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Your connection to industry & member news | May 14, 2026
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After years of inaction, SC lawmakers have reached a deal on charter school reformWith just days remaining in the legislative session, South Carolina lawmakers have reached a deal to bring greater transparency and accountability to the state’s largely unregulated charter school sector.
The compromise legislation, an amalgam of separate charter school reform bills approved earlier this year by the House and Senate, passed unanimously in the upper chamber Tuesday following a week of interchamber negotiations.
The House concurred with the compromise bill Wednesday morning, sending it to the governor’s desk for his signature.
Senate Education Committee Chair Greg Hembree, the original bill’s sponsor, described the amended legislation as the base Senate bill with a number of improvements.
“Quite honestly,” said Hembree, an Horry County Republican, “we were able to sit down and kind of look at some of (the House’s) ideas and came up with things that we both felt were more beneficial to the overall effort.”
Broadly speaking, the legislation enhances oversight of authorizers, the largely unaccountable entities responsible for opening, closing and overseeing charter schools; increases transparency requirements for authorizers, schools and the management companies that operate them; and clarifies certain terms and processes left vague or undefined in the state’s decades-old law that governs charter schools and their authorizers.
By Zak Koeske, The State | Read more
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 | By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications
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| USC revises FOIA policiesSouth Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act provides that most “public record[s]” of any “public body” must be available to the public. The statute defines “public record” as “all books, papers, maps, photographs, cards, tapes, recordings, or other documentary materials regardless of physical form or characteristics prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by a public body,” and defines “public body” as including “any department of the State … or any organization, corporation, or agency supported in whole or in part by public funds or expending public funds … .”
Among the “public bodies” subject to the Act are public universities such as the University of South Carolina. In addition, in 1991 the South Carolina Supreme Court held that the Carolina Research and Development Foundation, a non-profit corporation which supports faculty research and other activities at the university, also met the definition of a “public body” and thus was subject to FOIA. The university’s Board of Trustees and/or any committee, subcommittee or advisory committee of the Board of Trustees is also a public body under FOIA.
The state FOIA law provides that many types of records held by public bodies, including the university, are subject to public disclosure. But there are also several exemptions in the law. And another one was added last month, when the legislature overrode the governor’s veto of legislation exempting athletes’ name, image and likeness agreements from disclosure under FOIA.
On April 16, USC’s Board of Trustees adopted new rules regarding the university’s FOIA processes.
The provisions of the new policy include establishing the University of South Carolina Columbia Office of Communications as the university’s point of contact for FOIA requests for records held by any USC campus. The previous policy allowed several university offices to respond to FOIA requests, depending on the source and nature of the request. Read more
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SCPA members commemorate 250th anniversary of the American RevolutionWe've started hearing about journalism-related SC250 projects and events including Pat McNeely's upcoming talk on America’s first female journalists, Elizabeth Timothy and Ann Donovan Timothy of the South Carolina Gazette.
If you're partnering with county, state or national 250th anniversary projects including commemorative editions, events or coverage, please let us know so we can share with fellow members.
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When big brands abandoned local newspapers, they also abandoned local customersFrom The (Seneca) Journal
Not long ago, the weekly rhythm of American life included a familiar ritual: the rustle of the local newspaper, the smell of ink, and the stack of retail inserts that fell out onto the kitchen table. Those inserts were more than paper. They were the voice of national brands speaking directly to local communities.
Sears. Walgreens. CVS. Bi-Lo. Tuesday Morning, Rite-Aid, Big Lots, K-Mart… the list goes on.
For decades, these companies understood something fundamental: retail is local. Customers don’t live in national marketing plans. They live in neighborhoods. They make decisions in kitchens and living rooms. And the most reliable way to reach the heart of a community was through the local newspaper.
Then, over the past decade, something changed.
Corporate boardrooms and marketing departments began shifting dollars away from local newspapers and into digital platforms, national campaigns, and algorithm-driven advertising. The inserts slowly disappeared. The weekly reminder that these brands were part of the community quietly faded.
At first, the impact was easy to miss for some, but newspapers felt the loss immediately. The largest portion of cost to operate any media outlet is born on advertising revenues. However, the more telling story may be what happened next to the companies that walked away.
Sears is now a shadow of its former self. Bi-Lo is gone. Tuesday Morning has vanished from shopping centers. Walgreens and CVS have closed thousands of stores and laid off tens of thousands of employees nationwide; Walgreens just announcing another 1,200 stores will be shuttered in the next year. Entire retail footprints have shrunk or disappeared.
Is this a coincidence?
No. These were not bad companies. They were iconic brands built over generations. But they made a critical miscalculation: they stopped talking to local customers in local ways. Read more
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News/Media Alliance files comments on postal rate increasesThe News/Media Alliance filed comments with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) on May 11 regarding the United States Postal Service’s Notice of Market-Dominant price changes to take effect July 12, 2026. The proposed adjustments would raise Periodicals rates for Outside County by an average of 6.5 percent, In-County by an average of 9.3 percent, and Marketing Mail (MM) prices by an average of 4.8 percent.
By Holly Lubart, News/Media Alliance | Read more
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Bernie Heller to lead Post and Courier properties in Columbia, Greenville and elsewhere as CRO
COLUMBIA — As The Post and Courier, South Carolina's oldest and largest newspaper, continues to expand its presence throughout the state, Columbia publisher Bernie Heller will take on a new role in leading that charge.
Heller has been promoted to chief revenue officer overseeing Post and Courier publications serving expansion markets Greenville, Spartanburg, Rock Hill, Florence, Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head, in addition to continuing to lead The Post and Courier Columbia and Free Times, the weekly print publication covering arts, food and culture in the capital city.
Heller’s promotion comes alongside the departure of Chase Heatherly, who has worked for The Post and Courier since 2017, being most recently promoted to CRO in 2023. He leaves to take on the same role with the Georges Media Group in New Orleans, owners of such properties as The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate.
“I’ve known and been a fan of Chase and Evening Post Publications for more than a decade, the last three as his direct report, so I am thrilled to be able to continue building on the solid foundation he leaves behind,” Heller said. As CRO, he will also take charge of The Post and Courier’s in-house marketing agency, King & Columbus.
By Jordan Lawrence, The Post and Courier Columbia | Read more
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Dunlap Media Group welcomes Aaron Fields as digital media director
Dunlap Media Group has welcomed a new member to its team, bringing on Aaron Fields to fill the new role of Digital Media Director.
Fields, a native of Clemson, South Carolina, joins Dunlap Media with several years of experience in broadcast journalism, video production and digital marketing. He earned his degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Carolina before entering the field as a morning reporter for KX News in North Dakota.
Fields later moved to Pensacola, Florida, where he worked as a morning news reporter for WKRG News 5. Eventually, he made his way back to South Carolina, where he shifted his focus toward digital marketing.
Now with Dunlap Media, Fields says he is looking forward to getting back to his roots in storytelling while helping grow the company’s digital presence.
By Breanna Laws, GoLaurens.com | Read more
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Post and Courier, AARP host gubernatorial forum
South Carolina voters will get to hear directly from candidates seeking to become the state’s next governor during a bipartisan forum hosted later this month by The Post and Courier and AARP South Carolina.
The free “Palmetto Politics LIVE” event will be held May 28 at Charleston Southern University’s Lightsey Chapel.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with the forum beginning at 6 p.m.
The event will mark one of the few times the mix of Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates are expected to appear together onstage ahead of their parties’ respective June 9 primaries.
Admission is free, but registration is required.
For the first time in 16 years, the state’s top job is up for grabs without an incumbent in the race — setting off a crowded high-stakes free-for-all among candidates eager to claim it. ...
The Post and Courier’s executive editor Jeff Taylor will moderate, and longtime politics editor Schuyler Kropf will ask candidates directly about the issues facing the Palmetto State.
By Caitlin Byrd, The Post and Courier | Read more
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Advocate wins three journalism excellence awards
The South Carolina United Methodist Advocate has been honored with three more journalism excellence awards, these latest from the Religion Communicators Council.
The 189-year-old newspaper received the awards at the DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Awards Banquet, held April 16 during the RCC’s 2026 Annual Convention in Cincinnati.
The Advocate was the category winner in Periodicals, Newspapers (Series), for the overall publication.
As well, Advocate Editor Jessica Brodie won two Writing for Periodicals awards: Brodie was the Category Winner in the Newspaper Cover or Feature Item, Single Work, for “Holy Grounds” (September 2025 Advocate) and received the Award of Merit in the same category for “Clothes for the Taking” (February 2025 Advocate).
From The Advocate | Read more
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 | Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Walterboro, speaks about Robert Smalls outside the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., on May 13, 2026. (Photo by Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
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| 164 years after Robert Smalls’ escape from slavery, SC legislators celebrate planned monument
Editor's Note: Smalls owned and published the Beaufort Southern Standard newspaper starting in 1872.
COLUMBIA — In the early hours of May 13, 1862, an enslaved man delivered himself, his fellow crew members and their families past a Confederate barricade to freedom.
Exactly 164 years later, on the state-designated day commemorating the escape, state lawmakers celebrated Robert Smalls and the legacy they hope more people learn about through a monument to the Civil War hero on Statehouse grounds.
Standing on the empty patch of land just outside the Statehouse’s visitors’ entrance where Smalls will stand, the governor, Department of Administration officials and legislators related the late congressman’s story and asked for money to commemorate him.
“Long after we’re all gone, children will walk these Statehouse grounds and see his statue standing there,” said Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, who represents Smalls’ home in Beaufort County and sits on the commission overseeing the work. “They will ask who Robert Smalls was. And because of what we’ve done today, South Carolina will finally answer the question the right way.”
By Skylar Laird, SC Daily Gazette | Read more
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Richland County won’t name third parties paying huge fine at Scout site
Richland County has declined to release the names of the third parties it says are helping pay part of an unusually heavy fine for environmental violations at the Scout motor vehicle construction site just outside Blythewood.
In response to questions from The State, a county spokeswoman said Richland is not able to provide any more information than it has previously released.
Keywa Henderson, the county’s director of communications, told the newspaper May 1 that Richland taxpayers would not foot the bill for the whopping fine because the state of South Carolina and “various third parties’’ would pay.
The S.C. Department of Environmental Services issued the $1 million fine May 5, 2025, saying the penalty could be increased to $3 million if certain matters were not dealt with at the massive project site off Interstate 77. Either amount would make the fine one of the largest in South Carolina for sediment and runoff pollution.
Some county officials have maintained that contractors, instead of Richland officials, were responsible for environmental violations on the more than 1,600 acres, meaning taxpayers should not be charged.
Richland County was named as being responsible for the violations because it owned the land and held environmental permits for the work.
By Sammy Fretwell, The State | Read more
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SEC audit identifies procedural failures, recommends reforms for county elections office
A newly released review by the South Carolina State Election Commission (SEC) identified a series of procedural, administrative and recordkeeping failures within the Clarendon County Board of Voter Registration and Elections, including absentee ballot handling errors, poll manager reimbursement discrepancies and violations tied to public meeting procedures.
The limited review, released this month, was conducted after a request from State Rep. Fawn Pedalino and examined elections conducted between 2023 and early 2025.
In a statement released Wednesday, Pedalino said she requested the audit after receiving constituent complaints and hearing allegations regarding election procedures.
“Transparency and accountability in our elections are not optional,” Pedalino said. “They are essential to maintaining public trust.”
The 105-page report reviewed absentee voting procedures, ballot reconciliation worksheets, poll manager staffing and reimbursements, voting machine custodian procedures and the board’s compliance with the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act.
By Melissa Foust-McCoy, The Manning Times | Read more
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York County residents wary over secrecy behind plans for old Panthers HQ in Rock Hill
Amid public grumbling about York County economic development deals settled behind closed doors, some county residents are questioning the need for secrecy for a potentially transformative Rock Hill project.
The city has an agreement to sell part of the former Carolina Panthers headquarters site off Interstate 77. Yet few details are public due to state and local economic development practices that allow or even mandate confidentiality until deals are finalized.
Several community groups and political candidates have posted on social media the past week asking why there aren’t more details when the seller, the city, is a public body. A Facebook post on York County District 2 for Change generated 170 comments. Examples include:
“What happened to all this transparency? When (do) the citizens of Rock Hill get a vote in how land in our community is being used?” asked Donna Bustle.
"Most things done in secret are never good,” said Dana Dalin.
“I don’t mind the buyer staying anonymous, but what the use will be should be public,” said Mike Maddox.
By John Marks, The Herald | Read more
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Editorial: Shine a tiny ray of sunlight on SC campaign donors
If you haven’t seen attack ads in next month’s primaries that are paid for by mysterious groups whose donors and motives are hidden, you haven’t been paying attention. They have become a staple of politics, nationally but particularly in South Carolina.
That’s because unlike 47 other states, South Carolina doesn’t require outside groups that spend money to influence our votes to tell us anything about who they are or what they’re doing.
Special interests keep thwarting legislative efforts to require some of the groups to report their spending and the names of their largest donors, by arguing that the U.S. Constitution requires lawmakers to let dark-money groups spend as much as they want, as anonymously as they want.
The wall they have built has become so impenetrable that reformers have all but stopped trying to require any reporting by anybody who doesn’t want to report their efforts to skew our votes, with lies or even with the occasional grain of truth.
Yet their claims about the Constitution are a massive fabrication — the absolute opposite of what the U.S. Supreme Court has said about the Constitution.
From The Post and Courier | Read more
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City of Beaufort still struggling with transparency in wake of public records breach
BEAUFORT — A series of actions taken by the City of Beaufort in recent months has left many in the community questioning how the city and those in charge of its day-to-day operations are handling transparency.
The hiring of a public-facing, communications professional charged with exactly that task was done without publicly advertising for the job and follows other recent actions, chief among them the high-profile mishandling of public documents containing sensitive information in 2025.
Beaufort City Manager Scott Marshall made the decision to hire Danielle Cobb, a local broadcast journalist, to serve as the city’s public information officer without making the position vacancy public or conducting a formal interview process.
Announced on April 22, the move is not illegal, but critics say it is not a best practice for a municipality already struggling with transparency and accountability.
In an email sent to The Post and Courier, Marshall said he made the decision to recruit and hire Cobb in an effort to fill the position quickly and “in the best interest of the city.”
“A direct appointment of a highly qualified candidate was a more expedient, less time-consuming and preferred option over posting the position and interviewing multiple applicants,” he said.
Ashley Brandon, the city’s previous PIO, served in the role a little over a year before it was announced at a March city council meeting that she had resigned. Brandon’s departure followed inadvertent release of more than 9,000 pages of unredacted documents as part of an attempt to fulfill a public records request in July of 2025.
By Mindy Lucas, The Post and Courier Beaufort County | Read more
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FOIA master Jason Leopold’s playbook: How persistence unlocks public records
Jason Leopold, a senior investigative reporter at Bloomberg News, has built a reputation as one of the country’s most relentless users of the Freedom of Information Act. He is the 2026 recipient of the Brechner Freedom of Information Award.
He previously reported for Truthout, BuzzFeed and VICE News, covering the CIA’s torture program and portions of the Mueller report. He now hosts the podcast “Disclosure" and writes Bloomberg’s FOIA Files newsletter, documenting his battle for public records.
Over the years, he has filed thousands of FOIA requests and sued the federal government nearly 200 times. Most recently, he unearthed a trove of documents related to the Epstein case.
E&P spoke with Leopold about best practices and what he’s learned — including from his own missteps.
By Diane Sylvester, Editor & Publisher | Read more
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By Jim Pumarlo, Newspaper Consultant
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| Elections alert: Be aware of, prepare for legal minefield
The months-long election season is taxing enough as newsrooms stretch resources to monitor candidates and campaigns in addition to delivering everyday reports. All aspects of election coverage are put under the microscope. Fairness and consistency are paramount in today’s supercharged political environment.
Newsrooms should brainstorm now to develop plans. The stronger your organization, the better you’ll be in to handle unexpected circumstances that are certain to arise.
Add one more item to your checklist: Be aware of and prepared for the legal minefield. Many questions and challenges – legal and operational – are likely to confront newspapers during election season.
The topic was explored a couple of years ago in a webinar sponsored by the National Newspaper Association Foundation. I co-presented along with Al Cross, former director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. The points bear repeating as newsrooms navigate another contentious election season.
Use this list as a starting point. Read more
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