| S.C. newspapers cover Irma
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|  Click the images above to view a front page gallery of coverage from Tropical Storm Irma. Send us your front page if you want to include your paper's coverage to the gallery. | |
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Still time to sign up for Sept. 22 Photoshop Workshop Registration for SCPA's only Photoshop training this year is still open.
Join us at SCPA Offices in Columbia next Friday, Sept. 22, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. as Adobe expert Michelle Kerscher goes over the most efficient ways to use Photoshop. She'll cover the very basics of using the program, as well as the more advanced features. Kerscher will share her best tips and tricks to help you save time nagivating the program and how to really make your photos pop.
Attendees are encouraged to submit questions and topics you want covered.
The cost for SCPA members to attend is only $65.
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The Conversation offers news articles to S.C. media that's free for republication Faculty at the University of South Carolina and research universities throughout the U.S. are contributing to The Conversation, a nonprofit news service funded by research foundations and universities that are committed to having scholars inform the public conversation.
An example of a current article you could republish is about the mental health impacts of major disasters like Harvey and Irma. You can view the article here.
The editors at The Conversation identify top experts to write 800-1000 word articles based on their research on topics in the news or interesting research. There are 6-9 stories to choose from every day with topics covering politics, business, energy, science, technology and religion.
The content is edited by an editorial staff of former news journalists and editors to ensure that stories are to the point and accessible to the general public. It’s available for free republication by S.C. media outlets under a Creative Commons license.
More than 400 U.S. newspapers and news websites republish The Conversation, including The Washington Post, International Business Times and CNN.
If you want to republish an article, click the blue “republish this article” button on the right side of an article and you’ll receive a code that can be copied and pasted into a CMS.
View the republishing guidelines here.
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|  | The Lancaster News, Carolina Gateway and Pageland Progressive-Journal advertising staff was recognized last week for winning 25 PALMY ad awards.
The Lancaster News was awarded the President's Cup for Best Overall Weekly Newspaper Advertising. | |
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Mount Pleasant drops planned minimum fee for public information
A draft-stage town policy for handling public information requests has been revised to eliminate a controversial $10 minimum fee.
First proposed in June, the town's plan to charge a minimum fee for public information requests was criticized by a lawyer for the S.C. Press Association.
"I don’t think you can impose a minimum fee," said the lawyer, Jay Bender, who has also represented The Post and Courier.
Charging a minimum fee could conflict with a provision in state law that says fees for Freedom of Information Act requests can't exceed the actual cost, he said. [Full story: The Post and Courier/David Slade]
Beaufort County leaders want public input in filling top county job, though finalists not yet revealed
Several Beaufort County Council members said last week they would let the public have a say in the hiring of a new county administrator, though there were few specific calls for public interviews of finalists for the county’s top job.
“I wouldn’t even think of voting if there wasn’t public comment and investigation,” said councilman Brian Flewelling. “The connection of the public is very important to us.”
On Saturday, council chairman Paul Sommerville told The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette there currently are no plans to hold public interviews of finalists to replace outgoing administrator Gary Kubic, though he added the 11-member council could decide to do so. ...
Although there is no state law requiring local governing bodies to hold public interviews of finalists for top public positions, several statewide organizations support public access to candidates before hiring.
“The public knows there’s no backroom dealing; they’ve been involved; and it makes (government) more accountable,” said Bill Rogers, executive director of the S.C. Press Association, of which the Packet and Gazette is a member. “It’s a safeguard when the public is involved.” [Full story: The Island Packet/Alex Kincaid and Lucas High]
Commentary: Does anyone at Santee Cooper remember who Santee Cooper works for?
By Cindi Ross Scoppe, The State
Gov. Henry McMaster was absolutely right to 1) insist that Santee Cooper give him a copy of a secret report on problems at the now-abandoned nuclear expansion project at V.C. Summer and 2) release the report to the public, over the objections of the state-owned utility’s debacle partner, SCE&G.
The Bechtel report repeats a lot of what we’ve come to recognize since the two utilities announced July 31 that they were halting construction: Essentially, they weren’t exercising the basic level of oversight that any rational person would expect a business to provide for the multi-billion-dollar construction project.
But it could be significant legally because it’s a report the utilities commissioned, not our after-the-fact speculation. And whatever they did or didn’t do after receiving it, it makes it difficult to argue that they had been managing the project prudently up to that point. That makes it a crucial piece of evidence as state legislators decide how to change state law, as lawsuits seek to recoup some or all of the more than $2 billion that ratepayers have already paid and as regulators decide whether SCE&G parent SCANA can charge ratepayers up to another $4.9 billion on the failed project. This sort of situation is the very reason we require government to make nearly all information public; the idea that the public should have to fight to see it is outrageous. [Full column]
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| Federal government improperly restricting public access to court records through excessive fees, suit claims
Last week, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and a coalition of 17 media organizations submitted a friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in the case of National Veterans Legal Services Program v. United States of America. The brief argues that the law requires the judicial system to limit the fees it charges people to access its Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system to the cost of disseminating the information requested. Currently, many members of the media face prohibitive costs when trying to obtain court records to inform the public about what is happening in the judicial system. [Full story: Reporters Committee For Freedom of The Press]
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Gannett restructuring will result in 1% staff reduction
Gannett, owner of USA TODAY and 109 local news properties, will undergo a corporate restructuring that will result in the elimination of "less than 1%" of employees.
Citing "difficult headwinds" related to print advertising as troublesome for the company, President and CEO Robert Dickey announced the plans last week.
The reductions at Gannett could result in about 210 jobs lost across the company, including at its headquarters in McLean, Va. Cuts were to begin Wednesday and are expected to be completed by Sept. 15, Dickey said. "No one on the Gannett management team takes these decisions lightly," he said. [Full story: USA TODAY/Mike Snider]
10 Problems, 10 Solutions: Newspapers share how they overcame some of their toughest challenges
By Gretchen A. Peck, Editor & Publisher
For centuries, newspaper organizations did it all. They reported and crafted the columns. They laid out the pages and applied the ink to newsprint. They sold the ads and fostered relationships with businesses that bought them. And still, they somehow managed to deliver them to the merchants and doorsteps of subscribers. Many of them did all of it on a daily basis. It was easier to be a “jack of all trades” when print was all that mattered, but the arrival of social media, digital, and mobile has complicated the process.
With that in mind, E&P reached out to professionals from across different newspapers to find out about challenges they’ve faced and overcome—in many cases, with a little help from their vendor partners. [Full story]
Fearless newspaper meets its end as Cambodia clamps down on free press
At first glance, The Cambodia Daily could have been mistaken for a community pamphlet, with its flimsy, letter-size pages. But the understated format belied the journalistic rigor and strident reporting of the paper, which on Monday produced a defiant final lead headline amid a crackdown on the media, non-governmental organizations, and the leading opposition party in Cambodia: “Descent Into Outright Dictatorship.” It was firmly aimed at Prime Minister Hun Sen, who had been threatening for years to close the scrappy publication that carried the motto, “All the News Without Fear or Favor.”
One former staffer, Ethan Plaut, now a fellow at Stanford University, summed up the newspaper’s boldness in one of many elegies penned by alumni in its final days: “Damn, the Daily burned hot while it lasted.” [Full story: Columbia Journalism Review/Holly Robertson] RJI Fellow expands work on mobile news app for smaller news organizations
By Christopher Guess, Reynolds Journalism Institute
Push notifications from The New York Times, the Guardian, BuzzFeed and The Washington Post alert us every day to scandal, horror, scientific achievement and grief. However, this capability lies mainly in the realm of large news organizations.
Without a 24-hour news desk, smaller news outlets — especially weeklies and investigative centers — struggle to remind users to visit their websites.
If a 20,000-circulation city daily wants to break into the big ranks and build its own mobile app, the publisher can expect to spend at least $50,000 per platform, and a minimum of six months of work, to bring one online. That’s not small change for many small-market newspapers. [Full story]
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|  | By Al Cross,
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues |
| Newspapers are reviving mottoes and slogans Does your newspaper have a motto? Or a slogan? Do you know the difference?
Mottoes, slogans and marketing pitches were common in the days when most big newspapers had competition, as they tried to give themselves a distinguishing character. As the big newspaper markets became monopolized, there was less need for them, but now, when every information source competes for audience with every other source, even in small towns, slogans and mottoes are worth reviving, and some papers are doing it.
The Washington Post's nameplate got an underline in February: the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness." That’s the most prominent example of newspapers adding a promotional explanation of what they do or what they stand for. Two papers from Warren Buffett's BH Media Group have similar slogans: The Bristol Herald Courier says it offers "Truth. Accuracy. Fairness" and the Omaha World-Herald says it is "Real. Fair. Accurate." Read more.
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UPCOMING EVENTS Oct. 1-7:
National Newspaper Week Oct 26:
SCPA Executive Committee Meeting Dec 1:
News Contest Entry Deadline March 16-17, 2018:
SCPA Annual Meeting and Awards
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