The secret to success in any creative venture, column writing included, is finding your own voice and sharing your unique view of the world.
Doing Your Own Thing
Category: Newsletter
Selected articles from the NSNC newsletter; only members get the entire contents of the monthly newsletter
Voices From the Maelstrom
By Chris CarosaNSNC President While you’ve been busy working away, I’ve been reading for you.Sure, I know plenty of you read just as much as you write, but what are you reading? Are you reading to hone your craft? Or are you reading to survive another day.I’m doing the latter. For you. And for me.…
George Will to Receive the 2020 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ 2020 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award recipient is…George Will!
He’ll accept the prestigious honor during the NSNC’s annual conference next June in Tulsa, Oklahoma .
Value Your Work. Value Your Industry
A rebuttal to James Haught’s article ‘Low-Pay Writing’ By Marianne Willburn NSNC Member A bottle of “Writers’ Tears” Irish whiskey has sat unmolested on my desk since it was given to me ten months ago by a friend at Christmas. Though he handed it over insisting that a garden columnist had no need of such a…
The NSNC’s New Veep Has a Résumé Quite Deep
By Dave Astor NSNC Archivist Tony Norman, a longtime Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist and former NSNC treasurer, is now back on our board as vice president. In this email Q&A from September 17, Tony seriously/humorously/eloquently discusses everything from the NSNC to his unusually varied, multi-award-winning P-G career – including why he left a music beat to…
Drive Your Video Marketing Strategy This Year With These Five Video Storytelling Tips
By Jeff Shuford NSNC Member If you aspire to supercharge your brand marketing this year, consider incorporating video as an essential element of your business’ outreach efforts. Video can unquestionably drive a significant return on investment, but it isn’t to be entered into lightly without a clear understanding of the strategic elements of a cohesive…
My ‘Cinderella Story’: Following Leads to Success
By Susan Moore Jordan NSNC Member In the performing arts, we often hear about an overnight success that isn’t really that at all; it generally follows many years of hard work. But we love the glamour of the myth. A few years ago, I heard this from a former private voice student near the end…
Three Things to Consider Before Becoming a Columnist
By Chris Carosa NSNC President In July, shortly after our wildly successful annual conference in Buffalo, Michael Marrer? posted this in our private member-only Columnist Clubhouse Facebook page: CURRENT STATE OF NEW SYNDICATION? Wanting to know in advance if I am engaging in a fool’s errand and/or just beating my head against a wall, given…
Buffalo Speaker Dave Lieber Adds Playwright to His Long Résumé
By Dave Astor NSNC Archivist Dave Lieber will talk about TED at our annual conference, but Amon is also on his mind. When Dave speaks at our Buffalo conference June 22, the Dallas Morning News “Watchdog” columnist will tell attendees what a TED talk is, why they should do one, and how to make that…
2019 Will Rogers Humanitarian Award Recipient
By Robert L. Haught Will Rogers Writers Foundation Retired Military Chaplain Norris Burkes, who writes a syndicated column that offers a hope-filled approach to everyday spirituality, is the recipient of the 2019 Will Rogers Humanitarian Award sponsored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Jennifer Rogers-Etcheverry, great grand-daughter of Will Rogers, will present the award…
Post a Selfie for National Columnists Day
You may remember that National Columnists Day is also when we ask you to join us in celebration with a selfie and the hashtag #IAmAColumnist. You can take a look at last year HERE. We want you to join the fun again! Plus there’s more! If you want to go beyond the selfie and pen…
I Am a Columnist
By Paul Lander NSNC Member Confession, on National Columnists Day = I’ve wanted to hold up a sign that says “I Am a Columnist” with an arrow pointing at an actual columnist. With that in mind, I spent what appeared to be most of July in court. Actually, it was only one day; but if…
President’s Message: Take a Sad Song and Make It Better
By Chris Carosa NSNC President In January, the Reuters Institute issued a report titled “More Important, But Less Robust? Five Things Everybody Needs to Know about the Future of Journalism.” It’s their fourth point I’d like to focus on. It states that the ongoing pressure faced by current media business models continues to weaken journalism.…
Mary C. Curtis on Column-Writing in a Polarized Time
By Dave Astor NSNC Archivist When Mary C. Curtis speaks at our Buffalo conference on June 22, she plans to discuss how opinion writers can approach sensitive issues – and deal with the reader reaction that follows. Ms. Curtis is the perfect person to talk about that, because her Roll Call column and other media…
He Understands That Writing Should Be Understandable
By Dave Astor NSNC Archivist When David Cay Johnston speaks June 22 at our conference in Buffalo, NY, he’ll discuss how to present complicated information to readers in an understandable way. The 2001 Pulitzer Prize winner said the importance of that can’t be overemphasized – whether the person doing the writing is a columnist, blogger,…
John Avlon Has Been a Columnist in Various Media
By Dave Astor NSNC Archivist CNN’s John Avlon will be one of the NSNC’s main speakers during our June 20-23 conference in Buffalo, NY. Avlon – who’ll keynote the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award evening on June 21 – is a senior political analyst and fill-in anchor at CNN, former Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beast, author…
Ask Alex: Is Self Publishing Selling Out?
Dear Alex: So the time-honored question on the lips of a roundtable of writers extraordinaire has again raised its head – does self-publication still carry the vanity cloud? Can a “real” writer self-publish with head held high or should one hold out for traditional publication? I see the lists of books put out by many…