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Your connection to industry & member news | Nov. 6, 2025
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 | From left, The Post and Courier's Chief Opportunity and Marketing Officer Chris Zoeller poses with Author Elin Hilderbrand, Post and Courier’s Publisher and President PJ Browning and Polly Buxton of Buxton Books at the inaugural Charleston Porch Talks event on Sept. 18, 2025. (Photo credit: Paul Zoeller)
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| How The Post and Courier turns community support into journalism fundingEvery news outlet relies on exceptional journalism and a well-executed business and revenue model to attract readers and advertisers and build a sustainable future. However, success in today’s news environment also requires robust community engagement.
PJ Browning, publisher and president of the Charleston (South Carolina) Post and Courier, along with its other leaders and news staff, has been very active in cultivating a stronger bond with the community — both to support journalism financially and to promote its importance in a democracy. In 2021, it launched the Journalism Preservation Fund, and more than 2,200 people have donated in just four years.
That success motivated the Post and Courier to introduce the Journalism Preservation Society in September 2025. It is a membership model, similar to those other news outlets utilize to boost financial support and community engagement.
“We seek grants and host a year-end Journalism Preservation fundraiser, but it was time to take these efforts to the next level with the Society. We’ve set a goal of 2,000 Society members in our first year and to raise $1.25 million,” Browning said.
The Fund and now the Society support the Post and Courier’s investigative journalists, its “Rising Waters” series of climate stories of the South and its Education Lab in support of South Carolina schools.
“Our general subscriptions support much of the newsroom operations, but long-form investigative journalism and reporting for our labs is expensive, often requiring six months to a year of work. We haven’t laid off any investigative and lab reporters; instead, we’ve increased Education Lab coverage. We also onboarded 33 interns this fall as part of our statewide internship program, which is either funded or through scholarship programs,” Browning added.
Of the many benefits of a Society membership, the first Charleston Porch Talks, a new speaker series, was a tremendous success with a sold-out crowd of 600 people — triple what the Post and Courier expected. The Sept. 18 event featured author Elin Hilderbrand. Her 30 novels, based on the beach life near her Nantucket home, have sold more than 20 million books worldwide and gained her recognition as the “queen of beach reads.”
By Bob Sillick for E&P Magazine | Read more
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|  | Thanks to South Carolina's journalists and newspaper staffers who did an excellent job covering local election matters for the past several weeks! We appreciate all you've done to inform South Carolinians about local races and issues.
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Jordan Lawrence named Columbia editor of The Post and Courier
COLUMBIA — With over a decade of experience reporting in the Midlands, Jordan Lawrence has been named Columbia editor of The Post and Courier.
“I’m really excited to keep continuing doing this work in a city that I love. I think Columbia is just a fascinating place. It's kind of always aspiring, never quite becoming, but in a way that I find quite charming. There’s never really a time in which you feel Columbia is done. Columbia kind of keeps making itself over and over again, and I love getting to follow that,” Lawrence said.
A Spartanburg native, Lawrence attended UNC Chapel Hill before moving to Columbia in 2014, when he joined Free Times as the music editor.
Lawrence moved through the ranks, eventually taking over in 2019 as the managing editor. That experience led to a shift away from music journalism to hard news.
“It’s not a change I ever saw coming out of college,” Lawrence said. He admitted that even in his music writing he was always drawn to exploring the business side of the industry.
By Chloe Barlow, The Post and Courier | Read more
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Josh Dawsey receives USC Alumni Association award
Josh Dawsey, USC '12, is this year's recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the USC Alumni Association.
Dawsey is a political investigations and enterprise reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the co-author of the New York Times bestseller “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America.”
He most recently worked as a political enterprise and investigations reporter for The Washington Post. He joined the Post in 2017 and previously covered the White House. Josh was part of a team of journalists who won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2022 for the newspaper’s coverage of Jan. 6 and won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the newspaper’s coverage of the role of the AR-15 in American life. He also is a two-time recipient of the White House Correspondents Association award for news reporting. He is also a lecturer at the Allbritton Journalism Institute.
Josh is a proud graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications, South Carolina Honors College and the enthusiastic owner of a rambunctious rescue dog named Pepper.
[At USC, he served as editor of The Daily Gamecock and was named SCPA’s Collegiate Journalist of the Year and served as an SCPA Foundation intern at The Island Packet.] Read more
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|  | SCPA staff celebrated Halloween last Friday with our annual Halloweenies lunch party.
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Scoppe: USC’s razzle-dazzle defense: Look! Name, image and likeness.
The comedian Groucho Marx is remembered for his story about being caught in an amorous embrace and demanding of his angry wife: “Who you gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes?”
Except it wasn’t Groucho Marx who told that joke, but maybe his brother, maybe while playing a character, and in any event the idea that anyone would be so audacious as to expect people to ignore what they’ve seen for what he falsely claims has become a lot less funny in the past few years.
Still, the line keeps popping into my head as the University of South Carolina fights a lawsuit by Mount Pleasant businessman Frank Heindel, who wants to have a look with his own eyes at how the college is spending $20.5 million in public funds via revenue-sharing agreements with some of its athletes.
Through briefs filed in the run-up to an Oct. 10 hearing, arguments at that hearing, an affidavit that S.C. Circuit Judge Daniel Coble ordered the university to produce for his private review and now a motion asking the judge to revoke his order that the school give a copy of the affidavit to Mr. Heindel, USC is pursuing a two-pronged defense. The second is, “Look: Name, image and license contracts!” The first is, essentially: “Who you gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes?”
By Cindi Ross Scoppe, The Post and Courier | Read more
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Editorial: Police sex assault case is another reason to stop hiding SC body-cam images
South Carolina taxpayers have spent many millions of dollars outfitting police with body-worn cameras, but law enforcement agencies have never used the recordings as an effective check on misconduct.
Oh, they use them to prove suspects really did commit crimes, which is one of the two major benefits of the cameras, along with the cameras mounted on the dashboards of police vehicles.
But there are times when it’s the police who misbehave, and too few law enforcement agencies have policies in place (and enforced) to identify those instances. ...
Lawmakers also can abolish the law that leaves it totally to the discretion of police and solicitors whether to make body-cam footage available to the public. Current law makes dash-cam video available except in limited instances. But while the Legislature said it passed a mandate and funding for body-cams in order to hold police accountable when they do something wrong and exonerate them when they don’t, the special secrecy law undermines the first goal.
From The Post and Courier | Read more
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Mayesville CDC files motion to reconsider days before failing to meet judge's deadline
Town of Mayesville's Community Development Corporation, headed by former town councilman Ed Miller, again failed to produce public records requested under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act by United Citizens of Mayesville - this time, missing a court ordered deadline - and instead filed a motion for the judge to reconsider his ruling because of claims made in the nonprofit's order having "great prejudicial impact" on the CDC.
According to court records, United Citizens submitted a written FOI request on July 17 seeking seven documents, including three years of income and expenditures, an accounting of government grant money received, copies of grant awards letters, CDC charters and bylaws, 990 filings, a summary of employee compensation and conflict of interest disclosure statements.
TOMCDC Executive Director Miller, who founded the nonprofit alongside former Mayor Jereleen Hollimon-Miller, acknowledged the request on July 30 and requested an extension, according to court records. United Citizens agreed to the extended deadline but only for records older than two years; 24 months of financial records and 990 filings must be provided within the required timeline, according to the order.
Nearly a month later, on Aug. 27, Miller quoted a cost of $5,200 to fulfill the request, stating he was "the lowest paid employee capable of fulfilling this FOIA request" and that the estimate included "copy costs, particularly for large-scale or specialized documents." According to Rep. Spencer Wetmore (D-Charleston), attorney for United Citizens, no such documents were requested.
By Alaysha Maple, The Sumter Item | Read more
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|  Get a head start on your holiday shopping! Here are two great gift options for your favorite SC journalist!
Jen's FOIA & Find Out t-shirt is available in all sizes for $15 (plus $5 shipping). Sales benefit our friends at the National Freedom of Information Coalition. SCPA is NFOIC's South Carolina coalition. Order here!
While we don't have Jay's shirt in stock, we now have several "Free Press, Free People" yard signs at our office. Signs are $20 each, with proceeds benefitting the William C. Rogers Freedom of Information Fund. Swing by SCPA to pick up a sign.
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Gannett enters a new era, company renamed USA TODAY Co.
NEW YORK ‒ For the first time since 1923, Gannett Co., Inc. is changing its name. The media company, whose content reaches one in two Americans daily, is now known as USA TODAY Co.
The announcement was made by USA TODAY Media President Kristin Roberts and Chief Communications and Brand Officer Lark-Marie Antón on the main stage at ADWEEK’s Brandweek 2025 in Atlanta on Nov. 4. Brandweek is a forum where marketing leaders and industry experts discuss timely branding issues and opportunities facing the future of branding.
By Ralphie Aversa, USA TODAY | Read more
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'Always a joy:' Neighbors remember former Aiken reporter Rob Novit
Friends and co-workers of the late Rob Novit are remembering the longtime newspaper reporter this week, learning that the Walterboro native died at age 76 Nov. 4 in Charleston. He had been in an assisted-living facility for the past several years, following his Aiken years (2001-2016), when he focused largely on education and politics.
"He was a very interesting and unusual person," said retiree David Boyd, who worked for the Aiken Standard in information technology, helping keep computers and phones functional.
"He was obviously very dedicated to what he did. His commitment to his writing and journalism was sincere and … there was a lot of humor in it, because he approached things in a way that was a little unusual," Boyd added.
"He was not a technical person, and when I would explain technical issues to him, he would sometimes give me that look of disbelief. He was one of those individuals who wanted things to work the way he expected them to work, and that's not necessarily the way they actually work, but he was always a joy, and it was never difficult to assist him with this technology."
Boyd described former Aiken Standard editor Tim O'Briant as having been instrumental in helping Novit recover from a stroke he suffered in 2012.
O'Briant, who is now Pickens' city administrator, said, "Community was everything to Rob. He had a passion for education and for the people of the communities he served, and he lived entirely through them. Beyond self, he celebrated everybody else's stories, and he wanted to make sure that they were told, and he always faded into the background, but he was a keen observer of life and love and all kinds of passions for the people he saw around him."
He also recalled the humorous side. "We all remember that Rob could remember everybody's name and everybody's phone number that he had ever called, but he couldn't keep up with his equipment and left it everywhere."
O'Briant and Novit were longtime friends, as the two had worked together in Walterboro, where Novit worked at The Press and Standard, Colleton County's newspaper, from 1971 until O'Briant invited him to Aiken. Novit's first day at the Standard was Sept. 10, 2001 — one day before a pivotal moment in U.S. history.
Boyd pointed out that Novit's recovery from a stroke was particularly remarkable, in that the injury was to the brain area that controls language and communication. The wordsmith, however, "came back, and that was an inspiration to me," Boyd said.
"I thought it was incredible," Boyd said, adding with a laugh that O'Briant and Novit were "conspirators in journalism."
By Bill Bengtson, Aiken Standard | Read more
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‘The keeper of the vibe’: Remembering Lisa Willis, the heart and soul of Free Times for 31 years
COLUMBIA — For more than 30 years, Lisa Willis was the heart and soul of Free Times.
“She was the calm of the sea,” said Amy Singmaster, the paper’s founder and publisher from 1987 to 2004.
Jen Coody, who worked with Lisa for more than 12 years, recalled that Lisa wore “every hat” for Free Times. She was the page designer, production manager, ad layout specialist, art director, branding maestro and, according to former editor Jordan Lawrence, “keeper of the vibe.”
She died Oct. 29 after a battle with cancer. She’s remembered by her parents, George and Jo Ella Willis; her brother, George Jr.; two nephews; a niece; her dogs and parrot; and the friends and coworkers whose lives she made better on an almost daily basis.
“She was one of the best listeners ever,” said Cindy Symonds, one of Lisa’s best friends for more than 30 years. “And she was so non-judgmental. She never blinked an eye at anything.”
Lisa designed thousands of Free Times covers, hundreds of special sections, created the logo we still use today and created the visual branding for programming like Music Crawl, Best of Columbia and the Columbia Food and Wine Festival.
“There would be no Free Times as we know it today if it weren't for Lisa Willis,” said Bernie Heller, publisher of Free Times and The Post and Courier Columbia.
Former editor Dan Cook, who worked with Lisa from 1998 to 2016, agreed: “She was the heart and soul” of Free Times.
By Zoe Nicholson, Free Times/The Post and Courier Columbia | Read more
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