During SCPA's 2020 Virtual Meeting, held Oct. 28-29, we honored our state's top daily and weekly newspaper journalists. If you missed the awards presentations, you can watch the videos and view First Place comments.

First Place: The State
Out an impressive group of entries, The State takes top honors for the targeted significance of the Hidden Earmarks project, which raised important questions and followed the money. This entry tackled how millions of state tax dollars are secretly spent each year. The State illuminated the horse trading, power of politics and how political philosophy has little to do in some instances where there is an appetite for pork. This in-depth public service journalism required the newspaper to file 70 FOI requests to 13 state agencies, plus a few additional FOIs to the General Assembly and several follow-up FOI requests to state agencies. The State – fueled by FOI know-how and a dedicated team of reporters – accomplished the complex feat of exposing the secret process by which millions of state taxpayers’ dollars were being secretly funneled to pet projects in lawmakers’ home districts each year. We are hopeful that this work will lead to reform of South Carolina’s earmark system.

Honorable Mention: The Post and Courier
The Post and Courier flooded the zone with this entry. The newspaper files open records requests on an almost daily basis to bring crucial information to light for their readers. The Post and Courier showed special dedication to using the FOI to understand the challenges our state faced and how crucial decisions were crafted related to South Carolina’s uneven response to COVID-19. The P&C staff uses the Freedom of Information Act to the fullest. It’s in all that they do. Keep pushing!

First Place: Kacen Bayless, The Island Packet
When Island Packet reporter Kacen Bayless discovered that some of the county’s highest elected officials planned to meet in secret at a high-end resort restaurant to discuss a $300 million roads project, he drove to the meeting and decided to listen in. A meeting of the county’s highest elected leaders regarding such a massive project should be open to the public, he thought.
At the ritzy restaurant, Bayless approached the leaders’ table and asked to listen in. The group of elected officials expressed shock. They told Bayless to leave and accused him of “ambush journalism.”
Instead of leaving, Bayless decided to observe the secret meeting from a booth inside the restaurant and tried to uncover what was being discussed.
Through his own observations and off-the-record interviews with helpful restaurant servers, Bayless was able to piece together who was invited to the meeting, what was being discussed and who paid for the dinner.
Judges said this entry was simple, but great. It speaks to the culture of the county and its problems… and this is probably what’s going on everywhere. We applaud Bayless for his assertiveness, persistence, deep knowledge of the officials’ behavior and dogged pursuit of the truth.

Any journalist who has ever worked at a weekly newspaper knows that the job does not end at 5 o’clock on Friday. Travis Jenkins, editor of The Chester News & Reporter personifies the dedication, persistence and courage required to qualify for this award. From covering Chester’s beloved sports teams to facing down public officials who, through ignorance or arrogance, deny the public the opportuning to see how life-affecting decisions are made, Jenkins is unflagging. Not only does he make sure the public’s right to know is protected, but he also plays it on the front page and backs up his paper’s news coverage with editorials that explain to readers why FOI matters. Last year, his effectiveness was most evident in his reporting on a sensational fatal shooting of a shoplifting suspect in a Walmart parking lot. Long after rival news media had relegated this story to inside pages – if not, dropped it altogether — Jenkins’ persistence netted The News & Reporter exclusive access to key video and audio recordings that enhanced readers’ understanding of what happened that tragic day. Similar incidents in other communities have led to acrimonious, sometimes violent confrontations with authorities. It is no stretch to think that Jenkins’ comprehensive and even-handed reporting helped Chester avoid such incidents.

From top to bottom, this photographer showed the best use of composition, lighting, emotion, photo quality and creativity in all their images making them the Photojournalist of the Year. The story of each of these photos is clear and impactful. They creatively used the entire frame of the composition to tell the stories, the subject matter of each image is clear and the foreground & background play vital roles in the story telling of each photo. 
Assertive Journalism Award

First Place: Myrtle Beach Herald
The Myrtle Beach Herald displayed proper outrage when local governments in its community violated open meetings laws and took the public’s business behind closed doors. On its news and editorial pages, the paper reminded readers and public officials about the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and forced local governments to open their meetings. In an editorial the paper noted that “If the public is to have any faith in elected officials, citizens must be able to see how leaders reach the decisions that impact their lives. There can be no trust without transparency.” The newspaper stood up for the public’s right to know and did a hell of a job explaining that a crisis like COVID-19 should not be an excuse for doing the public’s business in secret.

Honorable Mention: Travis Jenkins, The News & Reporter
For months, The News and Reporter filed FOIA requests to every agency in possession of body and dashcam videos related to a police shooting in the Walmart parking lot. Travis Jenkins was denied — but kept requesting — and Chester Police eventually gave the newspaper the body camera footage. He was also the first to obtain police dashboard camera footage and recordings of every radio communication and 911 call that took place during and immediately following the shooting. Jenkins provided this information to the public to present as clear a picture as possible of what happened that day. Jenkins also worked for months to obtain a financial audit of the sheriff’s department, which showed a possible pattern of financial corruption for which the former sheriff was eventually indicted.  In other examples, The News and Reporter worked to remind local bodies of the importance of adhering to the Freedom of Information Act.

First Place: Travis Jenkins, The News & Reporter
It takes courage for a small-market news organization to take on the local police department the way The Chester News and Reporter did. In November of 2019, an incident took place in Chester County that would become part of a worldwide narrative in the months to come when a young African American male was shot by police in the Walmart parking lot. The paper relentlessly pursued the video and audio recordings from the police shooting until its community was informed about exactly what had happened. After being rebuffed by the City of Chester, the Chester Police Department, SLED and the state Attorney Generals’ office for months, Jenkins continued to push news and opinion coverage on the subject. He successfully obtained every piece of video and audio related to the shooting, which The News and Reporter shared with the public.

Honorable Mention: Christian Boschult, Katie Powell and Charles D. Perry, Myrtle Beach Herald
Throughout a difficult year, Myrtle Beach Herald reporters challenged local leaders about their decisions related to COVID-19 and aggressively pursued stories that were in the public’s interest. They pushed back when Horry County Council held secret meetings – especially troubling during a pandemic when openness was critical. County leaders reversed their position. As COVID-19 cases surged across the Grand Strand, reporters fought for information on reopening Horry County Schools, and reported on how the district could protect students and teachers. The newspaper staff also pressed state health officials to release more information about where COVID-19 patients lived.

S.C. Newspaper Network (SCNN), the sales arm of SCPA, mailed quarterly advertising network payments totaling more than $65,000 to SCPA member newspapers last week.
These totals include the QuarterPage+ Ad Network payout of $48,036 and the Small Space Display (2x2/2x4/2x6) Advertising Network payout of $14,669. This is for ads run July-September. Classified revenue is paid out annually in January.
“We are thankful for the continued support of our participating newspapers,” said Randall Savely, Director of Operations. “The SCNN networks are a great source of added revenue for member newspapers and the income from these networks is vital to the continuing operations of SCPA.”
Every daily newspaper and virtually every weekly newspaper participates in SCNN's ad networks.
If your newspaper is an SCPA member and does not participate in one of the SCNN networks, contact Randall to learn how these networks can provide added revenue to your newspaper.

We hope you enjoyed our free Google Tools training in October. Here are the links to the training session recordings if you weren't able to make it: 

We also have a tipsheet with information about these powerful Google tools and how to best use them! If you're interested in learning more about all of the tools Google offers you can contact the host of the training series, Mary Nahorniak, for more information!