Your connection to industry & member news
Your connection to industry & member news
Your connection to industry & member news  |  Sept. 10, 2020

#SCPRESS20 Virtual Awards next week

SCPA's #SCPRESS20 Virtual Meeting, presented by AT&T, is next week!
Awards videos will premiere Sept. 14-18 on SCPA's Facebook page. All broadcasts begin at 4 p.m. Recordings will also be available afterwards. Here's the schedule:
  • Collegiate Awards Presentation – Monday, Sept. 14
  • PALMY Advertising Awards Presentation – Tuesday, Sept. 15
  • Associate & Individual Member Awards Presentation – Wednesday, Sept. 16
  • Weekly Awards Presentation – Thursday, Sept. 17
  • Daily Awards Presentation – Friday, Sept. 18
Your plaques and certificates should arrive within the next few days.
Information about educational sessions and more will be announced next week!

Island Packet, Beaufort Gazette journalists
seek to unionize

On Wednesday, journalists at The Hilton Head Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette newspapers took the first step toward becoming the state’s first active newspaper union as The Packet/Gazette Guild.
More than 80% of eligible reporters, photographers and producers at the newspapers, both owned by parent company McClatchy, have signed cards authorizing union representation by The Washington-Baltimore News Guild, Local 32035 of the Communications Workers of
America. CWA has 700,000 members across the U.S. and Canada.
The employees have requested voluntary recognition from management, citing overwhelming support among staff.
The journalists announced their unionization effort as McClatchy has finalized its sale to
Chatham Asset Management, a New Jersey-based hedge fund. 
The hedge fund ownership model has cut newsroom and production jobs across the country by prioritizing profits over local news. The Packet/Gazette Guild journalists want a seat at the table when it comes to decisions about their workplace, and believe that unionizing the newspapers will ensure the highest quality journalism for decades to come. Here's more about The Packet/Gazette Guild.

Deadline to file your postal statement with USPS is Oct. 1

Paid newspaper members: The deadline to complete and file your annual U.S. Postal Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (Form 3526) with your postmaster is Oct. 1.
This form must be published in your newspaper as follows:
  • Dailies and 2-3 Times Weekly: by Oct. 10
  • Weeklies: by Oct. 31
SCPA members must also email SCPA a copy of the form. This is a requirement of membership.

#SCPRESS20 Sponsor Spotlight: AT&T

Thanks to AT&T, our presenting sponsor, for supporting SCPA and our member newspapers!

Contact: Clifton Metcalf, Director, Public Affairs – NC, SC
Tell us about your organization:
We help family, friends and neighbors connect in meaningful ways every day. From the first phone call 140+ years ago to mobile video streaming, we innovate to improve lives. We have the nation’s fastest wireless network, based on analysis by Ookla® of Speedtest Intelligence® data median download speeds for Q1 2020. And we’re continuing to invest in America and in South Carolina. Over the past 5 years, we invested more in the U.S. than any other public company. In South Carolina specifically, we invested more than $825 million from 2017-2019.

What services/resources/opportunities can you offer to SCPA member newspapers?
We offer the products and services that can help newspapers compete and succeed in a fast-paced, online world. Mobile broadband can deliver copy and video to editors for immediate posting, while fiber optics connect newsrooms and printing plants. In short, we provide the technological platforms that newsrooms are built upon.

What's the most exciting thing going on at your organization?
There’s a lot of exciting things going on at AT&T today as we continue to evolve from a traditional communications company to a modern, multi-media company. One that’s especially relevant here during hurricane season is we’re building FirstNet, the only nationwide, high-speed broadband communications platform dedicated to and purpose-built for America’s first responders and the extended public safety community. It’s a public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) – an independent agency within the federal government.

Why do you support SCPA and our member newspapers?
We don’t just work here, we live here, too. More than 1,600 active employees and 6,000 retirees call South Carolina “home.” South Carolina newspapers help keep communities connected, people informed, and our state growing. For 141 years, that’s what we’ve been doing in South Carolina, too.

Fun fact about you and/or your organization:
We have more than 1.6 million strand-miles of fiber optics in South Carolina today, enough to circle the equator more than 64 times.

Know someone that you’d like SCPA to spotlight? Email us your recommendations.

FOI Briefs

Editorial: Letting SC citizens see body cam videos will help our police officers, not hurt them

Too many people — including some politicians and law enforcement officials — are putting too much effort into blocking public access to police body camera videos.
But there’s a simple reality that the shortsighted opponents of greater access never seem to grasp.
Yes, body camera videos can play a major role in identifying and weeding out police officers who fall well short of meeting the high levels of trust and faith that society has placed in them.
But body camera videos can also play a powerful role in assuring society that the overwhelming majority of police officers are indeed living up to the high standards and responsibilities that their roles demand.
They can affirm the fact that — shift after shift, day after day — most police officers across this state and country are doing the right thing.
That, more than any other reason, is why the people who most fear the idea of making body cam videos public should actually be the ones supporting it with enthusiasm.
The truth is that it’s not transparency that hinders police work — it’s the resistance to acting in a transparent way that does so.
From The State | Read more

Editorial: SC needs to know more about COVID-19 in hospitals, restaurants, nursing homes, everywhere

Every day, DHEC tells us how many South Carolinians were tested for COVID-19, how many tested positive, how many are hospitalized, how many of those are in the ICU or on ventilators, and how many have died.
It’s all very useful, particularly since DHEC does the math and provides charts that make it easy to see the trends and visualize the pandemic’s assault on our state.
But if you’re ready to try dining in at one of Charleston’s finest restaurants and want to see which ones had done the best job of stopping outbreaks among their staff, you’re out of luck: Unlike health agencies in some states, DHEC doesn’t provide a list of restaurants where employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
DHEC does tell us, twice a week, the total number of infections and deaths at nursing homes and other residential care facilities. But don’t expect to be able to tell if it’s getting safer or more dangerous at the nursing home where your father with dementia has lived a restricted life since March. The agency doesn’t say how many nursing home residents and employees are tested, or when the positive tests come in.
From The Post and Courier | Read more

Want to know about arrests, 911 calls, crime in Bluffton? It’s now a click away

Anyone curious about what Bluffton police are doing can now check the town’s website.
The Bluffton Police Department began publishing reports online on Friday of 911 calls that officers respond to, which include information on crime and arrests in the community.
Called the “Public Information Log,” each entry provides the nature of the crime or incident, the address where officers went, the time they arrived, and a brief (but limited) description of what happened.
In a city news release, Interim Bluffton Police Chief Scott Chandler said, “Providing the public easy access to these records promotes transparency. The public lives, works, and visits Bluffton, so they have a right to know what is happening here.
By Jake Shore, The Island Packet | Read more

People & Papers

Sun News names new senior editor/general manager

Justin M. Madden has been named senior editor/general manager of The Sun News.
Madden will oversee the day-to-day operations of The Sun News and myrtlebeachonline.com. He arrives at a time when The Sun News is expanding its local reporting team, recently adding two new reporting positions to increase its coverage of Horry and Georgetown counties. ...
Madden is a multimedia journalist who began his career as a reporter at the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader. He later worked in the Cleveland, Ohio, area as a digital content producer at WEWS-TV and covered crime and courts and wrote high-impact stories for cleveland.com, an online media company. He currently is a desk editor for The Associated Press in New York.
Madden, a native of Southern California, is a graduate of Grambling University with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications. He is active in a number of professional journalism organizations, including the National Association of Black Journalists and Online News Association.
He begins his new role Sept. 15.
From The Sun News | Read more

Big changes are coming to Myrtle Beach Herald

Beginning with the Sept. 25 edition, the Herald will assume a new look, featuring more hyperlocal news and greatly enhance distribution across all of Myrtle Beach, Socastee, Surfside Beach, and Murrells Inlet. The Myrtle Beach Herald is part of the MyHorryNews media company, which is locally-owned and operated. Waccamaw Publishers publishes 5 weekly newspapers, 1 monthly newspaper, and several special publications throughout the year. This year the company celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Over the past 6 months, our team at Waccamaw Publishers has been working hard to give the Herald a fresh, modernized look. Although it is not your traditional broadsheet newspaper, the new Herald will be a much smaller format that is easier to handle making reading it more enjoyable. Every page of the paper will be in vibrant full color, high bright paper to give more realistic depictions of photographs and advertisements.
Inside the publication, readers will continue to find news about the city council, county government, and breaking news that they have been accustomed to reading. The new Herald will feature more business news, information about entertainment opportunities, and interesting features about the people, places, and events unique to our community. 
By Stephen Robertson, Myrtle Beach Herald | Read more

Robert Ariail to pen cartoons for Charleston City Paper

Nationally syndicated cartoonist Robert Ariail will begin appear in the Charleston City Paper this week with a new cartoon series he’s calling, “Lowcountry.”
Ariail, who lives in Camden, was the editorial cartoonist for The State newspaper from 1984 until 2009, and was twice named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1995 and 2000.
His new cartoon series will focus on coastal issues, a topic he said he’s innately familiar with.
By Sam Spence, Charleston City Paper | Read more

The Sumter Item recognized with Media Appreciation Award for fire department coverage

The Sumter Item was recognized last week with an award from the S.C. State Firefighters' Association for its coverage of the Sumter Fire Department.
Departments across the state can nominate organizations and media companies for the award, which is determined based on the outlet's coverage that helps inform the public about fire education and life safety issues.
Covering more than breaking news situations such as accidents and house fires, The Item publishes feature stories on individual firefighters, follows the fire prevention department's efforts and goes behind the scenes with units during training and safety exercise operations. The submission included articles featured in print and online as well as episodes of Sumter Today, The Item's weekday video news show.
From The Sumter Item | Read more

Industry Briefs

Forming a community advisory board for your newsroom

On May 31, as protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police swept the nation, staffers at the Long Beach Post in Long Beach, California, watched as some demonstrations in their own city turned violent. By the following morning, 170 businesses in downtown Long Beach had been damaged or looted, including the building where the Post’s offices are located.
But as the sun rose over the downtown area, people started showing up to clear away the debris and repair the damages. By the end of the day, more than 2,000 volunteers had helped with the clean-up, said Long Beach Post Publisher David Sommers.
Watching this response from the community made Sommers decide to act on an idea he and his colleagues had been mulling for months: forming a community editorial board. The board, Sommers wrote, would bring new and different perspectives to the Post’s coverage, not only calling attention to wrongs in the community but also tapping into that same spirit that led 2,000 people to show up for their neighbors in a troubled time.
“We don’t want to be about what happened that night,” said Sommers. “We want to be about what’s going to happen moving forward.”
Community advisory boards are one way to start more of your journalism from a place of listening.
By Stephanie Castellano, American Press Institute | Read more

Upcoming Events

Thanks Annual Meeting Sponsors!

The following organizations support SCPA's Virtual Meeting & Awards! Please take a moment to visit these special organizations online.

PRESENTING SPONSOR

DIAMOND SPONSOR

PLATINUM SPONSORS

GOLD SPONSORS

SILVER SPONSORS

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