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Your connection to industry & member news | June 26, 2025
Editor's Note: Have a safe and happy 4th of July! Your next eBulletin will be July 10.
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PALMY winners announced for proofing; July 8 is deadline for corrections2025 PALMY Ad Contest winners are now live for proofing!
Please let us know by July 8 if you have corrections.
Winners are not for release until July 17.
On July 17, the digital awards presentation will be made available on the SCPA website and promoted as a resource for all members to use throughout the year. That's also the day that judges' comments, Best of Show, Designer of the Year and the President’s Awards for Best Overall Advertising will be announced.
Awards will be presented in person or mailed to winners starting July 17. Please tell us if you'd like to have a recognition event at your newspaper or if you'd prefer us to mail your awards.
Congrats winners and special thanks to members of the Kentucky Press Association for judging this important contest. SCPA members will return the favor when we judge KPA's news and advertising contests in the fall.
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SCPA to host Education Beat Reporting Roundtable on July 25 Reporters and editors who regularly cover local education topics are invited to join their peers for a Back to School Covering Education Roundtable on Friday, July 25, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m., at SCPA Offices in Columbia.
This event will be an informal space to share ideas and collaborate on how to best cover the complex issues our state’s local school systems face.
Topics are up to the group, but may include: story/series ideas, FOI/legal issues, building trust with sources, storytelling with data, hot button issues affecting schools, meeting coverage, challenges you face on the beat and more. We’ll also allow time for open discussion.
Please submit discussion topics, ideas and specific questions on the registration form.
The cost to attend is $30, which includes a boxed lunch. Sign up to attend!
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By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications
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| Has federal FOIA been DOGEd?A long-time complaint of journalists and others who make extensive use of the federal Freedom of Information Act is that even though the law requires an initial response to requests within 20 days, replies to initial requests and especially disclosure of requested documents can take much longer, depending on the agency. Backlogged requests are a persistent issue.
But this already problematic situation has been exacerbated in recent months by reductions in the federal workforce by the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE’s actions resulted in an estimated reduction of 284,044 federal employees and contractors through May, although some agencies have been rehiring or recruiting employees to correct errors or restore needed services. In addition, several courts have ordered the restoration of some federal positions.
But it seems that among the hardest hit offices in many federal agencies have been those that handle Freedom of Information requests. These offices do more than simply process the paperwork involved in these requests; they also often determine what information can be released, balancing FOIA with privacy, military and other concerns, depending on the agency and records involved. Read more
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|  | Melissa Foust-McCoy, managing editor of The Manning Times, was recently named Rotarian of the Year by the Manning Rotary Club. She was presented the honor by Club President Johnson James. Foust-McCoy was recognized for her dedication and service throughout the year. From organizing the Clarendon County School Board Candidate Forum to leading clothing and canned food drives, she has gone above and beyond in living out Rotary’s motto: Service Above Self. Her weekly Rotary Roundup in The Manning Times has kept the community informed and engaged with club news.
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By John Boyette,
Aiken Standard
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| Aiken really showed its heart after my medical emergency
It’s funny how the mind works.
On April 28, I was eating lunch at City Billiards with City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh. We get together every few weeks to discuss what’s happening around Aiken.
It was my turn to pay. In my mind, I got up from our high-top table, paid the bill and went back to the newspaper. In my mind, I proofed the pages and we met our 3 p.m. print deadline.
But that’s not what happened.
Around 12:45 p.m., I got up from our table to greet someone and then I started to become unresponsive. I was having a heart attack.
Stuart called 911, and the restaurant staff sprang into action. Owner Terra Allen Jones helped get me out of my chair and onto the floor. A wonderful lady named Tasha Davis — a nurse practitioner — happened to be eating there that day. She heard the call for someone to do CPR, and quickly went to work.
EMS personnel arrived soon after, and they used the paddles to give me a shock and get my heart going again.
By this time Stuart had called my wife Kathy, and she arrived on the scene. They told the ambulance crew to take me to Aiken Regional Medical Centers, and Dr. Ansermo Arthur and his team went to work to put in a stent.
I woke up in a hospital room later that day. I had no clue what had happened. In fact, according to my wife, I kept asking, “What happened?”
I’m also proud to say that one my first questions was “did we make deadline?” Of course we did. The newspaper staff rallied to put out the newspaper filled with great stories in the weeks after my heart attack. Read more
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Information about complaints against SC judges will be released to the public
For the first time, summaries of complaints against sitting South Carolina judges and actions taken will be made public, the State Supreme Court ordered Wednesday.
However, the names of the judges criticized will be redacted from the summaries of the complaints and resolutions, according to an order signed by all five justices.
Up to now, complaints against South Carolina judges and their outcomes have been shrouded in secrecy.
“We believe there is a need to better balance the existing rules of confidentiality in judicial disciplinary matters, with the right of the public to know how cases are being resolved,” justices wrote in their Wednesday order.
“Such knowledge and understanding are critical to ensure the public has confidence that ‘an independent, fair and competent judiciary will interpret and apply the laws that govern us’,” justices wrote.
Veteran media lawyer Jay Bender hailed the court’s order as a major step forward in transparency for the state judiciary — a group of highly paid state public servants whose actions subject to discipline have been shielded from public scrutiny.
“The Supreme Court has moved dramatically in the right direction here,” said Bender, who was speaking on behalf of the S.C. Press Association and who also represents The State Media Co. and others. Secrecy surrounding judicial discipline “has eroded public confidence in the process.”
“It’s an effort to balance those circumstances where there’s legitimate need for confidentiality — you don’t want to besmirch someone’s reputation where the complaint is dismissed because it’s from a nut case,” Bender said. The order says the Council for the Commission on Judicial Conduct, a group that investigates charges of judicial misconduct and reports to the Supreme Court, will prepare quarterly reports on judicial discipline.
By John Monk, The State | Read more
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Cayce paid a media relations firm thousands when it had another under contract
The city of Cayce paid a communications firm more than $17,000 for services rendered in late 2023 and early 2024, despite already contracting out with a different communications firm.
The city, which has been mired in controversy over the last year as a number of top officials have abruptly departed amid city council bickering and staff frustration, paid NP Strategy $17,725 for various media relations work, including at least $2,100 to discuss the city’s strategy relating to public records requests, according to invoices provided to The State.
“At this time, it is believed that those funds to pay the second public relations firm to do media relations and address police department FOIA requests came from the police department or general legal fund,” city spokesperson Ashley Hunter told The State.
“It is not typical to see media relations funds for a second public relations firm come out of a department’s legal fund and that is something we will continue to look into,” Hunter added.
The payments to NP Strategy came while Cayce was also paying Hunter, who runs public relations firm MPA Strategies. For her work with the city she makes around $78,000 annually. Hunter has been working with the city for more than a decade.
“It does not make any sense since we have a contract with MPA Strategies to handle that sort of business for us and I did not find out until long after this transaction was ordered … I did not find out until after the fact that this was actually done, which is really disappointing,” City Councilman Phil Carter said.
By Hannah Wade, The State | Read more
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Ocean Blvd. shooting docs released after records request. Here’s what they say
It’s been almost two months and the majority of public records requests to try and find out more about why and how city officials handled the aftermath of a fatal shooting are still in process.
A fatal shooting on Ocean Boulevard in downtown Myrtle Beach killed 18-year-old Jerrius Davis and left 11 others injured nearly two months ago. A few were released, and they help show what happened in the shooting’s aftermath.
Since that night in April, the Myrtle Beach Police Department released an edited video of what happened, but some of the other corresponding documents have not been released despite being requested under public record laws.
By Elizabeth Brewer, The Sun News | Read more
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Editorial: The problem in Central is a central problem throughout South Carolina
We in South Carolina have more than our share of you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up violations of the state’s open meetings and open records law. Most recently, there was that Catch-22 situation whereby the Department of Environmental Services and its predecessor agency DHEC required people to know specific information about an environmental permit application in order to file a Freedom of Information request seeking to obtain that very information.
Most times, though, the violations are more like the mundane, routine ones that have been happening in the tiny Pickens County town of Central: refusing to keep minutes of meetings, using overly vague descriptions of what’s to be discussed in closed-door sessions, holding illegal private meetings. That doesn't make them any less important, just less jaw-dropping.
As The Post and Courier’s Caitlin Herrington reports, Central resident Jack Queener filed a lawsuit earlier this month alleging that since July of last year, the Town Council has failed to post minutes of its meetings on at least nine occasions, has given illegally vague reasons for going into closed-door executive sessions five times, has held at least one illegal executive session to discuss a tax break, has held one illegal secret meeting by phone and illegally added an item to its agenda after a meeting started.
From The Post and Courier | Read more
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USPS Periodicals will require cross-strap bundles for mail processing, effective July 1
This is a friendly reminder that by July 1, USPS mailers of Periodicals newspapers and Marketing Mail shoppers or other flat newspaper-sized mailings will have to cross-strap bundles that go through mail processing. Plastic straps or their equivalents will be required. Rubber bands, string and twine will no longer be allowed.
From National Newspaper Association | Read more
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News & Reporter staff say a fond goodbye to retired ad rep Fran Dodds
Past and current members of the The News & Reporter staff are mourning the loss of Fran Dodds, the former advertising representative for the paper.
Frances Irene (Frannie) Traylor Dodds, 73, died Thursday, June 5, 2025 at her home.
Mrs. Dodds was born July 16, 1951 in San Diego, CA and was the daughter of the late Frank W. Traylor. She was retired from the Chester News and Reporter. She attended New Hope Methodist Church and was of the Baptist faith. Frannie loved her family especially her grandchildren. She was a joy to be around and brought laughter whenever she entered a room. ...
News & Reporter publisher Linda O’Neil said, “The passing of Fran is deeply saddening for all of us at the Chester News & Reporter. Though retired, we thought of her often and she will be fondly remembered.”
The News & Reporter | Read more
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