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Your connection to industry & member news | June 2, 2022
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Need a refresher on political advertising rules?
SCPA has several advertising guides available if you’re ever unsure about an ad.
With election season in mind, here’s a refresher on political advertising for S.C. newspapers.
Political advertising is subject to legal requirements not found in non-political advertising. Those requirements are concerned with disclosure of the sponsor of the advertising and the rate charged for the advertising space. Before determining which requirements must be met, you must first determine if the advertising relates to a federal candidate or a candidate seeking state or local office.
If you have any questions about an ad’s content or advertising rules, give SCPA a call at (803) 750-9561.
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Friday is deadline to return distribution affidavits, place ads in 2022-23 DirectoryThe 2022-23 S.C. Media Directory is going to press next month.
If you have not returned your 2022 distribution and printers affidavits (free), AAM or CVC audit (paid) or 2021 USPS Statement of Ownership (paid), please submit your forms to SCPA by Friday.
Friday is also the deadline to reserve ad space in the Directory, an important reference tool that includes detailed information on the state's newspapers. Rates are affordable and can help promote your message to ad agencies, legislators, business leaders, fellow SCPA members and press associations across the Southeast.
If you'd like to place an ad in the Directory or have questions about your affidavits, please contact Kassidy.
Publishers will receive listing proofs in the next two weeks.
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The News celebrated 50 years of service to the Kingstree community last Thursday. SCPA Co-Executive Director Randall Savely presented Publisher Tami Rodgers with a commemorative plaque to celebrate the occasion.
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Meet our SCPA Foundation interns
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Stephen PastisThe State
Stephen Pastis is a multimedia journalism major and a political science minor at the University of a South Carolina. He grew up in Charleston, but is a Florida native who has lived all over the Southeast. He is the son of Nicholas Pastis and Grayson Butler-Pastis.
Pastis is an editor at UofSC’s student newspaper, The Daily Gamecock, and has written for other Columbia publications like ColaDaily.com and the Free Times. He is interested in politics, business, culture and technology reporting, as well as photojournalism and data journalism.
He’s a pop culture fan and loves stories that highlight the cultural intersections between spheres like technology and art. In his free time, he’s probably watching a movie or researching a new interest.
“Being awarded the SCPA Foundation internship means the world to me,” Pastis said. “I’ve found my greatest passion in journalism, and I want to spend the rest of my life shedding light on injustices and giving a voice to those who have none. I can’t wait to be in a newsroom like The State and learn from the professionals I read every day.”
Invest in the future of our industry
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| "A different kind of pandemic" by Robert Ariail
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If you can't get enough of award-winning Camden cartoonist Robert Ariail, enjoy his new strip featured every week in the Charleston City Paper, which has granted us ongoing permission to republish it. Called "Lowcountry," the weekly feature, which is available for syndication in South Carolina newspapers, focuses on politics, human nature, the environment and public policy. More: Contact publisher Andy Brack.
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Greenwood Chamber board ousts Heegan as president
Barbara Ann Heegan no longer heads the Greenwood S.C. Chamber of Commerce after the board of directors voted Tuesday to oust her.
In an email Tuesday afternoon, Chamber Board Chairperson Kristin Manske said Heegan was no longer with the Chamber as of 11:15 a.m. She said the decision was made by majority vote from the board.
A call to the phone number Heegan had used prior to Tuesday went unanswered, and a reporter was unable to reach her at her home for comment.
The news of Heegan’s ousting came a week after the board met and subsequently voted to meet with her to discuss her at-will employment. After nearly two hours behind closed doors in an executive session discussion, the board voted 8-10 on a motion to have Manske meet with Heegan — Manske later said the motion’s failure indicated the board would rather meet in full with Heegan for this discussion.
The board also met in April and voted to contract out the South Carolina Festival of Flowers. The board discussed media presence at that meeting, and Manske said the Index-Journal was welcome to its meetings following the resolution of April’s discussions. Despite being a private nonprofit, the Chamber of Commerce receives funding from taxpayer-funded groups such as the city and county governments of Greenwood, and its meetings should be subject to the state Freedom of Information Act.
By Damian Dominguez, Index-Journal | Read more
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Index-Journal announces changes to its print schedule
Various factors have converged to create a perfect storm we have all come to know as inflation.
From the restaurant meals we all eat to the products we buy for home and personal use, from homes to automobiles and to fuel itself, costs have gone up.
For as long as possible, the Index-Journal has absorbed the escalating costs of bringing you your daily community newspaper. But no business can continue that path for long, which is why today we announce a necessary change in the delivery method of your daily community newspaper.
The Index-Journal will be published in print and digitally on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and effective with the Tuesday, June 7 edition, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the newspaper will be published only digitally as our electronic or e-edition.
Continued rising costs associated with the production and delivery of a printed product have forced us to alter our business model by either passing on our increased costs of production and delivery by raising subscription and/or advertising rates, or by reducing print days in order to save on expenses. Because we advocate for transparency in the public’s business, we want to be equally transparent in explaining our difficult business decision.
The cost of raw newsprint cost has increased 30% since this time last year. Ink has rocketed in cost by 55%, year-over-year while the plates and chemicals used to create the pages printed on that newsprint have climbed by 10%. Our carrier delivery costs have climbed by 20% since this time last year and, as all of you are aware, fuel costs have continued their sharp rise — 49% year-over-year.
From Index-Journal | Read more
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Changes coming to Greenville News opinion pages: We'll focus on local voices
The Greenville News' opinion pages historically have been the place where our community has gathered, if metaphorically, to talk about issues important to them.
As the way we communicate has changed over the past 15 years, the role of the newspaper opinion page has changed.
More and more, people have taken to other avenues to voice their opinions. And national voices have begun to dominate our once-local pages.
None of that changes the fact that we still are uniquely positioned to encourage debate on local issues. We can do that by bringing knowledgeable news coverage and informed opinions to you, and then allowing you to debate issues in a civilized way on our news pages and our websites.
Moving forward, that will be our focus in Greenville and in our sister newsroom in Spartanburg.
We'll focus on local opinion content one day per week. We'll hone in on the topics that matter most to you in a way that is intensely Greenville.
We'll deliver local experts' opinions on issues that are important to our community and state.
We'll give local readers the opportunity to weigh in on those issues.
That conversation can then help inform our news coverage. And that coverage can fuel further discussion.
By Steve Bruss, Greenville News | Read more
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| Please let us know about your new hires, retirements and promotions
so we can share your news in the eBulletin!
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Join the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America on YouTube, June 3-4
... How do rural communities sustain local journalism that supports local democracy? That is the question we aim to answer, or at least start answering at the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, to be livestreamed on YouTube from 1:15 to 5 p.m. Friday, June 3, and 9 a.m. until late afternoon Saturday, June 4. You can watch it and submit comments and questions here.
Friday, June 3 | 1:15-5 p.m.
- The state of America’s community newspapers and their journalism
- Reports from leaders of the community newspaper industry
- Putting local philanthropy in your business model
- Converting your newspaper(s) to nonprofit status
Saturday, June 4 | Starting at 9 a.m.
- Good journalism is good business, but how do we make people want local news?
- How two community newspapers are adapting to change
- Innovation at other community newspapers
- National funders and supporters on help for rural journalism
- A university-nonprofit team saves a weekly paper
- New business models for community newspapers, and a plan to test one
- What other research is needed to help community journalism?
By Al Cross, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues | Read more
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| Compelling Writing by Jerry Bellune
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By Jerry Bellune,
Writing Coach
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| Colorful language makes your readers pay attention
Compelling writers make frequent use of allusions, metaphors and similes to paint pictures.
The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay described coach Urban Meyer after a losing game:
He carries himself like a kid being forced to wear a collared shirt to a wedding. If there was an award for desultory body language, he would win in a landslide.
A dead-eyed Meyer could barely manage a handshake with Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel. He held the bearing of a man who’d come home to a flooded basement.
In Giving Good Weight, journalist John McPhee opened his story in The New Yorker:
You people come into the market – the Greenmarket in the open air under the downpouring sun – and you slit the tomatoes with your fingernails. With your thumbs, you excavate the cheese. You pulp the nectarines and rape the sweet corn.
From the front lines in Italy, World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote:
I was at the foot of the mule trail the night they brought Capt. Waskow down. The moon was nearly full and you could see far up the trail. Soldiers made shadows as they walked.
Dead men had been coming down the mountain all evening, lashed onto the backs of mules. They came belly down across the wooden back saddle, their heads hanging down on the left side of the mule, their stiffened legs sticking awkwardly from the other side, bobbing up and down as the mule walked.
Now try it yourself and email me a copy. Thanks.
Next: What’s on Your Readers’ Minds?
For more on reporting, writing and editing lise thid, read writing coach Jerry Bellune’s The Art of Compelling Writing, available for $9.99 at Amazon.com.
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|  As a service to its member newspapers, SCPA lists employment opportunities on our site upon request. There is no charge for this service to SCPA member newspapers. Please email openings to Kassidy Wright.
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