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Your connection to industry & member news | Jan. 23, 2025
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Learn more about SCPA resources and member services on Feb. 20 Are you a news organization leader of staffer who is new to SCPA? Our next member services orientation is set for Thursday, Feb. 20, from 2-2:30 p.m. on Zoom.
We invite you to learn more about SCPA’s member services, legal/FOI Hotline, SLED checks, lobbying, training, contests, communications, resources and ad representation. This will be an informal space to get information about your membership and ask questions. RSVP if you’d like to attend.
If you’d rather set up a time to meet with SCPA staff at your newspaper or at yor office, contact us.
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| ❄️ Snow blankets South Carolina ❄️
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|  | Kathy Googe (left), sales representative for The People-Sentinel in Barnwell, and her daughters went sledding on a jon boat.
| |  | Jason Lee, photojournalist for The Sun News, captured snow coming down at Myrtle Beach.
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Pauley, Morgan flip flop on secret ballot
WINNSBORO – Half an hour prior to county council’s regular 6 p.m. Jan. 13 meeting, council members elected a new chair and vice chair by secret ballot, a method that Media Attorney Jay Bender says does not comply with state law.
After three newly elected council members were sworn into office [on Jan. 13] and seated at the dais, Clerk to Council Kimberly Roberts explained that council members would be voting by secret ballot for a council chair and vice chair.
“Council members, you will find two ballots on your desk – one for the chair and one for the vice chair,” Roberts said. “If you will go ahead and vote on each ballot and fold it in half. I will come by and retrieve those ballots from you. Mr. Killian and I will then go to the back, tally the votes, and come back and make the announcement of the chair and vice chair.”
By Barbara Ball, The Voice of Fairfield County | Read more
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|  | Brian Tolley, executive editor of The State (right), recently presented reporter Morgan Hughes (left), with the 2024 Hampton-Gonzales Award for Journalist of the Year. A H/G voter said, “Morgan is the type of reporter every newsroom and community needs more of because of her storytelling range, persistency and passion. From nuanced, fair and skilled political reporting to super interesting slices of life that help readers better understand and appreciate Columbia to fun features about historic town clocks or tailgate golf carts, she gave readers a real sense of place this year.” Hughes covers Columbia news for The State. She previously reported on health, education and local governments in Wyoming.
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By Bryn Eddy, Lexington County Chronicle
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| We’re a small business, too
On East Main Street in downtown Lexington is a little blue house. That’s us. We love our location, its proximity to O’Hara’s Bakery, Old Mill Brewpub, a few spas and many other small businesses that are vital parts of Lexington County’s small business community.
I’ve heard it multiple times: “Lexington County loves its small businesses.” I’ve also heard this multiple times: “I shouldn’t have to pay to read the newspaper.” And this: “The newspaper should be covering this.”
I have written about a ton of small businesses. I’ve learned about their humble beginnings. Their early and current struggles. Their stories.
The common thread in all their successes was community support.
And readers love those stories. They find small businesses’ small beginnings inspiring.
The Lexington County Chronicle is a small business, too. But I have found some people are less thrilled with our small beginnings.
We are a newspaper that transitioned to new leadership in 2021. We are so grateful for the original owners and publisher, but in this new chapter, we must work tirelessly to get up to speed with this digitally driven world, and we have a way to go. Read more
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By Jim Pumarlo,
Newspaper Consultant
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| Initiate regular conversations with news sources
One of my greatest satisfactions sitting behind the editor’s desk was appreciating the newspaper had a pulse of the community. Credit extended beyond the newsroom; all employees served as our collective eyes and ears.
Delivering news is hard work as editors well know. Stories don’t just fall in your lap. You must develop news sources, which can be a painstaking process. Sources willingly share good news. When bad news surfaces, they often create detours and roadblocks.
As the New Year unfolds, it’s a good time to commit to rekindle connections. For starters, ask yourself: When’s the last time you sat down with news sources – in a calm and nonconfrontational atmosphere – and had a conversation about why you press so hard for information, why you believe your community is stronger for sharing a broad spectrum of news?
Communication with formal and informal networks became especially challenging during the pandemic as everyone was forced into isolation. Exchanges via phone, email and platforms such as Zoom necessarily became the norm. Read more
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