NSNC Education Foundation President Jim Casto has a new book out. “The Great Ohio River Flood of 1937” is his 10th book and his fifth straight “Images of America” book for Arcadia Publishing. The retired Huntington (WV) Herald-Dispatch associate editor is prolific to say the least. A review in the newspaper by Dave Lavender told…
Dave Astor, former Editor&Publisher senior editor who kicks off the 33rd annual NSNC conference with a panel discussion of “A New Generation of Columnists”, shared a second-place award in the annual New Jersey Press Association contest. His weekly “Montclairvoyant” column helped The Montclair Times get that award in the best editorial section category. Astor’s…
By Dave Lieber NSNC Education Foundation Secretary Every day seems more dire than the last. Layoffs. Buyouts. Farewell e-mails to the entire staff that break your heart. For you, the columnist, the world is changing in a rush of history. A collision of forces beyond your control. Yet a columnist’s…
Samanta Bennett NSNC President “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” – Benjamin Franklin As the drumbeat of bad news pounds on, day after day, it’s hard not to become fearful. But we didn’t become columnists because we are fearful. We became columnists because of trust. We…
Dave Lieber By Dave Lieber Fort Worth Star-Telegram NSNCEF Secretary Hey, bloggers. Welcome to the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, where, finally, you are invited to join and also enter our annual contest. After a long battle – I started my fight to let you in more than a decade ago…
Celebrities Skewered in New York Post Columnist’s Book Celebutard: a compound of celebrity, debutante, and retard New York Post columnist (and NSNC member) Andrea Peyser targets celebrities in a new book from Kensington publishers titled “Celebutards: The Hollywood Hacks, Limousine Liberals and Pandering Politicians Who Are Destroying America.” “The book takes a fun look at…
Suzette Standring’s widely read book on column writing won an honorable mention in ForeWord Magazine’s 2008 Book of the Year Awards. The Milton, Mass., columnist went to New York for the announcement of winners at BookExpo America on May 29. “The Art of Column Writing: Insider Secrets from Art Buchwald, Dave Barry, Arianna Huffington, Pete…
Dr. Walter Brasch, professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University, was honored by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Pennsylvania Press Club (PPC) for his writings during 2008 His weekly column, “Wanderings”, was named the best commentary in the SPJ Spotlight Awards competition and was second in PPC competition. His 2,500-word feature,…
ERNIE PYLE was a beloved journalist and military correspondent during WWII. Pyle studied journalism at Indiana University but left school to become a reporter for a small newspaper prior to moving to Washington. After working as a reporter and an aviation writer, he eventually became managing editor for the Washington Daily News. In 1932 he…
By Laura Snyder Nationally Self-Syndicated Humor Columnist Southern Pines, NC Recently, I was reading the responses to Marshall Dean’s request for advice in the December newsletter. The responses that were given didn’t seem helpful to any new columnist except to reassure Marshall that the entire industry is in the same boat. It seems I have…
Are you ready for HD? No, not high-def. That’s old hat. It’s “Haughtline Dweethly”, an online magazine updated daily, weekly, monthly – or more often if the editor takes a notion. NSNC Newsletter Editor Robert L. Haught, with an assist from his wife, Mary, launched the new Internet publication March 1. The magazine’s content is…
Montana ranchwoman-columnist Gwen Petersen has a new book coming out next fall: “Everything I Know About Life I Learned From My Horse,” published by Voyageur Press. “No deep meaning here,” Gwen says.”Just a collection of horse stories of humorous and nostalgic bent.” The author, who lives near Big Timber, Mont., writes a regular column for…
E. Mitchell’s humor novel, “The Amazing, Incredible, Shrinking, Colossal, Bikini-Crazed CREATURE FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN” has just been released by Outskirts Press. The publisher says: “The formula is simple: Take one mad genius, add a luscious lady in a lab coat, mix in a sex-starved scientist stirring up trouble with mutant movie monsters and you’ve…
MC Coolidge had just won a Florida Press Association award for column writing when less than a week later she learned that she was a finalist in the blogging category of Sarasota Magazine’s “The Best of 2009 Readers’ Poll.” Her reaction: “kind of stunned and more than a little honored.” “As an independent…
Frank Kaiser is delighted but overwhelmed at the response to his offer to print selected columns on his “Suddenly Senior” Web site. The longtime NSNC member from Florida said he received about 30 columns following a notice in the March newsletter inviting the submission of columns that would appeal to his readers. The nationally syndicated…
Samantha Bennett NSNC President I’m taking the buyout. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, for which I’ve worked for 14 years and written my column for a decade, offered buyouts to the entire staff in late December, with a get-out-if-you’re-going deadline of New Year’s Eve. Happy holidays. I weighed my joblessness in a vile economy…
By Dave Lieber Fort Worth Star-Telegram www.yankeecowboy.com There’s a recession in the U.S. economy, but a depression in the newspaper business. Not a financial depression, but a mental one. Everybody in the newsroom and in the executive suites is giving up. Worse, nobody in the business is standing up on a chair…
