Category: Articles

Miscellaneous 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…

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…

Auction Update – Be on TV with Nancy Grace

View from Serenity Cabin at Howe Sound, British Columbia

UPDATE Additional item for silent auction donated by Nancy Grace: Tour of CNN and appearance on TV with Nancy Grace. Highest bidder in spirited bidding was Cappy Hall Rearick www.simplysoutherncappy.com whose high bid bought her a priceless opportunity. It pays to show up at NSNC events as you never know what opportunity might present itself. By Eric Heyl…

Contest Finalists for 2012

trophies image

By Mike Deupree NSNC Contest Chair The annual writing contest of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists is over. The judges have labored long and hard. The decisions have been made. And the winners are … Going to be announced in about a month. The suspense won’t end until the awards banquet Saturday, May 5,…

Veteran Arkansas Columnist Honored for Humanitarian Work

An Arkansas journalist who has fought against injustice and strove to produce positive change over four decades is the 2012 winner of the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award. Mike Masterson, staff columnist and opinion editor for the Northwest edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, will be honored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists at its annual…

Nationwide Theft of Humor Columns Exposed

Former North Dakota Newspaper Association President and Newspaper Owner Jon Flatland Exposed in Wide-ranging Theft of Humor Columns from Across the Country An alert to NSNC members. Updates to the Memminger report follow his article. By Charles Memminger March 8, 2012 A few weeks ago, humor and travel writer Dave Fox was Googling some of…

What to Do After a Tornado Strikes Your Town

By Don McNay, NSNC member Author, ‘Wealth Without Wall Street: A Main Street Guide to Making Money’   “where do broken hearts go” -Whitney Houston I was lucky.    I’ve had tornadoes go directly over my house,  on two different days last week,  and not touch down. Many of my neighbors in Kentucky and surrounding states…

No president ever let Mark Russell down

Eric Heyl By Eric Heyl, February 25, 2012 Courtesy of Pittsburgh Tribune-Review . Political satirist and comic entertainer Mark Russell is ending his nationally syndicated column that has amused readers for nearly four decades. Russell, 79, also well-known for his long-running PBS specials and stand-up performances, discussed his impending retirement and the current state of…

Jeff Zaslow Columnist Scholarship Announced

Spirit of Detroit

Jeff Zaslow, photo courtesy of Indiana University Columnists, indeed journalists and all of America, lost a strong voice with the death on Feb. 10 of Jeffrey Zaslow, best-selling author and “Moving On” columnist of The Wall Street Journal. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists Education Foundation now honors Zaslow by naming its scholarship program after…

Ten Top Twitter Tips

Previously published in NCEW (National Conference of Editorial Writers) Newsletter  By Jim Boren, Editorial Page Editor The Fresno Bee   @boren4507      Use Twitter daily (even weekends) to promote your editorials, columns, letters, stories. It will drive page views, and that makes the boss happy. Increase your reach beyond your followers by using hashtags — #schools,…

Penn State: “We Are — Going To Be OK”

By Russell Frank, NSNC Board Member & Penn State Faculty Member As Published at StateCollege.com 11/11/11 It’s time to stop calling this place Happy Valley. The name doesn’t fit. It never did.   The out-of-town reporters describe us as “an idyllic community,” “a tranquil football Eden” “nestled” in the mountains of central Pennsylvania.   Spare us. As many…

Andy Rooney was a close friend of Ernie Pyle during WWII

Courtesy of www.heraldtimesonline.com By Mike Leonard mleonard@heraldt.com 11/8/2011 Amid the many well-deserved tributes to the late Andy Rooney, it looks as though one of the things of which he was most proud is being greatly overlooked — his friendship with the famous columnist and war correspondent Ernie Pyle. Rooney was by his own account a…

We Border on a New Day

By Cynthia Borris NSNC Member Draped across the storefront the oversized banner beacons – Store Closing. One more time around, I circle the parking lot. Resigned to a long walk, I pull into a stall and reconsider. Do I really want to go to Borders today? Is there anything there that I need?Silent, I study…

Meet the NSNC Vice President

Larry Cohen             It was the author G.K. Chesterton who explained that “journalism largely consists in saying ‘Lord Jones is Dead’ to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive.”             I chose to assume that Chesterton was writing about the “news” side of the business. Much of the columnist business is devoted to explaining…

Maddry says “thanks” for award

NSNC founder Larry Maddry sent the board a very nice letter of thanks for his Legacy Award. The letter is below and the original will go in the NSNC  archives. Larry is a now-retired Norfolk (Va.) Virginian-Pilot columnist. (History of NSNC) . Big Bob Hill presents Legacy Awards Maddry founded/organized the National Society of Newspaper…

Detroit, Survivor of Hard Knocks

EDITORIAL Detroit, Survivor of Hard Knocks By Sheila Moss, NSNC WebEditor “People who visit Detroit see only the bad things — tell them about the good things too,” said our conference host. This editorial is not about the NSNC Conference, which was wonderful and inspiring, but it is about the city that many do not…