 |
|
|
Your connection to industry & member news | May 15, 2025
|
Join U.S. Attorney's Office on June 26 for Zoom training on federal criminal justice systemSCPA is partnering with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina to host a free virtual crash course on the federal criminal justice system.
Make plans to join us online Thursday, June 26, from 2-3:30 p.m. for an overview of the work of the U.S. Attorney’s office, federal investigations, the court system and PACER 101.
While all SCPA members are welcome to attend, this is a great training session for journalists who have not covered federal court cases or are curious about federal investigations.
The session will be presented by Veronica Hill, public affairs specialist for the U. S. Attorney’s Office in the District of South Carolina. Hill enjoys working with media to share federal cases with the community. She previously served as a police officer in Wichita, Kansas before moving to the Midlands.
Following the event, attendees will receive an info sheet about who to contact at federal law enforcement agencies and what they investigate.
Registration is open to SCPA and SCBA members.
There is no cost to attend, but you must RSVP by June 20.
| |
 |
By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications
|
|
‘Big John’ case reinforces need for anti-SLAPP law
| |
|
"A strong and independent press is essential to self-rule, to personal liberty, to national greatness. That once radical insight, made law in the First Amendment, anchored a centuries-long, bipartisan tradition of supporting the rights of journalists. If broken, a free and independent press won’t be easy to rebuild.
As the free press and democracy more broadly face this period of pressure, I’d urge you to support both by seeking out news sources worthy of your trust. News sources that produce original, independent reporting in the public interest and that have a record of challenging power, no matter who wields it. Make room for this kind of journalism in your lives and routines. Read. Listen. Watch. Engaging with the news is one of the simplest, most essential acts of citizenship. This is not the time to tune out."
| |
Genna Contino joins personal finance team at MarketWatch
MarketWatch has welcomed a new hire on its personal finance team.
Genna Contino, who was most recently a fellow on the wealth team at Forbes, is a new Smart Spending reporter. She has honed her reporting skills at local newspapers including
The Charlotte Observer, [The Greenville News, Spartanburg Herald-Journal] and at CNBC's personal finance desk.
She recently graduated from the business and economics reporting program at CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism, where she learned about covering the economy, companies and markets. She has written about homeowners surprised to find out that their insurance doesn't cover mold, and how to pay taxes when you're working remotely on a 274-night cruise.
Contino is a University of South Carolina alum and a big Gamecock fan. She is working to get Italian citizenship by descent, because her great grandparents were born in Italy.
From Editor & Publisher | Read more
| |
|  The Post and Courier York County and Winthrop University’s three-year pilot program is up and running. Publisher Kelly Mirt, Editor Blake Alsup, reporters Lamaur Stancil and Ian Davis-Leonard are working out of the newspaper’s office on Winthrop’s campus in the Barnes and Noble bookstore in the DiGiorgio Campus Center. The partnership will enable Winthrop’s mass communication majors and other students a chance to work in internships with professionals in the field while remaining on campus.
| |
| | |
Tell us about your organization: For 48 years, we have been defending freedom of the press in South Carolina and elsewhere.
What services/resources/opportunities can you offer to SCPA member newspapers?
Legal representation
What's the most exciting thing going on at your organization?
Lawsuits for newspapers
Why do you support SCPA and our members?
You are the vanguard of freedom and democracy.
| |
USPS Board of Governors selects new postmaster general
On May 9, the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors announced the selection of David Steiner as the nation’s 76th postmaster general. Steiner has served on the board of FedEx and is a former CEO of Waste Management. He is set to take over sometime in July.
"NNA offers its congratulations, and we look forward to working with PMG Steiner to help change course and restore the confidence of publishers in the USPS," NNA Chair Martha Diaz Aszkenazy, publisher, The San Fernando (California) Valley Sun, said. "This selection clearly heeds the administration’s call for a change in direction that is desperately needed."
She continued, “The last five years have been a disastrous period for NNA members. The pattern of service failures and twice-a-year punitive rate increases has driven publishers out of the mail. It has been no more beneficial for the USPS which has experienced skyrocketing costs and financial losses. USPS cannot survive continued pursuit of higher rates and poorer service.”
From National Newspaper Association | Read more
| |
News/Media Alliance Applauds the Copyright Office’s AI Study Report on Fair Use
The News Media Alliance commends the Copyright Office for releasing a pre-publication version of its report on Generative AI Training, the third portion of its AI series. This report analyzes whether the use of copyrighted content in training and retrieval augmented generation (RAG) constitutes infringement.
We appreciate the Copyright Office’s careful and nuanced analysis as over 40 litigations work themselves through the courts, recognizing that differences in technology and uses of AI models can affect liability.
News/Media Alliance President and CEO Danielle Coffey stated, “Today’s report constitutes an important and timely recognition of copyright owners’ right to protect their works and prosper in the digital ecosystem, especially for the use of real-time news media content that requires tremendous investment and human reporters. The report states clearly what we already knew: U.S. copyright law is capable of handling new technology, the primary issue we continue to face is effective enforcement and AI developers’ respect for the law. While we would have preferred the Copyright Office had issued a stronger conclusion on training of news media content, the report as a whole makes a compelling case that AI companies must rein in their excesses, respect content creators, and fall in line with copyright law.”
By Sam Quigley, News/Media Alliance | Read more
| |
Guy Reel, retired Winthrop University Mass Communication Chair, dies
Guy Reel was a professional writer for more than four decades.
He was reporter and editor with The (Mephis, TN) Commercial Appeal. He wrote books about Bill Clinton and the West Memphis Three. And he became chair of the Department of Mass Communication at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
But his nose for news was accompanied by a ready smile, and his unyielding insistence on accuracy and journalistic integrity were buoyed by what his brother, Ron Reel of Knoxville, called his "wide-open personality."
Reel, 66, died May 3 at Medical University South Carolina Health in Lancaster, South Carolina, where he was hospitalized after several recent health issues.
"He definitely made his mark in the classroom," said Larry Timbs, a retired journalism professor at Winthrop, in a Facebook tribute to Reel. "In the decade we were faculty colleagues, I never heard a student gripe about his teaching. They respected him and thought of him as a cool, smart dude.
"He was also kind and compassionate with a soft heart. He helped people, including students, deal with some tough situations."
By John Beifuss, Memphis Commercial Appeal | Read more
| |
 |
By Hannah Strong Oskin,
My Horry News
|
| ‘The media this, the media that’ — Let’s get some things straight
All I wanted was a hot meal and a moment of peace.
Perhaps a few minutes to just stare at a wall and decompress.
We were seven days in without a break. Each day trekking through floodwaters, no thanks to 2018's Hurricane Florence.
But I pressed on.
The last thing I wanted to hear was, “Why isn’t the media covering this area? Why isn’t the media doing this story? Why aren’t they doing this or that?”
But we did hear it. And we often do.
“It’s because they’re in cahoots with the government.” Or my favorite one: “It’s because they are hiding information.”
Us journalists see ourselves as a check on the government and would like nothing more than to break the news of folks acting improperly when we can verify it. Ignoring such news would be counterintuitive, not to mention bad for business.
It’s comical, I swear, because when we have information, we’re putting it out there (responsibly, of course).
Being referred to as “the media” is almost cringing to me because it’s started to have a bad connotation. (Plus there are many forms of media: social media, multimedia, digital media.)
But let’s get back on topic. Read more
| |
 |
By John Foust, Advertising Trainer
|
| A lesson from Lockwood’s Folly
I remember a conversation with Brent, a long-time print and digital advertiser. “I enjoy meeting with advertising sales people and hearing their ideas, but I always cringe when they show up from out of the blue with a spec ad – before they’ve even talked to me. What that usually means is, ‘I haven’t learned enough about your business to base this idea on actual information, so I made it up.’ More often than not, the idea consists of one-size-fits-all stock art and a headline so generic that it could apply to a number of businesses. If that kind of spec ad is the centerpiece of their presentation, the sale is a no-go.”
Brent’s comments remind me of Lockwood’s Folly, a tiny spot on the map of coastal North Carolina. The river that shares the same name first appeared on a map which was created by John Ogilby in 1671, which makes it one of the oldest named rivers in North Carolina. There are a number of stories regarding how the area got its name. The one I like best is about a man named Lockwood, who set out to build the sailing ship of his dreams along the banks of the river. After many months of work, he launched the boat and quickly found that the draft (the depth of the boat from the waterline) was too deep to clear the sandbar at the inlet. With no way to sail the boat off the sandbar, he had to leave it to rot. Read more
| |
|
|
|
