 |
|
|
Your connection to industry & member news | Oct. 27, 2022
|
Volunteer to judge Mississippi's Ad ContestMembers of the Mississippi Press Association judged our Ad Contest earlier this year and now it is our turn to return the favor!
We need 20 members to help judge MPA’s Ad Contest online in the next couple weeks. Judges will have two weeks to review entries and submit judgements. This is a quick and easy contest to judge!
Designers, sales reps, ad directors and publishers, as well as retired members, associate members and college instructors are invited to help!
These judging exchanges make our own contest possible and give you the opportunity to see the best work from another state.
If you can help, please fill out this form. If you can’t commit, please help us by spreading the word to your staff.
| |
The Island Connection and The Island Eye apply for membershipIn addition to the membership applications shared in last week's eBulletin, SCPA has also received applications for newspaper membership from The Island Eye and The Island Connection.
The Island Eye is distributed in Sullivans Island, Isle of Palms and Dewees Island.
The Island Connection is distributed in Kiawah, Seabrook and Johns Island.
Both are free distribution papers published twice a month. Lynn Pierotti serves as publisher.
The fall Executive Committee and Budget Meeting originally set for today has been rescheduled to Nov. 3. If you have any comments about the applicants above, contact Jen Madden.
| |
Do not use incognito mode when entering contestSCPA has heard from some members this week who have had trouble submitting contest entries using the digital entry portal. In every case, the browser was in private/incognito mode or blocking Javascript. Recommended browsers include Chrome and Firefox.
If you run into any issues entering the contest, please email or call us at (803) 750-9561.
| |
|
"Without The Journal and editor and reporter Riley Morningstar, White might have continued to present himself as an average conservative candidate concerned about road design instead of being outed for the uncaring, dishonorable and deplorable person he is. The Journal and Morningstar proved once again the importance of local journalism, especially in less populated parts of South Carolina."
| |
| "Scarier this year" by Robert Ariail
| |
|  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.
| |
| | |
SC judge dismisses The State’s open meetings lawsuit against LR5. Here’s why
The State Media Co.’s lawsuit against a local school district has been dismissed.
Senior editor Paul Osmundson filed suit last year against the Lexington-Richland 5 school district over alleged violations of the S.C. Freedom of Information Act involving the school board’s handling of the departure of Superintendent Christina Melton.
The suit alleges the Lexington-Richland 5 school board approved a settlement agreement with Melton, including a payment of $226,368, behind closed doors and without a public vote as required by state law.
The lawsuit also challenged the board’s assertion that its executive officer committee meetings should not be open to the public.
The dismissal by Judge Alison Lee on Oct. 20 did not address the substance of Osmundson’s complaint. Rather, she ruled that a hearing had not been scheduled on time.
Under state law in a Freedom of Information complaint, “a hearing must be held within ten days of the service on all parties and a scheduling order to conclude the action must be held within six months,” Lee wrote in a short court order. “In this current matter, no hearing was held within the allotted timeframe. Therefore, the Motion to Dismiss is dispositive and the court need not determine the merits of the Summary Judgment claims.”
By Bristow Marchant, The State | Read more
| |
Whitaker refuses to release employee survey results
“It has been a little over a month since we asked for an employee engagement survey. Some of the employees say they have not seen or heard of a survey,” Councilman Clarence Gilbert wrote in a July 12, 2022, email to Fairfield County Administrator Malik Whitaker.
“I truly hope we are still committed to doing this survey through a third party and that the results will come directly to council and to you at the same time.” ...
Asked for a comment about the county’s refusal to share the survey results with council, the employees, the media and the public, media attorney Jay Bender had this to say in an email to The Voice:
“The first thought that comes to mind is legal review for what purpose? Is the purpose to dilute the impact of employee responses? Is the purpose to protect elected and appointed officials? If the notion is that personal privacy is at issue, the South Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled there is no right of privacy in the performance of public employment,” Bender said. “My skeptical conclusion is that if there is in fact a legal review, it is for the purpose of delay and obfuscation.”
By Barbara Ball, The Voice of Fairfield County | Read more
| |
Recordings detail SC judge’s attempts to orchestrate arrest of troubled man
Newly released recordings reveal sheriff’s deputies’ discomfort with Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen’s alleged attempts to “make stuff up” to arrest a troubled man at the center of a 2017 disturbance in her neighborhood.
The cruiser camera recordings, while difficult to make out at times, appear to support Beaufort County sheriff’s deputies’ statements in a just-uncovered incident report that the judge tried to orchestrate the man’s arrest to get him removed Dec. 7, 2017, from the gated community where she lives. Yet, the audio also appears to support Mullen’s statements that her primary concern was keeping the man safe as he had a mental health episode.
During the course of the 30-minute incident, Mullen alternately recommended deputies arrest the man for either credit card fraud or trespassing or harassment or disorderly conduct. When they refused, she suggested someone might drive him to a gas station where he was banned so deputies could arrest him there for trespassing, according to recordings obtained by The Post and Courier through an open-records request.
By Glenn Smith, The Post and Courier | Read more
| |
New Justice Department policy marks ‘historic shift’ in press protection
Today, the U.S. Department of Justice announced changes to its news media guidelines that, for the first time, expressly prohibit members of the Department from using subpoenas or other investigative tools against journalists who possess and publish classified information obtained in newsgathering, with only narrow exceptions.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press worked with a coalition of news media representatives to meet with DOJ officials to advocate for strengthening the protections. The guidelines also bar efforts to seize records from, or of, journalists engaged in newsgathering more broadly, but the new limits on national security leak investigations are particularly notable.
“This is a watershed moment,” said Bruce D. Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “The new policy marks a historic shift in protecting the rights of news organizations reporting on stories of critical public importance.
“For the last several years we have worked with newsrooms to push for meaningful reform and are grateful to the Justice Department officials who saw this new rule over the finish line.”
From Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press | Read more
| |
Five strategies to help potential voters cut through the noise
As Election Day approaches, we know journalists are working hard and care deeply that their coverage be seen as a credible and fair source of news. We also know many people are overwhelmed by news coverage and election messaging — the ads, the polls, the debates and the whole range of coverage.
Let's walk through five strategies that can both provide essential coverage and empower people to navigate the news. Doing both can build trust with longer-term coverage as well.
- Make it clear how to participate.
Give your community basic information on where and how to vote. Explain what is allowed when voting in person, how to vote by mail, where to drop a ballot off, etc. And make that information easily findable on your site — ideally from every piece of election coverage.
This voter FAQ from The Fulcrum has information about how to make sure voter registration is up-to-date, how to find polling places and what voting rights the public has.
By Lynn Walsh, Trusting News | Read more
| |
Once key, US newspaper editorial endorsements fade away
Newspaper endorsements are fading away as prizes to be nabbed by political campaigns, the practice a victim of both the news industry’s troubles and the era’s bitter politics.
Earlier this month, newspapers controlled by Alden Global Capital said they would no longer endorse candidates for president, governor and the U.S. Senate. The newspapers in the hedge fund’s portfolio include dozens of dailies like the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Boston Herald, Orlando Sentinel and San Jose Mercury News.
They’re not alone. The days when a prominent endorsement would quickly make its way into a campaign ad or voters would clip out an editorial to take into the voting booth seem destined for history.
By David Bauder, Associated Press | Read more
| |
Securing our safety online
Journalism has always had a complex relationship with the internet. While the digital realm represents an incomparable tool for accessing information and circulating the news, the internet has also necessitated rapid shifts in the way journalism works and does business.
The need for journalists to understand and integrate digital security practices into everyday life is one of those major changes. Digisec is the protection of your digital footprint (including files and personal information) from surveillance, hackers and other bad actors. This is especially important for journalists who are often public figures with high profiles that have key personal information such as phone numbers, emails and open social media accounts readily available online.
UNESCO published an extensive report on the increasing digital security threats for journalists, highlighting 12 specific danger areas that also included larger issues of network security for media organizations. Some key examples the report offered to indicate how media producers are impacted at the individual level were “journalists’ movements being exposed through cell phone-linked geolocation data, their personal lives being visible on social media, and their communications meta-data being mined.”
By Tara Pixley, Reynolds Journalism Institute | Read more
| |
Former News-Chronicle co-owner dies
Former Belton-Honea Path News-Chronicle co-owner Donia Campbell Coward Malone, 90, wife of Dan Malone, of Clement Road, passed away Oct. 19, 2022, at her residence surrounded by her family.
She and her first husband, Joe Coward, co-owned the Belton News and printing company and combined the Belton News with the Honea Path Chronicle in 1992, later selling the newspaper in 1994. Read full obituary
| |
 |
By John Foust,
Advertising Trainer
|
| Oboes and leadership
If you’ve been to a symphony concert, you’ve witnessed the cacophony of sound before the concert begins. Every instrument seems to be in its own world, independently running through the musical scale.
Actually, this is a traditional and deliberate process to tune all of the instruments. First, a single instrument plays the note of A, then the other musicians tune their instruments to that note at the same time. Once an instrument is in tune, the musician often warms up by going through the scale. The objective is for each instrument to be perfectly in tune with every other instrument when the concert begins.
Although other instruments can be used for this purpose, an oboe is generally preferred, because its steady sound stands out from the others in the orchestra. The note of A is used, because all of the string instruments have A-strings.
All of this means that the oboe sets the pace for the entire orchestra. It’s easy to see a direct comparison to a leader’s role in the business world. A few points come to mind:
- Leaders lead by example. They have to be in tune, themselves, before they are ready to lead others. Even though the old way of doing things (“Do as I say, not as I do.”) never really worked, a lot of so-called leaders cling to that idea. Maybe it’s habit, maybe it’s insecurity, maybe they’ve never seen any other way.
A leader has been defined as “someone who has earned the right to have followers.” One of the surest ways to earn that right is be an example for others. The oboist plays A, not E or D or any other note. Read more
| |
|
|
|
