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Your connection to industry & member news | Dec. 13, 2024
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SCNN payouts return more than $211,000 to SCPA member papers this year In the next few days S.C. Newspaper Network (SCNN), the sales arm of SCPA, will be mailing quarterly advertising network payments totaling $25,469 to SCPA member newspapers. These quarterly checks are for ads run through September and bring the total of network payouts during the just-ended fiscal year to $211,892.
“We had some up and down quarters this past year, but it’s encouraging to see an overall increase in payouts from the prior year,” said Co-Exectuve Director Randall Savely. “The SCNN classified, small space and quarter page networks are a great source of added revenue for member newspapers and the income from these networks is vital to the continuing operations of SCPA.”
Every daily newspaper and virtually every weekly newspaper participates in SCNN's ad networks.
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Judges still needed for SCPA Collegiate ContestSCPA is still looking for six volunteers to judge SCPA's Collegiate Contest online in late December/early January. Categories include news, features, opinion and sports writing, photography, design and digital. Judges will receive instructions and entries in mid-December and will have three weeks to complete the judging. Let us know if you can help.
Mississippi needs a few judges to help with Ad Contest
Our friends at Mississippi Press Association need a few SCPA members to help judge their annual advertising contest. Judges will have until the end of January to review entries. Email us if you can lend a hand.
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By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications
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Censorship or common sense?A federal appeals court decision regarding the continued availability of a social media site would seemingly have little to do with local newspapers in South Carolina. But the ruling could have important implications for the First Amendment, and could be a harbinger of more government actions limiting freedom of speech.
The court decision came on Dec. 6 from the federal Circuit Court for the District of Columbia, and upheld a statute passed by Congress and signed by President Biden in April. The law requires TikTok’s parent company Bytedance, which is based in China, to either sell the social media site to an American company or to stop making the site available to users in the U.S. by Jan. 19, 2025. (The law would bar online app stores from allowing American users to download or update the app.)
The stated rationale for the ban is that, as a Chinese company, ByteDance would be required to comply with orders from the Chinese government to divulge information on its estimated 170 million American users, undermining their privacy and endangering national security.
The President can extend the deadline for up to 90 days. While during his previous term President Trump attempted to ban TikTok by an executive order that was held unconstitutional by the courts, more recently he has expressed opposition to banning the app. Read more
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Missing FOIA documents reveal blurred timeline of Beaufort County attorney’s resignation
Concerns about Beaufort County’s pledges of transparency and accountability surfaced when only partial documents related to former County Attorney Brittany Ward’s resignation were provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
The original request, made by The Island Packet in late October, asked for “all records and communications related to Brittany Ward’s resignation, including resignation letters...” In response, the county’s records department sent documents on Nov. 20 that included an email labeled “Brittany Ward Resignation.” It came just one day after an independent legal review that addressed allegations against Ward regarding her involvement in a land sale between the county and her parents, was made public.
By Isabella Douglas and Chloe Appleby, The Island Packet | Read more
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Midlands county reaches a settlement with a former clerk who sued after she was fired
Lexington County has voted to reach a settlement with a former clerk to the county council who sued after she was fired last year.
County council members voted Tuesday to approve a settlement with Brittany Shumpert, who was the council’s clerk managing its administrative business for three years, until she was fired in a public council vote in April 2023.
Shumpert filed suit against Lexington County earlier this year claiming she was wrongfully terminated for two reasons; that she was fired because of a disability and that the vote to fire her violated the S.C. Freedom of Information Act.
In her suit, Shumpert claims she was pressured to resign ahead of her firing and told by the county’s human resources director that she would by fired by a “unanimous” vote if she refused. Shumpert took this to mean that a secret poll of council members had been taken prior to the council’s public vote, in violation of South Carolina law requiring decisions to be made in an open meeting.
By Bristow Marchant, The State | Read more
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Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton blocks press freedom bill Trump said GOP ‘must kill’
WASHINGTON — An effort to pass a sweeping measure aimed at protecting press freedoms was struck down in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday night.
The journalism shield law — which would limit the federal government’s ability to force disclosure of journalists’ sources — drew strong objections from President-elect Donald Trump, who’s had a rather rocky relationship with the press.
Arkansas GOP Sen. Tom Cotton blocked Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden’s request for unanimous consent to pass the bill, calling the legislation “a threat to U.S. national security and an insult to basic fairness in the principle of equality before the law.”
By Shauneen Miranda, States Newsroom | Read more
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2025 Media & Civil Rights History Symposium call for abstracts
Abstracts of up to 1,000 words for research papers, research-in-progress presentations and panel sessions on any aspect of the historical relationship between media and civil rights are now being accepted for the 2025 Media & Civil Rights History Symposium, which will be held Friday, March 28, 2025 in Columbia S.C.
The biennial Symposium is sponsored by the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
All Symposium presentations will be in person.
Topics may include, but are not limited to, the media and the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Freedom Struggle, the contemporary Social Justice Movement, and Black Lives Matter.
The submission deadline is Jan. 6, 2025. To submit an abstract, visit the symposium website.
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Most Americans continue to say media scrutiny keeps politicians from doing things they shouldn’t
As they have for the past four decades, most Americans say criticism from news organizations keeps political leaders from doing things they shouldn’t, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in September 2024. ... In our most recent survey, conducted two months before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, about three-quarters of Americans (74%) said criticism from news organizations keeps political leaders from doing things that shouldn’t be done, while far fewer (24%) said this type of scrutiny keeps leaders from doing their job.
By Sarah Naseer, Pew Research Center | Read more
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If you report on US colleges and universities, get to know these 19 higher education databases
No matter what issue you’re covering on the higher education beat, your story will be stronger if you ground it in high-quality data. Fortunately for journalists, government agencies and academic researchers have gathered data on an array of topics and made it available online for free. You just need to know where to find it.
That’s why we created this tip sheet. It spotlights 19 higher education databases we think you ought to know about. This list is not meant to be exhaustive. We included databases that will help journalists report on some of the most common and pressing higher education issues.
By Denise-Marie Ordway, The Journalist's Resource | Read more
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By: John Foust, Advertising Trainer
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| Following through is the thing to do
Want to see something funny? Just watch me trying to hit a golf ball out of a sand trap. You’ve never before seen such an ugly, unathletic, uncoordinated golf swing. The Scottish pioneers of the game would be horrified.
The biggest of many problems is with my follow-through. Somehow, sand creates a faulty connection between my brain and the club, which results in stopping the swing right as I make contact. How else can you explain the fact that the ball often hits the lip of the trap and rolls right back to where it started? Sometimes I can make my second attempt without changing my position.
One time, one of the guys in my foursome ate a sandwich while I was trying to get out of a trap. That’s only a slight exaggeration. He actually finished the sandwich while I was putting.
I mention my golf misadventures, because following through is just as important in selling. In fact, following through can make the difference between a completed sale and one that is hanging on the edge.
Following through is not the same as following up. Following up can refer to staying in touch after an appointment or conversation, or the start of a new ad campaign. Following up gives both the salesperson and the advertiser a chance to tweak the advertising. Following up can happen any time, right now or months into the future. Read more
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