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Your connection to industry & member news | Sept. 10, 2026
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Celebrate National Newspaper Week Oct. 4-10Every newspaper serves a different community, but together we share the same purpose: keeping people informed, preserving the public record and protecting the public’s right to know.
The platforms will change. Technology will change.
The need for trusted local journalism won’t.
Join newspapers across North America in celebrating National Newspaper Week Oct. 4-10.
Since 1940, Newspaper Association Managers (NAM) has sponsored and supported National Newspaper Week, a week-long promotion of the newspaper industry in the United States and Canada.
Newspapers inform their communities, hold government accountable and tell the stories no one else will. That commitment is at the heart of National Newspaper Week 2026 and this year’s theme: “Rooted in Community, Committed to Truth.”
Use National Newspaper Week as an opportunity to remind your community why local journalism matters. While you're encouraged to write a local Op-ed or special feature, you can also share the ads, columns, cartoons and games shared by the NAM. View and download deliverables here.
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|  SCPA members are invited to attend an in-person roundtable where we’ll discuss all things digital! Join us Friday, Oct. 2, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m., at SCPA Offices in Columbia. This will be a great time to meet with your peers for robust discussion about the evolving digital news media landscape! Whether you publish a newspaper that uses digital platforms or are an online news publication, this event is for you. Learn more and register here.
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Editorial: SC’s no-deadline, no-enforcement charter law is a formula for failure
Standing up a new program takes some time, so charter schools’ inability to get their budget, audits and other financial records online by the start the school year doesn’t necessarily tell us they’re refusing to comply with a new state law that makes it absolutely clear (we believe it was already clear) that they have to share that information with the public, since we fund them.
But the fact is that while the idea behind charter schools remains completely sound and some of them do a wonderful job, there’s a large contingent in South Carolina that have decided they’re not going to be bothered with state law.
They came by this naturally. The first private charter school authorizer — which, to be clear, lawmakers never intended to authorize — got its start doing some legally questionable end-runs around state law to rescue charters that were supposed to shut down because they were consistently failing their students. Closing poor performing schools, after all, is a key component of the charter school model.
The same thing happened with the second private charter authorizer, which in turn rescued some of those first failing charters from the first private authorizer, which decided belatedly that it wanted to make its schools give kids a decent education. That second authorizer, Limestone University, eventually went bankrupt, and its schools either closed or were transferred to another authorizer. There’s a third one now that we hope won’t go the way of the first two.
It’s against that backdrop of failure that, as The Post and Courier’s Anna B. Mitchell reports, charter schools are failing to provide basic information to the public.
From The Post and Courier | Read more
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Lawsuit argues SC Ports’ payout to former CEO violated state law
A lawsuit filed in Charleston County accuses the S.C. State Ports Authority of disregarding state laws on open meetings and public records in its handling of a nearly $1 million severance package for the maritime agency’s former director.
Frank Heindel, a retired Mount Pleasant businessman and long-time public records activist, filed the suit this week. He claims the authority violated both the state’s Freedom of Information Act and separate law governing the Ports Authority when its board of directors failed to take a public vote to approve the August 2025 severance for Barbara Melvin, the maritime agency’s former president and CEO.
State law requires the authority to publicly vote on compensation — including severance — for the agency’s executive director and division directors.
The board did not approve any resolution or take any public action approving Melvin’s severance when she abruptly resigned on Aug. 21, 2025, two days after the board held an unscheduled executive session for which the purpose was never disclosed. That, too, violated state law, the lawsuit argues.
The authority declined to comment on the lawsuit.
According to court records, authority lawyer Randy Lowell said the board was not required to take any action because the severance amount was less than what Melvin’s employment contract called for.
Heindel said in his lawsuit that the employment contract did not specify any severance owed unless the resignation was for good reason. Melvin did not say in her resignation letter that her resignation was for good reason, and Heindel said the severance package amounted to newly created executive compensation requiring a public vote.
By David Wren, SC Daily Gazette | Read more
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Trump administration says a New York Times win in OpenAI lawsuit would “threaten national security” and hurt small newsrooms
On [Sept. 2], the Trump administration threw its support behind OpenAI, backing the AI giant in its ongoing litigation with The New York Times. The Department of Justice voiced its support through a statement of interest (SOI) filed with the Manhattan judge overseeing the case, which includes several other plaintiffs, including daily papers owned by Alden Global Capital, high-profile book authors, and smaller nonprofit newsrooms like The Intercept.
The filing says the DOJ’s decision to intervene is an attempt to ensure that American AI companies remain “competitive” and are free to “develop a robust AI industry.”
The filing makes grand pronouncements about the harms that could come from a ruling in favor of The New York Times and the other plaintiffs in the news industry. A court finding that training large language models on copyrighted material isn’t covered by “fair use,” the DOJ says, would “threaten national security,” “give a competitive advantage to foreign adversaries,” and thwart “creative and scientific progress while hindering American prosperity.”
“The Administration is siding with a handful of trillion-dollar companies at the expense of the countless American creators whose work they stole,” said Graham James, a spokesperson for the Times, in a statement. “Both AI and creators can thrive — AI companies simply need to pay fairly for the content that makes their products possible, as copyright law requires.”
By Andrew Deck, Neiman Lab | Read more
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News Media Help Desk offers digital help for local news organizations
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First-party data is the most important asset a newsroom can build
... First-party data is information a newsroom collects directly through its own products and interactions with its audience. This includes newsletter registrations, memberships, donations, surveys, event RSVPs, stated preferences, comments, and on-site behavior collected in accordance with applicable privacy requirements. It is a record of the relationships a newsroom has built for itself, rather than the traffic a platform chooses to send its way.
Unlike a search referral, these signals emerge from relationships a newsroom can continue to develop independently of shifts in platform distribution. Google can change its algorithm. An AI-generated summary can omit a citation. A social platform can reduce the reach of publisher content. But those changes do not sever the newsroom’s connection to a reader who has subscribed to a newsletter, become a member, or registered for an event.
When organized and interpreted well, first-party data can help a newsroom answer the questions that matter most to its future: Who are our most committed readers? Which content builds lasting relationships rather than generating one-time visits? Which relationships are deepening, and which are weakening? What do our most engaged supporters value that we are not yet delivering? Who is at risk of lapsing, and what might persuade them to stay?
These are strategic questions, but they are also questions of product, editorial judgment, and revenue. A pageview dashboard alone cannot answer them. The uncomfortable reality is that many newsrooms already collect substantial first-party data but lack the ability to assemble it into a coherent view of their audience.
By Nakita Roy, Reynolds Journalism Institute | Read more
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 | By Jim Pumarlo, Newspaper Consultant
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| Are you writing for your customers?
Customer service is paramount in business. At newspapers, that means being attentive to details in all aspects of operations from prompt service for advertisers to quick turnaround on news releases to on-time delivery of products.
Does your newsroom have customers in mind? Are you focused on substantive content? When has your staff last evaluated news reports? Those conversations should be center stage as newspapers compete for market share in today’s fragmented media landscape.
I recognize community newspapers – all newspapers – are increasingly stretched for resources. That’s no excuse, however, for ignoring the tenets of sound journalism. Reports must be current and relevant to promote your products as the go-to source for local information.
How are these examples fulfilling that message, serving customers? Read more
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