SC Lights Contact Us

Leadership Academy
Sept. 9 (registration closed), Oct. 14 & Nov. 11
This three-part Academy will not only help build the skills of your newspaper’s next generation of leaders, but it will give them the enthusiasm needed to carry our industry into the future.

View schedule and register.

Maximize your sales team's efforts
Sept. 15
SCPA is hosting an ad management workshop and ad director roundtable at SCPA Offices.
Register here.


Collegiate Boot Camp

Sept. 17
Collegiate members: Join SCPA at USC Aiken from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. for training in writing, editing, design and photography.Registration packet will be available here Friday morning.




industrynews

Papers need online exclusivity protection, prof says
9/2/10
Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
By Eric Clemons and Nehal Madhani
Newspapers should get special copyright protection that would stop aggregators from reposting their content for 24 hours, contends a Wharton School professor.

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Waccamaw Economic Opportunity Council firing challenged
9/2/10
The Sun News
By Steve Jones
The attorney for fired Waccamaw Economic Opportunity Council executive director Beth Fryar said Wednesday that EOC board members are liable to cover any damages from a lawsuit out of their own pockets. "It's so unfortunate that a nonprofit corporation that's supposed to provide for the needs of people blatantly disregards the law," Henrietta Golding of the McNair Law Firm in Myrtle Beach said.
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AbitibiBowater gets good news in Ottawa and Wilmington

8/30/10
Editor & Publisher

U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware has approved AbitibBowater's $1.35 billion financing plan, which the Montreal-based newsprint manufacturing giant expects will enable it to exit bankruptcy in mid-October, about a year-and-a-half after it petitioned for a Chapter 13 reorganization.
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Swansea wants $10K to fulfill resident's FOIA request
8/30/10
WIS
By Jody Barr

SWANSEA, SC (WIS) - A Swansea businesswoman is being told to pony up $10,000 if she wants to see public records she's asked for in a Freedom of Information Act request.

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GoGamecocks.com moving to membership model
8/27/10
The State
By Henry B. Haitz III

In anticipation of college football season, we have rewritten the playbook for GoGamecocks.com. In the coming days, we will begin charging a modest membership fee to access a new and improved website. Memberships will be available for $50 per year (less than 14 cents per day) or $10 per month.
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Special prosecutor to investigate Holly Springs fire department
8/26/10
Herald-Journal
By Jason Spencer
Seventh Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy has appointed attorney John M. Rollins Jr. special prosecutor in a case involving alleged Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) violations by the Holly Springs Fire and Rescue District board of commissioners.

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Smith to leave Walterboro; Honeycutt named publisher
8/25/10
The Press and Standard
For the first time in nearly 18 years, the management at The Press and Standard will change when veteran newspaper publisher Jamey Honeycutt of Cameron, Mo., takes the helm. Taylor M. Smith III, publisher of Colleton County’s newspaper since Dec. 1, 1992, has accepted a corporate position with The Press and Standard’s parent company, Smith Newspapers Inc.

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The State hires new
USC beat reporters
8/25/10
The State
Josh Kendall, who has covered the SEC for almost a decade, has been named the new USC football beat writer for The State.

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See you later, friends

8/24/10
The Item
By Chip Chase
Where have the years gone? It's been a wild ride at Osteen Publishing and The Item in the past 20 years. During that period, your newspaper and its parent company have probably gone through more changes than any time in its history.
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Oct. 1 is deadline to file postal statement
8/24/10
The deadline to file your annual USPS Statement of Ownership with your postmaster is Oct. 1. The current form can be found at www.usps.com.
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Free football photos available this fall
8/24/10
Photos from all Carolina and Clemson home football games will be available for SCPA members to use this football season on the www.SCNewsShare.com content sharing website.
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Natl. Newspaper Week
will be Oct. 3-9

8/24/10
National Newspaper Week – sponsored annually by Newspaper Association Managers – will be Oct. 3-9. SCPA will be providing an appropriate editorial cartoon and an Op-Ed piece. If you have an editorial you want to share for the week, please e-mail it to us. SCPA’s promotional materials will be available on www.scpress.org in mid-September.
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Publisher Rod Shealy
dies at 56

8/18/10
Influential South Carolina political consultant and newspaper owner Rod Shealy died Wednesday at the Medical University of South Carolina. He was 56.
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SCPA Foundation intern tries out newspapering

8/24/10
As the summer wraps up, so does the SCPA Foundation’s summer internship program.
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Editorial: FOI violations
will be addressed

8/24/10
By Ernie Lambert
Hometown News, Inc.
A small but potentially significant moment in history occurred on Aug. 9 in Spartanburg County when State Magistrate Judge William Womble, Jr. issued summons to four members of the Holly Springs Fire and Rescue District’s Board of Commissioners.
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Difficult search through Clyburn center records
8/19/10
The Post and Courier
By Diane Knich
ORANGEBURG — Getting details on how millions of state and federal program dollars for the James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center have been spent over the past 12 years will be tough.
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USC J-School to hold career fair
8/24/10
USC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications will be holding its fall career fair on Oct. 29 at the Courtyard Marriott in downtown Columbia.
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USC honors Sossamon
8/13/10
The Honorable Louis C. Sossamon, retired publisher of The Gaffney Ledger, was honored by family, friends and fans at a reception hosted by University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides and his wife, Patricia Moore-Pastides, on Aug. 12 at the President’s House. Lou was honored for his vast contributions to the University of South Carolina.
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National Newspaper Week approaching
8/13/10
National Newspaper Week – sponsored annually by Newspaper Association Managers – will be Oct. 3-9.

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The State honors
Ardis, O'Connor
8/13/10
The State
By Bertram Rantin
The State honored two journalists with its top awards Thursday.
Designer Susan Ardis received the newspaper’s Hampton Award, and state government reporter John O’Connor received the Gonzales Award. The awards are named after key figures in the newspaper’s history.

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Editorial: Renewed enforcement of FOIA
8/13/10
Herald-Journal
Most public bodies in the Upstate have never embraced the Freedom of Information Act. They prefer secrecy. They usually try to find a way to circumvent the requirements of the law. Sometimes, they flagrantly violate it.

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Post and Courier names classified ad manager
8/13/10
Michael P. Chauvin has joined The Post and Courier as classified advertising manager for print and digital sales.

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Holly Springs confronts FOIA after reporter banned
8/11/10
Herald-Journal
Staff Reports
Three Holly Springs Fire and Rescue District commissioners — and one former commissioner — will appear in court next month to answer a formal complaint that they intentionally violated the state Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.

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SC officials charged with open meeting violation
10/10/10
By Susanne M. Schafer
Associated Press

Four fire commissioners have been charged with violating the state's open meetings law, the first time a criminal case has has been brought against South Carolina public officials over the 1974 statute, officials said Tuesday.
"There have been civil suits, but not criminal charges," said South Carolina Press Association executive.

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Criminal charges filed
in Upstate FOI case;
1st S.C. prosecution

8/10/10
Hometown News
By Jay King

For the first time in South Carolina history, public officials are facing charges under the criminal provisions of the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

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Internship opens up
world of possibilities

8/9/10
Aiken Standard
By Teddy Kulmala

Editor's note: Aiken Standard summer intern Teddy Kulmala wrote a series of Teddy's Tryouts after he tried out different jobs in the community.
The tryouts have been completed, the articles have been written and my time at the Aiken Standard has come to an end. So, what do I have to show for it?
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Editorial: Watching what
in the woods?

8/9/10
The Post and Courier

Why does the U.S. Forest Service have surveillance cameras in the Francis Marion National Forest?
That's what we'd like to know.
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NNA says dropping Saturday delivery
will hurt rural newspapers

8/6/10
Editor & Publisher

Witnesses for the National Newspaper Association told the Postal Regulatory Commission Thursday that the Postal Service’s proposal to stop Saturday mail delivery will hurt rural America and the newspapers that serve it.
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Contrary to report,
S.C. newspapers hiring

8/6/10
An AEJMC report finds that the 2009 journalism and mass communication graduates entered a "very bad job market," but in South Carolina, newspapers are hiring. More than 25 job listings are available on the South Carolina Press Association’s website.

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Cooper says S.C. State
can account for money

8/6/10
The State
By Wayne Washington

South Carolina State University president George Cooper told the state’s higher education commission Thursday that his school can account for federal transportation money that is the subject of a state audit.
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Lawmakers: Close SEC's open records loophole
8/5/10
Associated Press
By Daniel Wagner

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation designed to make regulation of financial companies more transparent - and to close a major loophole in the sweeping financial overhaul enacted last month.
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Column: S.C. State —
Show us the money
8/4/10
The Post and Courier
By Brian Hicks

For those of you keeping score at home, South Carolina State still hasn't shown us the money.
Despite the Freedom of Information request from The Post and Courier, the calls from the state's top elected officials and a pending Legislative Audit Council investigation, the university still has not provided any information about what happened to around $25 million in federal funds earmarked for a transportation center.
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Holly Springs fire board holds closed-door session
8/ 4/10
Herald-Journal
By Lee G. Healy

Holly Springs fire commissioners voted to accept the terms of a severance package for former chief Lee Jeffcoat on Tuesday night, but declined to make specifics public.
Board Chairman Ryan Phillips said after the meeting that the agreement will be made public after it has been signed by Jeffcoat, who, friends reported, was recovering after an emergency appendectomy Tuesday.
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Opinion: Open meetings should be accessible
7/30/10
The State
We’re not going to claim that it was fascinating to watch, but it was an important step for public access last month when ETV streamed the Budget and Control Board’s monthly meeting live on its website.

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Star Power
7/29/10
Lexington County Chronicle &
The Dispatch News
By Jerry Bellune
Do you labor in relative obscurity at work that is taken for granted?
Like house work... never noticed unless not done well?
Thousands of people go to work at it every day, unsung and unappreciated.

Read More


Cartoonist Ariail joins Herald-Journal
7 /28/10
The Herald-Journal
By Luke Connell
Ariail's cartoons on global, national and state issues are featured in more than 600 publications across the country, and his first cartoon drawn specifically for the Herald-Journal Opinion page.
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S.C. State blocks access to transport center records
7/28/10
The Post and Courier
By Diane Knich
South Carolina State University officials are refusing The Post and Courier access to public financial documents that could explain how about $25 million for transportation programs has been spent since the James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center was launched 12 years ago.
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Column: Where did all
that money go?

7/28/10
The Post and Courier
By Brian Hicks
Back in 2006, the Department of Transportation cut off funding to S.C. State's planned James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center project. That was about the time federal auditors said the school's financial records were so screwed up they couldn't tell how millions of dollars given for the project had been spent. At the time, the feds had already given the school $50 million, more than half of which just disappeared.
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Nominations sought for rural journalism award
7/28/10
The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues recognizes exemplary rural journalists, providing examples for others to follow.
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ABC Publisher’s Statement will count nonpaid ‘Verified’ circulations
7/28/10
Editor & Publisher
By Mark Fitzgerald

The Audit Bureau of Circulations' board approved sweeping changes in the way newspapers report circulation.
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Official: Yorktown must install sprinklers
7/28/10
The Post and Courier
By Allyson Bird

The State Fire Marshal's Office wants Patriots Point to install sprinklers where campers sleep aboard the aircraft carrier Yorktown -- or else discontinue the enormously popular program at the cash-strapped attraction.
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Affordable mail alliance calls on USPS to dismiss postal rate increase

7/26/10
National Newspaper Association today joined a nationwide alliance of nearly 700 companies and associations that use the U.S. mail to call for the Postal Regulatory Commission to promptly dismiss a request for a major postage rate increase.
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Charleston teams up
with BooCoo to offer
online auction ads

7/26/10
The Post and Courier has partnered with Boocoo.com, an online auction and free classified ads website. BooCoo is a Michigan-based company that launched in June.  Their emphasis is on local services.

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140 years old and still counting

7/26/10
By Jerry Bellune
Editor Emeritus, Lexington County Chronicle & The Dispatch News
People occasionally ask us how old our newspaper is.
We tell them it was founded in 1870.
They look at me as if wondering if I was around then.
I wasn't. But Josh Harmon was.
He started it.

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Jenkins named News & Reporter editor
7/21/10
Travis Jenkins has been named editor of the News & Reporter in Chester.
Jenkins has been sports editor and a staff writer at the newspaper since 2003. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina-Spartanburg.

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