 Nieman Fellow. Last week she moderated a talk with Martha Minow, former dean of Harvard Law School, discussing the importance of newspapers in democracy. "We're losing 2.5 papers per week in America," she said. "If you care about American democracy, this should worry you." Smith is also founder of SC Investigates and serves as an SCPA Executive Committee member.
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NFOIC is hosting annual FOI summit, SCPA members encouraged to register.
The National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) is hosting its annual National FOI Summit online on Nov. 14.
The primary discussion will be on AI and FOI. Summit participants include experts in areas of transparency, open government and first amendment rights.
The cost is $25 for SCPA members. Register here.
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FTC announces rule to make it easier to cancel subscriptions
The Federal Trade Commission is taking steps to make it easier for consumers to cancel digital subscriptions.
The department will soon implement a “final click to cancel rule,” it announced Wednesday, which will require sellers to make it “as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up.”
Most of the final rule’s provisions will go into effect 180 days after it is published in the Federal Register, the department said.
By Dominick Mastrangelo, The Hill | Read more
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Press Forward awards $20 million to 205 local news outlets – including one in every state – for their work closing persistent coverage gaps
Press Forward recently announced that 205 local newsrooms will share $20 million in funding as part of Press Forward's first Open Call on Closing Local Coverage Gaps.
From newsrooms focused on people of color and linguistically diverse communities, to others covering vast rural areas where they are the only news source for miles, these local journalists are filling the gaps where traditional coverage has fallen short.
In South Carolina, El Informador was awarded $100,000 for closing local coverage gaps. The Mt. Pleasant based newspaper publishes twice a month and informs, engages and empowers the Latino community in South Carolina through journalism that is trustworthy, accurate, culturally resonant and impactful. Read more from Press Forward.
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AP readies record level of staffing for 2024 election
The Associated Press will have more than 5,000 people working on election night, a new record in the company's 178-year history of calling elections, executive editor Julie Pace told Axios.
Why it matters: Thousands of newsrooms in the U.S. and globally rely on AP's data to cover the elections. Ahead of 2024, the not-for-profit news cooperative faces new challenges related to trust and misinformation.
- Specifically, determining the number of uncounted votes in any given race has become more difficult, due to a surge in mail-in ballots, a popular practice left over from the COVID era.
- The absence of race calls while votes are still being counted is where misinformation can flourish, Pace said.
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Tips to boost revenue through events
The LMA Fest 2024 session “Cashing in on Creativity: Boosting Revenue through Events” highlighted how media organizations are leveraging editorial events to drive engagement and revenue.
Industry leaders including Texas Tribune Chief Revenue Officer April Brumley Hinkle, The Gazette Executive Editor Zack Kucharski, and Chicago Public Media Chief Content Officer Tracy Brown shared insights into their strategies for successful event planning and execution.
Here are some key takeaways from the event:
The Gazette’s Iowa Ideas virtual festival
Kucharski introduced the “Iowa Ideas” project, a virtual festival that has grown significantly since its inception in 2017. Initially an in-person event, it transitioned to a virtual format because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving online reduced operational costs and allowed the event to grow to over 2,000 participants, he said.
The festival’s content is divided into nine tracks, driven by reporters. These tracks focus on key issues affecting Iowans, from politics to agriculture.
“For us, this has been a great experience,” Kucharski said, highlighting the revenue growth and continued partnership retention since the festival moved online.
The festival has also been a strong source of revenue, generating approximately $180,000 in 2024, and continues to grow by 15% annually. This success was attributed to both the expanded digital audience and the involvement of local businesses as sponsors.
From Local Media Association | Read more
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Stories of Sarah: From St. Louis to Port Royal, a young reporter’s lasting imprint on us all
It is easy for a newspaper reader to gloss over a byline and jump to the news.
It’s easier still, though, in an interconnected community like Beaufort County, for readers to start to recognize reporters who can be counted on to share need-to-know information accurately, clearly, expediently.
Sarah Yelena Haselhorst was one of those reporters.
She died last weekend at her apartment in Port Royal. She was 31.
Sarah’s name has been on the top of stories in The Island Packet for more than two years and, before that, in newspapers in Mississippi, Ohio and her native Missouri. In the Lowcountry, she focused on weather, nature and climate issues, but she also covered health and medical news, breaking news and general assignments.
She was a skilled journalist who always had a question, and then another and another – and, if given a chance, yes, another. But the void her death leaves in the newsroom at The Island Packet is tiny compared to the void she leaves in the lives of those who knew her personally.
She was a loyal friend who delighted in baking croissants and feeding her people good food.
She was an encourager and a leader with a sharp sense of humor.
She was fastidious about AP Style, proper punctuation and correct spelling.
Her favorite place was anywhere she could be with a book, but she loved the boardwalk at The Sands in Port Royal.
She loved her cats most of all.
Here are some of the memories shared by those who had the fortune of getting to know Sarah beyond her byline.
By Lisa Wilson, The Island Packet | Read more
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By Lee Harter, Executive Editor, The Times and Democrat
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| Helene shows commitment of newspapers
"When Helene tore through western North Carolina … it triggered floods and mudslides that smashed away neighborhoods and took out vital infrastructure. Already isolated communities became information black holes, cut off from the world and each other. Local journalists have spent the days since trying to reach those communities and fill in information gaps — all the while dealing with storm-wrought damage in their own lives. Attempts to document the devastation and give residents essential information about available resources have been complicated by communications issues from the storm.” -- Poynter.org
Helene in 2024. Hugo in 1989. Many, many differences in the way we communicate today vs. 35 years ago, but the commitment of local newspaper journalists is much the same. These professionals are on the front line in trying to bring news to people unable to connect in ordinary ways.
As the work continues, their roles are being recognized during this National Newspaper Week, which has been observed since 1940.
Call it self-promotion if you will, but newspapers play as vital a role in today’s diverse medial landscape as they did back during Hugo, when the printed product was there for so many without access to information from any other mass media. Read more
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By John Foust,
Advertising Trainer
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| Don't ghost your clients
Eric is an advertiser who has dealt with a number of media salespeople. “In all of my years of placing advertising, I have only one pet peeve,” he told me. “I don’t like it when salespeople ghost me.”
Although “ghosting” is most frequently associated with personal relationships, it also occurs in business relationships. Eric is as cheerful as any advertiser you’ll meet, but it bothers him when a salesperson ignores him after an important appointment, after his store has featured a big sale, or after a new campaign starts. At those crucial times, he may need to discuss tweaks to the ad schedule or new offers to generate more interest. “I’m definitely not high-maintenance, but not promptly returning phone calls or not replying to emails and texts is wrong. That tells me they are disorganized, they are procrastinating or they are deliberately ignoring me.”
Poet Maya Angelou famously wrote: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
How do you think Eric’s ghosters make him feel? Whether their inaction is intentional or not, he may feel that – after he becomes a regular advertiser – they don’t see him as worth their time any more. Read more
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