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Your connection to industry & member news | May 22, 2026
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One week left to enter PALMY Ad Contest!Your first three entries are free Next Friday, May 29, is the final day to submit your best print and digital ads, and revenue-generating concepts into the 2026 PALMY Advertising Contest!
Thanks to support from SCNN, each SCPA news organization's first three entries are free!
The PALMY Awards recognize the Palmetto State's best, brightest and most enterprising ad professionals and the impact they have made in their communities.
It's quick and easy to upload your entries! Email us if you need your log-in credentials.
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SC Judge says FOIA doesn’t apply, nixes effort to void redistricting bill over rulesSouth Carolina Circuit Judge Daniel Coble early Wednesday afternoon nixed a bid by activist groups to void a historic Congressional redistricting bill passed this week by the state House Republican majority, saying the state’s open meetings law didn’t apply in this case.
In his one-page ruling, which came just hours after oral arguments before him at the Richland County courthouse Wednesday morning Coble ruled that the issue before him was “a purely political question” over which he had no authority, and any “judicial intervention would violate well-established separation of powers principles.”
In any event, Coble’s ruling said, state Freedom of Information Act provisions which plaintiffs in the case had accused S.C. House members of violating did not apply in the present case.
Coble’s ruling only pertained to a procedural issue targeting the speedy manner in which the House Rules Committee earlier this week went about changing rules to sharply limit debate by lawmakers on a bill that created seven new Congressional districts across South Carolina. The new districts favor Republicans and, depending on what voters do in November, could eliminate the current 6th District member of Congress, Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Democrat and the only African American in the current delegation.
The ruling does not affect any future legal challenges to the new districts themselves.
Plaintiff attorney Kathleen McDaniel, representing the South Carolina branches of the American Civil Liberties Union and the League of Women Voters, told Coble in the Wednesday hearing that the Rules Committee violated the S.C. Freedom of Information Act by scheduling a meeting Monday night to limit debate with little notice.
By John Monk, The State | Read more
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Send SCPA your craziest FOIA redactions, responses
Later this summer, SCPA Attorney Jay Bender is starting work on a mixed media painting to commemorate the Press Association's upcoming 175th anniversary. Please send us PDFs (or other print/digital files) featuring massive redactions on FOIA responses, 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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MUSC, Open Notebook offer training on sharpening science & health reporting
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Segal named editor at The State after search by McClatchy
Chris Segal, a North Carolina native and former editor of The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, has been named executive editor of The State, succeeding Brian Tolley as leader of the Columbia newsroom.
Segal, 39, came to The State last fall to oversee metro news reporters and has most recently been in charge of the newsroom following Tolley’s retirement in March. He was among three finalists for the job.
Nicole Stockdale, McClatchy’s senior vice-president for local news in the Carolinas, announced Segal’s hiring during the newsroom’s staff meeting Thursday morning. Segal said he’s ready for the challenge and looks forward to directing what he called an energetic and talented staff.
“The State stands apart in our expertise and our history and our ability to bring people together,’’ he said. “It’s a great newsroom that people want to stay in and work at.’’
Segal said that, as editor, he’ll stress local stories that include a mixture of daily news and enterprise pieces. Accountability journalism will be an important part of The State’s mission, Segal said.
But he noted that The State has challenges ahead.
“I want readers to know these are uncertain and challenging times in business, including the journalism business,’’ he said. “We have a lot of work to regain the trust of readers.’’ Stockdale said Segal got the executive editor’s post because he has clear priorities and a solid background in journalism. She said he has strong planning skills, “a heart for journalism, and an optimism that there is so much promise to build on the momentum you already have.’’ Born in Gastonia, N.C., Segal grew up in southern California. He graduated from Pepperdine University with a journalism degree, and he later received an MBA from the University of Mount Olive in North Carolina.
By Sammy Fretwell, The State | Read more
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Bartelme named finalist in national CFINR Awards
Tony Bartelme of The Post and Courier was named a finalist in the Center for Integrity in News Reporting (CFINR) Third Annual National Awards print reporting division for "41 Seconds."
The awards were presented at a dinner ceremony on May 19 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.
"These journalists demonstrate that impartial and objective news reporting is not only possible — it is being practiced every day, in newsrooms large and small, across the country," said Rufus Friday, executive director of CFINR. "The growth in submissions tells us something important: there is a deep and broad commitment within the profession to the values that earn public trust. Tonight we honored the very best of that work."
Bartelme was named winner of the Center for Integrity in News Reporting Award of Excellence – South Carolina at the SCPA Annual Meeting last March.
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SCPA member Jessica Brodie publishes third novel
Jessica Brodie, an SCPA member who has been the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate since 2010, released a contemporary Christian novel this spring titled Hidden Seeds that is seeing strong success and is currently an Amazon #1 new release. The book is third in the faith-based, Amazon bestselling Dahlia Series that prominently features journalists at a town newspaper as characters. Returning to Dahlia after tragedy exposes her fiancé’s betrayal, Natalie Motts rebuilds her life through art and unexpected friendship with Laney, a trafficking survivor hiding a dangerous past. When Natalie’s teenage sister vanishes, Laney must choose between protecting her hard-won safety and stepping back into darkness to bring the girl home. Find Hidden Seeds on Amazon here and from other book retailers.
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|  | Thanks to the State House press corps for all they've done this session to inform and educate South Carolinians.
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|  | On Tuesday, Pat McNeely delivered a riveting SC250 lecture on Elizabeth Timothy and her daughter-in-law, Ann Donovan Timothy, at the Camden Revolutionary War Visitor's Center. Elizabeth Timothy was America's first female journalist/newspaper publisher.
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|  | The Post and Courier Pee Dee's Academic Achievers, presented by Victors, awarded two high school seniors a $2,500 scholarship at its third annual awards banquet on May 19. (From left to right) The Post and Courier Pee Dee Publisher Heather Perry, Kaylanna Burroughs, Zion Mack and Tim Norwood of Victors.
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Editorial: When private parties pay government debts, that's the public's business
Inside the Statehouse, legislators have to decide how and whether to provide state funds for $150 million in cost overruns at the massive site north of Columbia that the Commerce Department is preparing for Scout Motors’ first manufacturing plant.
Earlier this month, the House joined the Senate in adding language to the state budget to require the Legislative Audit Council to review the overruns, which amount to more than 10 percent of the $1.3 billion the state agreed to pay to recruit Scout — and which Commerce blames on the state Department of Environmental Services’ refusal to sign off on its wetlands mitigation plans.
We haven’t been convinced by that argument, and neither have lawmakers — hence, the audit. But while the House signed on, it didn’t go along with the Senate’s proviso prohibiting any funding for the overruns until the audit is complete and the House and Senate sign off on paying.
Instead, the S.C. Daily Gazette reports, the House voted to let two other state agencies pull $133 million from a debt-repayment program to make any required payments in the coming fiscal year. But House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister tells Columbia’s State newspaper that the proviso also will prohibit state agencies from obligating themselves to any expenditures without state authorization, which would get at the ultimate cause of this problem: the agreement the Commerce Department and Richland County made to handle all the site preparation.
From The Post and Courier | Read more
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What happened to Beaufort County’s finance officer? Why the closed meetings?
The chief financial officer for Beaufort County has disappeared in the midst of budget deliberations. Meanwhile, the County Council is having closed-door meetings about a whistleblower complaint and workplace issues.
What’s going on in Beaufort County government?
Nobody’s saying much. But at least one County Council member thinks the county should be sharing more with the public about the unusual situation that’s rocked the local halls of power.
By Karl Puckett, The Island Packet | Read more
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Will Spartanburg County Council hold a new data center public hearing? It hasn’t been discussed.
SPARTANBURG — At Spartanburg County Council’s most recent meeting on May 18, Alva Pack stepped up to the mic during public comment to complain about the data center being built across from his home on Spring Lake Drive.
He was one of seven speakers to gripe about the NorthMark data center being built on South Pine Street where the old Kohler plant used to be.
Complaining about data centers seems to have become the latest local pastime, replacing the previous pastime of complaining about fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreements. NorthMark, which got a FILOT, counts as a twofer.
Pack, a retired doctor, said he’d lived there for more than 43 years and wasn’t happy about the land being cleared and the loss of trees. Wildlife had been run off or run over, traffic was atrocious and he couldn’t sit on his front porch without hearing the beeping of equipment backing up, he said.
He told council members that in an effort to get more information about the project, he’d emailed the company and the county’s building codes office to no avail.
“And I can’t get information from you guys,” he said. “I gotta sign Freedom of Information Act stuff, I gotta go here, I gotta go there.
“When I get the Freedom of Information Act, then I can be more specific on what’s going on,” he added. “I don’t know what side the generators are going in there, so I’m not going to talk about it. But when I get that, I’ll be back.”
He’s not alone in wanting more information. The state Department of Environmental Services announced it will hold a public meeting to take comments on the natural gas turbines NorthMark proposes to build to power its 450-megawatt data center.
By Christian Boschult, The Post and Courier Spartanburg | Read more
Related: Energy and water use, projected jobs and revenue: Spartanburg's NorthMark data center by the numbers (By Christian Boschult, The Post and Courier Spartanburg)
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News/Media Alliance hosts May 28 CIPA compliance webinar
Publishers of all sizes rely on web-based tracking technologies. Publishers across all states are increasingly receiving demand letters and suits related to CIPA and other state privacy and wiretapping measures.
The News/Media Alliance invites SCPA members to attend a webinar on May 28 from 1:30-2:30 p.m., featuring Matthew Pearson, partner in the Litigation Group at Frankfurt Kurnit to provide a publisher-focused overview of privacy litigation risk from suits raised by the plaintiff’s bar. The event will cover:
- the current litigation landscape related to wiretap, pen register and third-party pixel/cookie/SDK deception claims
- practical compliance strategies - guided by proven legal principles - that publishers can follow to minimize exposure to costly suits while still supporting critical advertising and marketing practices that sustain high-quality journalism
- practical considerations that publishers of all sizes can employ, such as disclosures, consent, audits - to mitigate litigation risk.
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Recording, resources available from 'Freedom of the Press: Views from the Front Line'
ClassACT HR73 recently presented its online forum “Freedom of the Press: Views from the Front Line" (recording).The panelists took up current crises such as unprecedented legal threats to news organizations and reporters, the politicizing of regulatory agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, the concentration of ownership of media outlets, and the decline of local newspapers.
The forum’s moderator Richard Tofel ’79, who was the founding general manager of ProPublica and the assistant publisher of the Wall Street Journal, headed a panel that included attorneys David McGraw, deputy general counsel and senior vice president at the New York Times and lead lawyer for the paper’s newsroom, along with Bruce Brown, president of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Francia García Hernández, a reporter for Block Club Chicago who covered Operation Midway Blitz, described the challenges of covering immigration and ICE operations in a city where nearly one-quarter of the residents are immigrants. Here are recordings of the forum and resources from the forum.
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DOJ subpoenas targeting Wall Street Journal, other news outlets ‘pose a serious threat for press freedom’
On May 11, The Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors subpoenaed its journalists as part of a federal leak investigation in connection with its reporting on U.S. military action against Iran. CNN reported that other news outlets have received grand jury subpoenas in recent months as well.
“Were the Justice Department seeking to obtain journalists’ records as a starting point in its leak investigations it would pose a serious threat for press freedom and would be a sharp break with historical precedent,” said Bruce D. Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “That kind of intrusion into reporters’ relationships with their sources chills independent reporting on the government, and ultimately threatens the public’s access to information.”
From Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press | Read more
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