MACON, Ga. — Georgia-based entertainer Durwood “Mr. Doubletalk” Fincher punk’d participants at the 36th annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists on the event’s first day, Friday, May 4, 2012. Posing as his character Dr. Robert Payne, a vaguely credentialed academic/Washington consultant, Fincher stationed himself and a videographer in a room near the [...]
Announcements
Sitting Duck for 2012 — U.S. Economy
The 2012 Winner of the Infamous Sitting Duck Award is The American Economy. Why? The American economy – Nobody likes it, and you can find statistics to back up anything you want to say about it. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists created the Sitting Duck Award, an honor bestowed each year on the crème [...]
Articles
Highlights of Conference – Day 2
The second day of the NSNC conference opened with breakfast in the beautiful Magnolia Room of the Macon Marriott where columnists heard from humorist speaker, author, and columnist Lauretta Hannon, the Cracker Queen, who told about her childhood and how she has overcome adversity and poverty with a sense of humor and a memoir about [...]
President's Message
Fare Thee Well Address
By Ben S. Pollock President, National Society of Newspaper Columnists Dear Larry, [NSNC Vice President Laurence D. Cohen is on the slate of nominees for the May 6 election, for 2012-14 president.] This, the columnists presidency, has been a humbling experience. I’ve had plenty of humbling experiences in my life, so I should know. [...]
Announcements
Columnists select Dave Barry for Lifetime Achievement Award
Dave Barry. Photo by daniel portnoy www.danielportnoy.com MACON, Ga. — Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist Dave Barry will be honored with the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. The announcement was made Thursday night, May 3, in Macon, Ga., at the top of the society’s 2012 national conference, where New York [...]
Articles
Macon Conference Opens
President Ben Pollock welcomed NSNC conferees, guests, speakers, honorees, newcomers and returnees to the 36th annual NSNC conference. President Pollock said, “…this is our first visit to the Deep South. As a third-and-fourth generation Arkansan, I proudly say, ‘It’s high cotton.’” A wide range of activities have been planned by host, Ed Grisamore — too [...]
Announcements
NSNC Board Meets
The Board of Directors of NSNC met May 3, 2012 in Macon, Georgia, prior to the annual conference. Ed Grisamore said he is happy to have us in Macon and expects to have 50-60 people at each conference event. St. Petersburg FL was decided on at a previous board meeting as the site of the [...]
Announcements
Meet Will Rogers’ Great-Grandson
A late – but most welcome – addition to the Macon 2012 program is Josh Rogers Leuty, a great-grandson of Will Rogers. Leuty, 44, was raised on a dairy farm near Bakersfield, CA by parents Eric and Bette Rogers Brandin. His grandfather, California rancher Jim Rogers, was the last surviving offspring of Will and [...]
Art of Column Writing
If you feel it, you can convey it.
By Suzette Martinez Standring NSNC Past President At writing conferences, creativity often gets short shrift in favor of growing one’s business. Supersize followers on Facebook and Twitter! Get readers a-gogging with vlogging and blogging! Strengthen your footing on the technology trail. Very helpful, yes, but when all is said and done, it is about our [...]
Winning student columns
Jesse Rifkin, Scholarship Winner: The grim future of a local bookshop
By Jesse Rifkin Student Columnist University of Connecticut – Jean Norman gazes around Paperback Trader, the small bookstore she had owned since 1980. Her eyes pause at the rows of comic books. “A young man named Jay used to stop by often for the comics,” she remembers. “He graduated in 1987 and lives in Florida [...]
Art of Column Writing
Embed, Blog, and Beyond
By Suzette Martinez Standring NSNC Past President Vlogging, blogging, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter – it’s all under the umbrella of social media and I’m dog paddling in the deluge. Recently, I attended the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop in Dayton, both as a presenter (Hypnotic Recall Fills the Creative Well), and as a seeker of information [...]
Members' Books
New Member has New Book
New NSNC member, Cathy Turney, announces her recently published book, “Tales of a Codependent Pet Owner.” Cathy is a San Francisco Bay Area author who has had humor stories published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Bay Woof Magazine and the Contra Costa Times. Cathy recently won America’s Funniest Humor Showcase awards for her two stories, “An ‘i’ [...]
Newsletter
In the May Newsletter
Preview of 2012 “Macon Whoopee” conference … Not one, but two columns by regular contributing columnist Suzette Martinez Standring … President Ben S. Pollock gives a “fare thee well address … Reports and photos from the 2012 Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop … Plus “What Are You Writing?” and “Columnews”
Articles
You had questions? EBWW 2012 had answers!
A humor writer reports back from the recent Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop. By Jody Worsham If you went to EBWW 2012 looking for answers, you weren’t disappointed. Whatever question you had, it was answered. And if you didn’t like the answer you got in the first session, you could just go to the next one and [...]
Newsroom
2012 Scholars Named (updated)
Update: The judge wishes to add three students for recognition. The winners of the 2012 Jeff Zaslow College Columnist Award of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Education Foundation were announced over the weekend. Jesse Rifkin First place and a $1,000 scholarship goes to Jesse Rifkin, a sophomore majoring in journalism and political science at [...]
Conference
E-Books and the Future of Print
May in Macon, the 36th annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, has added a session on electronic books to its schedule. 2-2:45 p.m., Friday, May 4, 2012 — Turning the Page: E-Books and the Future of Print, with David Cassady, president of Faithlab, and Marc Jolley, director of Mercer University Press. David [...]
Announcements
Register Now for the May in Macon Conference
By Ed Grisamore, NSNC Conference Chair REGISTER NOW: Registration is open for the 36th annual Conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in Macon, Ga., May 3-6, 2012. “Macon Whoopee” is the theme for this year’s conference, our first in the Old South. We’ll meet and mingle with New York Times columnist Gail Collins [...]
The Social Media
Conference sponsors
