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Your connection to industry & member news | Sept. 25, 2025
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Celebrate National Newspaper Week Oct. 5-11 National Newspaper Week, celebrated Oct. 5-11, is a time to reflect on and reinforce the vital role newspapers play in informing, empowering and uniting our communities.
Since 1940, Newspaper Association Managers has sponsored and supported National Newspaper Week, a week-long promotion of the newspaper industry in the United States and Canada.
Local journalism is the heartbeat of informed communities. It brings stories to light that national outlets often overlook—stories about school board decisions, city council debates, neighborhood events and local heroes. In a world increasingly shaped by global headlines and social media noise, reconnecting with local news is vital for civic engagement, accountability and community resilience.
To build a better future, we must support local journalism through subscriptions, donations, sharing stories and encouraging young reporters. Schools, libraries and civic groups can also play a role in educating the next generation about media literacy and the importance of a free press.
By embracing local journalism, we’re not just preserving the past—we’re shaping a more informed, connected, and empowered future.
Celebrate National Newspaper Week with Us! Download and Use the Promo Materials: Help amplify the message by downloading the official materials and devoting as many column inches as possible to highlight the importance of your newspaper in the lives of readers. Don’t forget to share the message across all your social media platforms throughout the week!
Make It Local: Your readers care most about what affects them directly. Use this opportunity to editorialize about the unique relevance of your newspaper. Consider focusing on:
- Your role as a government watchdog
- Your coverage of local events, issues, and people
- Your dedication to publishing timely public notices
- Any other ways your paper contributes meaningfully to civic life
The Power of Association: You already know the power of local journalism — but when we band together as an industry, our message carries even further. Supporting National Newspaper Week means supporting the collective strength of newspapers nationwide.
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Upload election notices to SCPublicNotices.com All public notices related to S.C. elections should be added to our statewide public notice site.
Since these run as display ads, not all are being manually added or auto-fed into the system.
SCPA is happy to add these important notices to SCPublicNotices.com for you.
Please email us the PDF or let us know the run date and we'll pull the notices from your e-edition.
We're also starting to see county delinquent tax sale notices. Please send those our way, too!
Thanks for your help with this important project that ensures the public's right to know!
Also, here’s a quick primer on what types of notices/legals should be added. Most folks remember to post the notices that run in the classified section, but we also need all display notices including water quality reports, info on ordinances, tax sales, meeting dates and more!
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|  WE NEED YOUR HELP! Members of Kentucky Press Association did an outstanding job judging our News and Advertising Contests earlier this year. Now it is our turn... We still need 25 more members to help judge Kentucky's news contests, four for KPA's Ad Contest and three to help with collegiate division categories. Volunteer today and encourage your friends and co-workers to help! WE CANNOT HAVE OUR OWN CONTESTS WITHOUT VOLUNTEER JUDGES!
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|  | SCPA hosted ad sales trainer Ryan Dohrn last Friday for a full-day of motivational training. Thanks to nearly 30 members who attended and to Dohrn, who shared lots of great advice!
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Osteen and her JOUR 101 students
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Susan Doherty Osteen teaches USC Sumter students journalism basics
By Maya Ambuehl, SCPA Intern
Susan Doherty Osteen, a former editor of Charleston City Paper, is USC Sumter’s newest journalism instructor.
Journalism 101: Media and Society, is a new course Osteen developed, containing instruction on the fundamentals of journalism and guiding students through the different aspects of the journalism profession.
During the semester, students will hear from guest lecturers who are experts in fields such as newspaper media, media law, PR, advertising and broadcast journalism. They'll also work on writing and editing skills, and will have the opportunity to visit The Sumter Item newsroom, where they can earn a byline.
The Sumter Item has also secured a grant from the Williams-Brice-Edwards Charitable Trust to fund USC Sumter student intern(s) at the newspaper.
Osteen has been a part of the USC system since 2018, teaching first-year English Literature and Composition. She's taught at USC Sumter since 2020.
“I’ve often told students and colleagues that I am a ‘recovering journalist’ – trading the economy of AP style for the academic essay," Osteen said. "But the truth is that journalism is a terminal condition. Once made aware of its principles, it is impossible not to look at issues with an eye to the story and a demand for truth.
“The wonderful part of teaching this course is listening to students discuss the importance of local news for them and their community. If you want to restore your faith in the future of our country, spend some time in a college journalism classroom.”
Osteen is an alumna of Texas Christian University, earning a degree in journalism, as well as gaining her MFA in creative writing from USC. She is currently pursuing her PhD in English Literature.
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By Ann Blunt,
Summerville Journal Scene
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| Journal Scene to launch paid subscription model Dec. 3
Dear readers,
For more than half a century, The Summerville Journal Scene has been a part of your lives—delivered to homes, available in racks around town and dedicated to covering the people, places and events that make our community unique.
Beginning Dec. 3, The Journal Scene will transition from a free distribution model to a paid subscription-based newspaper. This was not a decision made lightly. It comes after careful consideration of how best to sustain quality, community-focused journalism in a changing media landscape.
A paid subscription offers several important benefits. First, it ensures reliability: your paper will be delivered directly to your home or mailbox each week, removing the uncertainty of rack availability or driveway delivery. Second, it expands access. For years, free distribution was limited to certain areas. With this change, anyone who wants The Journal Scene—whether you live in Summerville, Ridgeville, Knightsville or beyond—can receive it by mail. Ultimately, it helps ensure the reporting, photography and storytelling you rely on can continue for years to come. Read more
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District’s transparency effort leads to questions on spending
What can you buy for $1,150 at a dollar store? Bill Chaplin would like to know.
That was part of over $257,000 spent by the Georgetown County School District last month using “procurement cards.” It’s a streamlined payment system through Wells Fargo that the district adopted 15 years ago for purchases up to $2,500.
The P-cards, as they are known, caught the attention of Chaplin, a member of the executive committee of the county Republican Party, after he started looking at school finances last fall.
“They are very transparent,” he said. “They post every month on their website.”
But the effort at transparency raised more questions for Chaplin, who said he used to work as a corporate troubleshooter. That work “uncovered issues that you had to look beyond the surface to get to the problem,” he explained.
On the surface, the school district showed how it spent $2.8 million of its $117 million operating budget last year with P-cards. What it didn’t do is show what it bought or who bought it.
“They spend an average of $11,000 a month at Walmart,” Chaplin said, “Approximately the same amount at Amazon.”
Food purchases average over $10,000 a month, he said. Pizza and Chick-fil-A are popular, but purchases also include other restaurants and grocery stores.
Although he was told that much of the food is purchased for booster clubs, he said there is no way to know from the online documents that the clubs reimbursed the district.
By Charles Swenson, Costal Observer | Read more
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RCFP urges federal courts to lift restrictions on accessing immigration records
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is urging federal district courts to limit restrictions on remote public access to records filed in immigration cases so that members of the press and public can more easily monitor the government’s enforcement actions.
In letters sent to the chief judges of five federal district courts last week, the Reporters Committee expressed concerns about Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2(c), a little-known rule that blocks public access to immigration case filings via PACER, the electronic system for federal court records, forcing journalists to visit the courthouse to view them in person.
“This restriction prevents timely public access to fast-moving legal developments and impedes the ability of the press to report on critical, newsworthy matters,” the Reporters Committee argues in the letters, which were sent to federal courts in New York, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. “Timely public access to judicial records is not just good public policy — it is a matter of constitutional importance.”
The letters note that the Reporters Committee regularly hears from journalists who struggle to cover developments in immigration cases because of the rule’s restrictions. Additionally, the letters argue that the rule’s restriction on access is both too broad and too narrow to reasonably serve its purported goal of protecting sensitive information.
From Reporters Committee | Read more
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More Americans get news about government and politics than about other topics
More Americans say they get news about government and politics than four other topics asked about in a March 2025 Pew Research Center survey.
Older Americans and those who voted in the 2024 presidential election are especially likely to get government and political news. Younger adults, for their part, are more likely than older people to get news about entertainment.
A majority of Americans (62%) say they get news about government and politics extremely often or often. Smaller shares say they frequently get news about:
- Science and technology (32%)
- Business and finance (32%)
- Sports (27%)
- Entertainment (19%)
By Emily Tomasik, Pew Research Center | Read more
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By: John Foust,
Advertising Trainer
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| What’s fogging your view?
On our honeymoon, my wife and I went to Ogunquit, Maine, which we used as a home base to explore towns along Maine’s southern coast. Years before we met, we had each been to that area, but this was our first trip to Maine together. One of the places we visited was Cape Neddick, where one of the most recognized lighthouses in North America is located.
The Nubble Light is situated on a rock island about 100 yards off the tip of the cape (depending on the tides), in view of York Beach. When we arrived, the light was completely fogged in. “The lighthouse is right there,” I said. “Are you sure? I don’t see a thing,” she said. “Yep,” I encouraged her, “it’s right there.”
When it was time for lunch, we went to Fox’s Restaurant at the edge of the parking lot. We settled in at our table at a window facing the direction of the lighthouse. Still fogged in.
As we dined on lobster rolls, fries and Pepsis – the best lunch we’ve ever had – she glanced out the window and said, “There it is! It’s right there!” Sure enough, the fog had lifted in an instant, and the glorious Nubble was “right there” at the end of the parking lot.
That’s one of our favorite memories and we still talk about it as a special honeymoon gift. Sometimes, if we’re looking for something around the house or searching for a street sign, one of us will say, “It’s right there!”
The question to consider today is: What’s blocking the view? For us it was ocean fog. For you it may be something else. Read more
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