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Your connection to industry & member news | April 10, 2025
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Editor's Note: There will not be an eBulletin next week. We'll be back on April 24.
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Seneca Journal General Manager to lead state press associationHal Welch, general manager of The Journal in Seneca, has been elected president of the S.C. Press Association after a vote of the Press Association’s membership.
"I’ve had the privilege of working with the South Carolina Press Association for more than a decade going back to my time in Walterboro. I look forward to the opportunity to work with Jen, Randall, and the other board members to advance the causes for newspapers around this state,” Welch said.
In addition to his leadership role at The Journal, Welch also serves as Chief Operating Officer for Edwards Media Group, also based in Seneca.
Welch began his newspaper career at The Daytona Beach (FL) News-Journal in Daytona Beach in 2000. Having served stints in Daytona, Athens (GA), Valdosta (GA), Walterboro, (SC), and the last 15 years in Seneca, Welch brings a unique skillset to the press association. His newspaper in Seneca has won first place in General Excellence four times since 2015 including 2024 and 2025. He also manages six newspapers and 13 radio stations in Michigan and Wyoming as the C.O.O. of The Edwards Group.
Welch succeeds Nathaniel Abraham Jr., publisher of Carolina Panorama in Columbia. Read more
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SCPA awards top honors at Annual Meeting
President’s Awards for Excellence:
Daily
- Division A: The Post and Courier
- Division B: The Sun News
- Division C: The Sumter Item
Weekly
- Division D: The Post and Courier Myrtle Beach/Georgetown Times
- Division E: Coastal Observer
- Division F: The News & Reporter
Journalist of the Year:- Daily Winner: Tony Bartelme, The Post and Courier
- Weekly Winner: Travis Jenkins, The News & Reporter
Photojournalist of the Year: - Ken Ruinard, Independent-Mail
Jay Bender Assertive Journalism Award:- Daily Winner: David Weissman, The Sun News
- Weekly Winner: Alexandra Whitbeck, The People Sentinel
Montgomery/Shurr FOI Award:- Daily First Place Winner: The Post and Courier
- Daily Honorable Mentions:
- Zak Koeske, The State
- Elizabeth Brewer, The Sun News
- Weekly First Place Winner: Travis Jenkins, The News & Reporter
- Weekly Second Place Winner: The Gaffney Ledger
Jim Davenport Award for Excellence in Government Reporting:- Barbara Ball, The Voice of Blythewood and Fairfield County
Ken Baldwin Award for Excellence in Business Journalism:- Weekly Winner: Charles D. Perry, The Post and Courier Myrtle Beach/Georgetown Time
- Daily Winner: Jessica Holdman, South Carolina Daily Gazette
A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism- First Place: David Weissman, The Sun News
- Second Place: Cynthia Beasley, WIS News 10
- Third Place: Zak Koeske, The State
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| View Annual Meeting photos
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Check out photos from the Annual Meeting! You can view and download here:
Special thanks to Gwinn, Sydney and Nickolas for capturing this special event!
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Hubert D. Osteen Jr. inducted into Hall of FameHubert Duvall Osteen Jr., the late editor and publisher of The Sumter Item, was inducted into the S.C. Journalism Hall of Fame on April 4 at the Annual Meeting and Awards Presentation. Eighty-one journalists – from the 1700s to the present – have been chosen for this recognition.
Osteen loved newspapers, but he especially appreciated the hard work of the many talented and colorful people who produced The Sumter Item throughout his life.
From wide-eyed new reporters to hardened, ink-stained pressmen, he worked alongside them all throughout a long and successful career in Sumter.
Born in 1936, he came of age watching his father and grandfather actively lead The Sumter Item on a daily basis, telling the stories of a community and encouraging its growth and progress through community news and advertising.
Osteen, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 84, was part of an iconic generation of American journalists who participated in and helped guide the progression of the newspaper industry from linotype and offset printing to the digital age of today.
He served as President of SCPA in 1977.
Please read more about this remarkable leader.
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SCPA welcomes new members
SCPA's Executive Committee voted April 3, to approve the following membership applications:
- Monthly Newspaper Member: Island Vibes
- Online News Publications:
- Columbia Urban Broadcast Network (CUBNSC)
- GoFountainInn.com - Associate Members:
- Mount Pleasant Magazine
- Charleston Women - Individual Member: Mark David Susko
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| Thanks 2025 Annual Meeting Sponsors!
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AP wins reinstatement to White House events after judge rules government can’t bar its journalists
A federal judge ordered the White House on Tuesday to restore The Associated Press’ full access to cover presidential events, affirming on First Amendment grounds that the government cannot punish the news organization for the content of its speech.
U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled that the government can’t retaliate against the AP’s decision not to follow the president’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico. The decision, while a preliminary injunction, handed the AP a major victory at a time the White House has been challenging the press on several levels.
“Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists—be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere—it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints,” McFadden wrote. “The Constitution requires no less.”
By David Bauder, Associated Press | Read more
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Whiting retires as Index-Journal executive editor
[The morning of March 27] marked a significant milestone in the career of longtime Index-Journal Executive News Editor Richard Whiting.
He stepped into the newspaper building at 610 Phoenix St. in Greenwood for the last time as an employee. Thursday afternoon, Whiting exited the building, beginning his well-earned retirement from a 45-year career as a journalist.
Upon graduating from Wesleyan College (now North Carolina Wesleyan University) in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Whiting began his journalism career in 1980 at the Rocky Mount Telegram, where he began as a writer and worked his way into a managing editor role within 10 years.
Whiting then joined the newsroom at the Florence Morning News, eventually becoming the assistant managing editor.
In August of 1999, he began his nearly 26-year career with the Index-Journal, first as the paper’s managing editor. In 2005, then-Index-Journal Publisher Judith M. Burns promoted Whiting to executive news editor, and, in 2009, he was named executive editor, making him only the fifth editor in the family-owned newspaper’s 107-year history.
Under Whiting’s leadership, the Index-Journal’s newsroom has excelled in providing local news and information to Greenwood and surrounding communities.
Between 2011 and 2022, the newspaper’s staff earned six President’s Awards for Excellence from the South Carolina Press Association (SCPA). The award is given annually at the SCPA’s annual awards meeting by circulation division size to the newspapers with the overall best performance as voted on by peer journalists in other states.
Those six President’s Awards for Excellence represent numerous first, second, and third place awards given to many Index-Journal staff members for their work in reporting, photography, and newspaper design.
The SCPA recognized Whiting for his writing, and he earned multiple awards, to include the Montgomery Award for Freedom of Information (FOI), E.A. Ramsaur Award for Editorial Writing, first place recognitions for editorials/columns in support of FOI and open government, and in the categories for column and humor column writing, obituary story, and short story.
From Index-Journal | Read more
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Newsprint continues to be exempt from administration tariffs
Last week President Trump announced a sweeping new set of reciprocal tariffs on goods from a variety of countries. However, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) compliant goods, including newsprint and magazine paper, will continue to be exempt from both the 25% tariffs imposed on goods from Canada and Mexico, and the additional 10% baseline tariff announced.
In the event the existing fentanyl/migration International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA) orders are terminated, USMCA compliant goods would continue to receive preferential treatment, while non-USMCA compliant goods would be subject to a 12% reciprocal tariff.
By Holly Lubart, News/Media Alliance | Read more
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New Ad Campaign: Support Responsible AI
The News/Media Alliance is excited to announce the launch of a new “Support Responsible AI” campaign.
This campaign is focused on the need to make Big Tech and AI companies pay for the content that they take from publishers. The launch is April 7-13, but news organizations are welcome to rotate between the four ads through the end of the month.
Ads are offered in various sizes and formats, both print and digital. You can access and download all ad variants here.
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Four questions every digital media salesperson must ask
... Effective digital media sales professionals don’t start by pitching solutions; they begin by asking the right questions. Uncovering a client’s motivations, goals and priorities can position your offerings as the perfect fit.
Here are four essential questions every digital salesperson must ask to build stronger relationships and close more deals.
What does success look like for you, and how will you measure it?
Every client defines success differently and rarely by “clicks” alone or other vanity metrics. For some, it may mean increasing website traffic; for others, it’s about generating more qualified leads or improving conversion rates. To truly become a trusted adviser, you need to be willing to dig deeper to show a return on investment (ROI) and value. Understanding how a client measures success helps you tailor your proposal to their expectations. It also sets the stage for tracking performance and demonstrating ROI later. More importantly, it helps identify the client’s North Star Metric — the key performance indicator that matters above all else in driving meaningful results. By aligning on this metric from the outset, you can ensure that all marketing efforts are focused on what truly moves the needle.
By Shannon Kinney for E&P Magazine | Read more
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| Compelling Writing with Jerry Bellune
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By Jerry Bellune,
Writing Coach
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Crime reporting captures readers
Have you ever considered why readers and writers seem so obsessed with crime and criminals?
Many books, novels, movies and other entertainment are about crime. Crime has all of the ingredients of high drama – greed and passion, life and death, murder, theft and other crimes.
In an informal, non-scientific survey, newspaper editors told us their single-copy sales rose every time they led the front page with a high profile crime story.
When we worked on the tabloid Philadelphia Daily News, we had four full-time reporters covering cops, gangs and crime 24 hours a day.
Since 400,00 to 500,00 copies of our newspaper were bought on the street each day – we had no subscribers – our lead story almost always involved crime.
A Washington Post reporter once asked why we always seemed to lead with crime stories. Our managing editor told him it was because crime sold newspapers.
“I’m not going to apologize for wanting to sell as many of our newspaper as possible,” he said.
If you’re assigned to the police beat, don’t despair. You’ll have a front row seat at such drama. But you need to look beyond the incident reports to find real stories your readers want. Read more
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