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Your connection to industry & member news | June 18, 2026
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SCPA seeks feedback for 2026 News Contest
SCPA is starting to update the News Contest rules as we prepare to launch the 2026 News Contest rules and digital entry platform in early October. If you have any suggestions, please let us know in the next few weeks.
The contest period will be for work published between Nov. 16, 2025 – Nov. 15, 2026. The deadline to enter will be Dec. 4, and awards will be presented on March 12, 2027 at the Annual Meeting in Columbia.
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By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications
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Is the Trump administration ignoring laws protecting the press?On April 8, 1971, individuals protesting the firing of a Stanford University Hospital employee seized and occupied the administrative offices of the hospital, demanding that the employee be re-hired and that the hospital undertake other reforms regarding hiring of minority employees. The next day, after negotiations with the protestors reached an impasse, the police were called in to clear the sit-in. In the end, there were 23 arrests. Twelve of the protestors and 13 police officers were injured, with two of the officers seriously injured.
The Stanford Daily, the student newspaper at the university, published a special edition on April 11 focusing on the incident that included photographs of the encounter between the protestors and police, taken by a Stanford Daily photographer on the scene. The next day, the Palo Alto police obtained and executed a search warrant on the newspaper’s office, seeking photographs and photo negatives that could identify protestors who assaulted police.
The Daily and some of its staff members then sued, alleging that the police search violated their rights under the First (freedom of speech and the press), Fourth (appropriate searches) and Fourteenth (applies constitutional rights to the states) Amendments of the United States Constitution. Eventually the U.S. Supreme Court held in a five-three ruling that the police search was not improper. In particular, the Court held that the First Amendment does not bar the police from searching newsrooms for relevant evidence. Read more
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|  Check out this mural in Williamston at The Journal's office! It was painted by Jena Stewart of Color Chaos. We're starting to see SC 250 and America 250 special sections, coverage, events and commemorative pieces in SCPA member publications. Make sure to share them with us.
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|  Later this summer, SCPA Attorney Jay Bender is creating a mixed media painting to commemorate the Press Association's upcoming 175th anniversary. Please send us PDFs (or other print/digital files) featuring excessive redactions, letters that establish high fees for FOIA requests and outrageous responses to your requests for possible inclusion in Jay's artwork.
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|  SCPA's interns are working on a new weekly social media campaign featuring your pets. To be included, send us a photo of your pet(s) with name, age and a fun fact. Pictured above is Co-Executive Director Randall Savely's dog, Theo.
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Finaldi named editor of Island Packet following national search
The Island Packet has promoted Laura Finaldi to editor following a national search, staff members learned Wednesday.
Finaldi joined the newsroom in September as senior reporter/editor. She has been leading the newsroom in an unofficial capacity since November, after the departure of former executive editor Robert York.
“I’m so lucky,” Finaldi said Thursday. “We have a very strong, dedicated team that is very focused on telling stories that resonate with our readers, doing it fairly and doing it accurately.”
A native of Danbury, Connecticut, Finaldi has more than 12 years of professional journalism experience, working for places like The Boston Globe, The Raleigh News & Observer and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Florida. Her work has focused primarily on business journalism.
At the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Finaldi covered retail and tourism. In many ways, Finaldi said, the area is not too different from Hilton Head Island. Both are beach communities that face infrastructure challenges caused by growth and tourism, she said.
By Li Khan, The Island Packet | Read more
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Journalism veteran returns to NC to lead Charlotte Observer, Rock Hill Herald newsrooms
Matt Leclercq, a longtime North Carolina journalist whose career began covering rural communities near Fayetteville, has been named the new editor of The Charlotte Observer and The (Rock Hill) Herald at a pivotal moment for both the newspaper and the local news industry.
Leclercq, who most recently helped oversee coverage and newsroom strategy at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, succeeds Rana Cash, who resigned as executive editor at the beginning of the month.
He officially was introduced to Observer staff Tuesday during a newsroom meeting in Charlotte.
Prior to the job in Fort Worth and stints as an editor at USA Today in Washington and at Gatehouse Media in Austin, Leclercq spent roughly two decades at The Fayetteville Observer.
By Théoden Janes, The Charlotte Observer | Read more
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SC Supreme Court hears arguments against secrecy laws around death penalty
COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s high court heard arguments in a case that could allow the publication of some information about state execution methods currently protected under a “shield law.”
Since 2023, corrections officials have been protected under state law by regulations that allowed them to shield most information about how they carry out executions to protect the identities of companies that produced and sold the drugs used in lethal injections.
An opinion by the S.C. Attorney General’s Office, and subsequent court decisions, made it appear to be settled law. But after the January 2025 execution of inmate Marion Bowman by lethal injection attracted scrutiny from his attorneys — who determined his death to have been caused by drowning — organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union pursued additional information about the execution methods, which they believed to be in the public interest.
They received some of the information they requested, a portion of which had already been reported publicly. However, they feared they couldn’t share it without going to jail for doing so.
According to the ACLU’s lawsuit, the organization possesses “identifying information” under the law they believe to be in the public interest. But publishing it could result in their criminal prosecution, punishable by up to three years in prison. The ACLU won’t say exactly what it has for this reason.
By Nick Reynolds, The Post and Courier | Read more
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Loss of newspapers led to $1.1 billion more in borrowing costs for local U.S. governments
A new report puts a $1.1 billion price tag on the cost of newspapers closing to local governments. The report builds on a 2020 study that found lenders demand higher interest rates for “unmonitored local governments” because they perceive there to be a greater risk of wasteful spending, and those higher lending costs for schools, roads, hospitals and other public infrastructure trickle down to taxpayers. The new report estimates how much more local governments in news deserts are paying, with New York ($152 million), Texas ($132 million) and Alabama ($104 million) having the highest total annual incremental borrowing costs attributable to living in a news desert, Matthew Baker and Dermot Murphy write.
Picked up from API's Need to Know Newsletter
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