Advertising’s slippery slope
Advertising’s slippery slope By John Foust, Advertising Trainer I remember taking a day-long ski trip to Virginia. The charter bus was filled with skiers who had different levels of experience: a few were pretty good, most were average, and some were novices like me. After a morning on the beginners’…
Is Your Website Being Used for AI? Can You Stop it?
Is Your Website Being Used for AI? Can You Stop it? Published Sept. 2023 By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications Chatbots such as ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence services have exploded online since their introduction just a few months ago. They have become so popular…
South Carolina Supreme Court is unanimous in its support of open courts and open records. Are the trial courts paying attention?
South Carolina Supreme Court is unanimous in its support of open courts and open records. Are the trial courts paying attention? Published Sept. 2023 By SCPA Attorney Jay Bender On September 6 the Supreme Court of South Carolina filed an opinion vacating an order which had reduced the prison sentence…
Kansas case is an inflection point for rural newspapers
SUSTAINING RURAL JOURNALISM Kansas case is an inflection point for rural newspapers Published Sept. 2023 By Al Cross After local police raided the office of the Marion County Record and the home of its owners, creating a national outcry that was entirely justified, the question was asked in newspaper offices…
Interviewing
How to interview anybody By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Your guidelines for interviewing anybody are thankfully similar. Your subject may be the President of the United States or the woman who just won best arrangement at the local flower show. 1. Do your research, even if it’s only talking with…
Take steps now to report on 2024 budgets
Take steps now to report on 2024 budgets Published August 18, 2023 By Jim Pumarlo, Newspaper Consultant We’re more than halfway into 2023, and many local governments are well involved in exploring 2024 budgets. Are your newsrooms aware of the process? Are you keeping readers abreast of the dynamics? It’s…
Could the Kansas Police Newspaper Raid Happen Here?
Could the Kansas Police Newspaper Raid Happen Here? Published August 2023 Editor’s Note: SCPA members are welcome to republish this column online or in print. By Eric P. Robinson, USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications The Aug. 11 police raid of the Marion County Record—in which the police seized the…
Get more mileage out of testimonials
Get more mileage out of testimonials By John Foust, Advertising Trainer Back in my ad agency days, I worked with a real estate client on a series of customer testimonials. We started with one, then added another and another. The final count was more than a dozen, which kept the…
Touch your readers with sensory words
Touch your readers with sensory words By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach You may remember onomatopoeic words from the 10th grade. These words express sounds such as to squeal or whoosh. There’s a different, more subtle category of words, says writing coach Henneke Duistermaat. Visual words for sight allow you to…
SCPA President: CBS’ Koppel report provides hope, relights the journalism embers
CBS’ Koppel report provides hope, relights the journalism embers Published July 2023 By SCPA President Richard Whiting, Editor of the Index-Journal If you are a South Carolina newspaper (and website) journalist, then I hope I’m not sharing something you did not already know about and, more important, already watch. But…