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Your connection to industry & member news | Aug. 28, 2025
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SCPA finance director to retire Sharon Bailey, SCPA’s Finance Director, is retiring Sept. 18, after 16 years with the organization.
Bailey has handled SCPA and SCNN’s finances for the past two years, but previously worked with SCPA from 2001-2015.
“We were so fortunate to have Sharon come back and assist us for the past two years after Diane left in 2023,” said Co-Executive Director Randall Savely. “With her departure, we are not just losing a good employee, we’re losing a really good friend.”
As Bailey prepares for her next chapter, she said it has been an honor to work with the newspaper industry.
“I love journalism and will truly miss all of the great people I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with and seeing all of the great accomplishments of our journalists in this state,” Bailey said.
Jen Madden, Co-Executive Director, noted that Sharon’s extensive knowledge, attention to detail and friendly personality have made her an asset to SCPA.
“Sharon has brought so much to our organization over the years and has made such a difference serving SCPA members and SCNN advertising clients,” Madden said. “Sharon is a member of our family – not just to SCPA staff but also to our members – so we’ll miss seeing her every day.”
Bailey doesn’t plan to slow down in her retirement. She said she’s looking forward to traveling for pleasure and visiting her son and his family in Detroit, as well as taking art classes and working on crafts.
She will also become a great grandmother to a little girl in late November.
“Of course, I will be doting on that new addition to my family,” she said. “My grandson is very excited to be a dad.”
Bailey will remain on staff through mid-September to train our incoming Finance Director Denise Koon, who starts on Sept. 2. We will have a full announcement about Denise in an upcoming edition of the eBulletin.
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Register for Sept. 26 investigative journalism trainingThe S.C. Press Association is partnering with SC Investigates to host a day of investigative journalism training and collaboration. Make plans to join us Friday, Sept. 26, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m., at SCPA Offices in Columbia.
SC Investigates Board Members Tony Bartelme, Herb Frazier, Gina Smith, Glenn Smith and Richard Whiting ( see bios) will kick off the day with sessions on assertive/investigative journalism topics including use of the FOIA and how to produce watchdog work while still meeting the daily demands of your newsroom. Speakers will cover time management, balance, micro-investigations and how to do investigative work on your beat.
After a quick lunch break, SC Investigates will moderate a roundtable discussion with attendees on accountability and investigative journalism topics. This will be a safe space for Q&A and to discuss FOIA issues and workshop stories/ideas with our state’s experts.
This event is catered specifically toward S.C. journalists so regardless of your beat or your organization’s size, frequency or resources, you’ll walk away with practical skills.
Thanks to sponsorship from the A-Mark Foundation, the cost to attend is only $30, which includes a boxed lunch.
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SCPA can run SLED checks on your local candidates A reminder that SCPA is able to run SLED criminal background checks on candidates for local races.
To obtain a SLED check, you must provide the candidate's full name and date of birth.
Please call our office during business hours at (803) 750-9561 to request a SLED check.
If you have a large number of checks, please email them and we’ll get them done within 48 hours.
SCPA is able to run SLED checks for all news stories, including crime/public safety reporting.
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|  | SCPA staff visited The People-Sentinel last week to present seven PALMY Advertising Awards to (from left) Jonathan Vickery, Jana Schroeder and Kathy Googe. Congratulations!
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Friday Night Lights
We've started seeing SCPA members' fall sports previews and coverage! If you have a fall sports preview section or page to share, please email it to us. Check out our Facebook Gallery to see more previews!
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By Bernie Heller, The Post and Courier Colmbia/Free Times
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| Publisher’s Column: The next chapter in our rich history
If you're reading this, next week you'll notice your weekly paper looks a little different.
When we made the decision five years ago to merge Free Times and The Post and Courier Columbia, it was out of necessity during a time of great uncertainty. Now, thanks to the incredible growth of our Post and Courier Columbia E-Paper, we have an exciting opportunity to bring Free Times back to its roots and give Columbia's arts and entertainment scene the dedicated coverage it deserves.
To say this was a success would be an understatement. Our community demanded more, and we listened, increasing our frequency to a five-day digital E-Paper. The response has been nothing short of inspiring; in the past 90 days, our average monthly users have nearly tripled. The results speak for themselves: The Post and Courier Columbia is fulfilling its mission to provide the in-depth, local coverage our community deserves. This success allowed us to ask a question we've been waiting to answer: How do we bring back Free Times and its vibrant coverage of the community's arts, entertainment and cultural scenes?
On Sept. 3, Free Times will return to newsstands as a standalone tab publication, focusing on Columbia's dynamic arts and entertainment scenes. This is an exciting chapter, and it's a step we've been wanting to take for a long time.
The reimagined Free Times will feature all your favorite content, including the return of “Rant & Rave,” along with new features like “Staff Scoops” and “Standing Dates,” all curated by Free Times editor Zoe Nicholson. Of course, you can count on the weekly news and unique voice that Free Times loyalists have loved for almost 40 years. Read more
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Powell celebrates 30 years at The Gaffney Ledger
Congratulations to Scott Powell, who recently celebrated 30 years as as staff writer at The Gaffney Ledger! Here's a snippet from Powell's Facebook post:
"I walked in the doors of this newspaper for the first time on Aug. 21, 1995 and covered my first school board meeting the next evening.
I have gotten to know many great people over the years and still enjoy coming to work.
One of my journalism professors at USC once shared this gem in class:
'It’s a sorry day when you don’t learn something new.'
I’ve learned how to take pictures, cover local government, school boards, crime stories, the closure of a 179-year-old Limestone University, and even shuck oysters while covering a news story.
It is possible to walk, take notes, photos and game stats at the same time on the sidelines of a football game.
I’ll be doing that again in Ware Shoals tomorrow night for the Blacksburg season opener and hopefully many more Friday nights to come."
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Rogers named USC Baldwin Business Fellow
Parks Rogers, instructor in the USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications, has been appointed as a Baldwin Business Faculty Fellow.
Before joining the J-School, Rogers’ long publishing career includes management roles at The State, The Post and Courier and Lexington County Chronicle.
He's a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill and holds an MBA from Marymount University.
Rogers believes learning is a sensory experience and endeavors for his students to use the senses — hear it, see it, read it, write it, say it, do it — in the classes he teaches. He relies on both his professional and educational background in journalism instruction. He teaches Writing for Mass Communications, Publication Writing and Design, Media Sales and Technology, and Business Concepts for Communicators.
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The Post and Courier launches Journalism Preservation Society with Charleston Porch Talks series
CHARLESTON — The Post and Courier is launching an initiative called the Journalism Preservation Society and will kick it off in September with a new speaker series, Charleston Porch Talks.
The Journalism Preservation Society will be a membership-driven community focused on supporting The Post and Courier's public service and investigative journalism.
Charleston Porch Talks will be the society's speaker series that will feature acclaimed thought leaders and artists in conversation with the newspaper's award-winning journalists. These conversations will offer audiences a front-row seat to the art of storytelling while reflecting the curiosity and dedication to truth that drives The Post and Courier's newsrooms.
"Charleston Porch Talks brings together exceptional influential voices and quality journalism in service of our community," said PJ Browning, president and publisher of The Post and Courier. "We're excited to launch this innovative series that creates meaningful connections between our readers, Charleston's engaged cultural community and the vital journalism that strengthens our community."
By Kalyn Oyer, The Post and Courier | Read more
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USC's NIL and revenue share records are confidential, and attorney says state law supports it
COLUMBIA — South Carolina is fully participating in the new revenue-sharing era that has engulfed college football. On July 1, the school started paying $20.5 million to the Gamecocks’ student-athletes.
How much, to each sport and each athlete, will remain shrouded in mystery. Multiple Freedom of Information Act requests to USC from The Post and Courier for those records were expectedly rebuffed using exemptions in state law.
Shielding the most intriguing part — the money — is legit, according to South Carolina’s most notable media lawyer.
“The only portion of the record that’s exempt from disclosure is that relating to compensation. To me, it is covered by the law. The rest of it, in my mind, should be made public,” said Jay Bender, attorney for the S.C. Press Association. “The only thing that would appropriately not be subject to FOIA is the specific compensation.”
South Carolina cited a clause in the state’s legislation pertaining to name, image and likeness (NIL) pay, which says “if an institution of higher learning collects, retains or maintains copies or summaries” of NIL contracts it can withhold those documents unless the person requesting those records is “a party” to them.
By David Cloninger, The Post and Courier | Read more
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Beaufort mayor wants ‘arm’s length’ probe of document gaffe as legal issues arise
In a rare move, the Beaufort City Council will meet Monday to consider hiring outside legal counsel to investigate the inadvertent release of 9,000 unredacted documents earlier this month as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.
If approved, the hire would supersede an in-house probe overseen by City Manager Scott Marshall and his team.
Monday’s meeting of the city council, requested by Mayor Phil Cromer, will be at 2:45 p.m.
Cromer told the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet Friday that council members will discuss, in closed session, the hiring of outside legal counsel to assist the city in the investigation. The council will reconvene in public and may vote on a motion to hire attorneys. After that, Cromer said, the council will hear from the public.
Marshall said previously that the city staff had already started investigating how the documents were released. Cromer says he suggested hiring outside counsel because having city leaders in charge could taint the process in the eyes of some residents.
By Karl Puckett, The Island Packet | Read more
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Editorial: Next SC attorney general should be chief enforcer of open government
What have passed for ideas so far in next year’s race for governor have been mostly irresponsible, unworkable, irrelevant or all three. So we were delighted to see one statewide campaign get up and running this past week with a great — and long-overdue — idea.
It’s way too early to draw conclusions about the candidates in any of the June primaries, but it’s never too early to draw conclusions on the ideas they're floating, and we can’t say enough positive about Solicitor David Pascoe’s idea of the state's attorney general aggressively enforcing South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act. Mr. Pascoe floated the idea as part of his pledge to crack down on public corruption.
Politicians and government employees probably violate the FOI law more than any other, nearly always with no consequences — which is why they feel so free to ignore the law’s limits on when they can hold meetings in private and what types of information they can withhold from the public. We have no doubt there’s a violation a day somewhere in South Carolina.
We don’t hear about most of these violations, because most people don’t realize when their rights to know what their government is doing are being abused. Even when they know about it, public officials rarely make amends, because the only enforcement mechanism is a lawsuit, and most people don’t have the money or time to file suit and then stick with it while the offending government drags its feet and racks up heavy legal bills fighting back — knowing all the while that they almost certainly will lose in court.
From The Post and Courier | Read more
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Numbers, name-calling and a FOIA fight: Calhoun Falls meeting boils over
CALHOUN FALLS — Calhoun Falls Town Council meeting Tuesday night quickly unraveled into a mix of overdue transparency, political maneuvering and public outbursts that left little doubt about the stakes in the town’s ongoing financial and leadership struggles. ...
The night ended with a showdown over transparency. As council prepared to enter executive session, the agenda listed only “legal matters”, a vague description that prompted an objection from the press table.
Standing with a South Carolina Press Association reporter’s card in hand, Index-Journal reporter Renee Ortiz addressed the mayor and council directly asking for a more detailed reason for council’s executive session.
“That’s not an option, Mayor. It’s procedure,” Ortiz said. “‘Legal matters’ is too vague, so you cannot go into session. I need specifics. I don’t think that is too much to ask for in a public council meeting. It’s Robert’s Rule of Order.”
Ortiz also handed council members copies of the Public Officials’ Guide to Compliance with South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act, which cites S.C. Code §30-4-70(b).
Under S.C. Code §30-4-70(b), public bodies are required to state the specific purpose for entering executive session before closing a meeting to the public. The statute makes clear that broad phrases such as “legal matters” or “personnel matters” are not sufficient, because they do not inform the public what issue is being discussed behind closed doors. Instead, officials must identify the subject in general but meaningful terms.
For example, councils may cite “legal advice concerning an XYZ lawsuit” or “discussion of the police chief’s contract.”
The law is written to strike a balance: protecting the confidentiality of sensitive discussions while still giving residents and attendees enough information to understand what their elected officials are deliberating about — and whether a public vote may follow.
Despite Ortiz’s request, applause from the audience, and the FOIA guidance in front of them, council and Holland did not comply. They voted to move into executive session citing only “legal matters,” without providing the required, more detailed reason.
By Renee Ortiz, Index-Journal | Read more
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Lack of local news tied to government secrecy, new report says
The loss of local news is linked with increased government secrecy, according to a new study conducted by the Brechner Center for the Advancement of the First Amendment at the University of Florida.
The findings lend the first empirical evidence to the connection long intuited between the declining health of local news ecosystems and decreased government transparency. They add to the growing body of research that demonstrates the impact of news deserts on democracy, including increased partisanship, lower voter participation, and diminished civic engagement.
“Where there are no newspapers and weakened newspaper systems, government secrecy is flourishing,” said David Cuillier, director of the Freedom of Information Project at the Brechner Center and author of the report. “Government officials see that journalists are hurting, and they’re taking advantage of that.”
To measure transparency, Cuillier and his colleague Brett Posner-Ferdman, a law student at Penn State, requested the same seven records from 44 state governments under each state’s public records law. They found that the states with fewer newspapers per capita were more likely to deny or ignore their requests. They also found that responsiveness to requests improved in states with stronger press associations. Overall, about a quarter of requests were fully complied with, while another quarter were outright denied or not responded to.
By John Volk, Medill Local News Initiative | Read more
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You can’t rebuild local journalism without local newspapers
The data is in, and it’s hard to ignore.
According to the recently released Local Journalist Index, the number of local reporters serving American communities has declined by more than 75% since 2002. One in three counties now has fewer than one full-time local journalist. Hundreds of communities have no local reporter at all.
This is not just a media story. It’s a real problem for the communities without local news. When no one is covering school boards, city councils, public budgets or community health decisions, the public is left uninformed — and unrepresented.
That’s why the latest announcement from Press Forward — the nation’s largest philanthropic funder of local news — was met with equal parts optimism and concern. Their new Infrastructure 2025 initiative will inject millions into local news, focusing on technology, training and support for emerging digital and nonprofit models. But notably missing from the list of priorities? Local newspapers. And that’s a serious oversight.
Despite being the most visible and established local news presence in most communities, newspapers are typically left out of major funding efforts. The focus, instead, is on digital startups, new platforms and toolkits designed to support emerging models. The problem? You can’t rebuild local journalism at scale while sidelining the organizations still doing the work.
Trust isn’t the issue — local newspapers have it.
According to the 2024 Trust in Media Study conducted by America’s Newspapers and Coda Ventures, local newspapers are the most trusted news source in the country. Readers rank them highest for transparency, ethical standards and connection to their communities — qualities that are critical in an environment saturated with misinformation and national polarization.
This kind of trust can’t be manufactured with a grant or a platform. It’s earned — and in the case of newspapers, it’s already built. That gives newspapers a unique advantage: they aren’t trying to break into communities. They’re already there.
From America's Newspapers | Read more
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