Category: Advocacy

Announcing National Ernie Pyle Day Celebration

Bloomington, IN —The Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation created National Ernie Pyle Day and the United States Senate agreed to a resolution proposed by Indiana Senators Todd Young and Joe Donnelly designating August 3, 2018 as National Ernie Pyle Day.  To commemorate this day the Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation has organized a celebration that will take…

NSNC Statement on Capital Gazette shooting

Fellow Columnists: The National Society of Newspaper Columnists wishes to express its heartfelt sympathies and condolences to all those touched by yesterday’s tragic events in Annapolis. We continue to recognize the uncommon bravery exhibited by columnists and all journalists who regularly place their names on articles, columns, and mastheads for all to see. The tragic…

Understanding Gender-inclusive Pronouns

By Curtis Honeycutt NSNC Member June is LGBT Pride Month, commemorating the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. Since then, the U.S. cultural understanding of LGBT rights has progressed considerably, although we’ve still got a long way to go (which is akin to saying hammerhead sharks have more to learn about rules of the road before they’ll be…

Sitting Duck Award for 2018

President Trump’s win streak ends at three, as Scott Pruitt steals the Sitting Duck Award – or rather most likely will ask his staff to pick it up for him. Pruitt is the 2018 winner of the Sitting Duck Award, presented annually by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists to the news figure who is…

NSNC Column Writing Contest 2018 – Judges’ Comments

Thank you to our awesome judges! Here are there comments for our 2018 winners. General interest category over 50,000   First Place Mike Newall The best Metro columnists can write about anything and find the angle that makes the subject soar.  Philadelphia Inquirer’s Mike Newall is as good as it gets with that. Example: His…

2018 NSNC Column Writing Contest Winners

Congratulations to our Winners! Find the recording of the entire Awards Ceremony on YouTube: I you are interested in reading the judges comments you can find those HERE. Also, Thank you to our wonderful panel of judges.   And the winners are… CATEGORY A: General Interest, Print publications over 50,000 circulation   First Place:  Mike…

Congratulations Alex!

By Lisa Smith Molinari NSNC President During this season of flying caps and tassels, I’ve been a soupy, sentimental mess. In the last month, I’ve watched my son graduate from college and my daughter graduate from high school. My eyes are swollen and puffy, I’m tired of entertaining visiting family members, and I’ve gained ten pounds…

Isn’t It Amazing What You Do?

You, the Columnist By Dave Lieber Dallas Morning News columnist Isn’t it amazing what you do? Isn’t it amazing that you can… – Get an idea about something interesting and after you write about it, thousands of people know what’s on your mind. – Get paid for that. – Easily take high-quality photos to go…

Annual Contest Finalists – 2018

Thank you to all who entered the 2018 NSNC Columnist Contest and a special thank you to our wonderful panel of judges. Below you will find our list of finalists from all eight categories in alphabetical order by first name. Exact placements and categories will be announced at our Awards Banquet during the NSNC Conference…

Rochelle Riley’s NSNC Ties Span Two Decades

By Dave Astor NSNC Archivist Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley has a long and varied history with the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. When Riley worked for the Louisville (Ky.) Courier Journal two decades ago, she was asked by fellow CJ writer and NSNC co-founder Bob Hill to help Hill plan our organization’s 1999…

2018 Will Rogers Humanitarian Award Recipient Named

By Robert L. Haught An Oklahoma writer who turned the spotlight on charitable activities in her community has been selected to receive this year’s Will Rogers Humanitarian Award. Ginnie Graham of the Tulsa World will be presented the award on Friday, June 8, at the annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in…

Ask Alex: Who Owns My Columns?

Dear Alex: I have been working hard on my book. It’s a compilation of about 80 of my columns from the last seven years. However, when I uploaded the completed manuscript to my preferred self-publishing software, it was flagged because the content “is freely available on the web” and they were “unable to verify your…

A Bold Punctuation Prediction for 2018

By Curtis Honeycutt NSNC Member Welcome to the golden age of outrage. If you’re just finishing a three-year social media cleanse, I’ve got some bad news for you: people are ticked off. People are royally ticked about pretty much everything: guns, kneeling, not kneeling, walls, refugees, Starbucks (in general), and anything that remotely resembles a…

Keynote Speaker José Antonio Vargas Exemplifies the Power of Narrative

By Suzette Martinez Standring NSNC Executive Director Putting a human face to a controversial issue is more difficult when that face is your own.  NSNC keynote speaker José Antonio Vargas, founder of Define American, will share his story and the power of narrative at the NSNC’s Will Rogers Humanitarian Award banquet on Friday, June 8,…

How to Write Your Most Popular Column of the Year

You, the Columnist By Dave Lieber Dallas Morning News columnist My newspaper added a new tag word for stories. Joining “courts,” “crime,” and “education” is this one: #UpliftingNews. These two words are the key to big stories in 2018. The American audience is so burned out by the brutal news of late that anything that…

Prominent Man from Prominent Family to Speak in Cincinnati

By Dave Astor NSNC Archivist “Fame is relative. Only my relatives are famous,” Nick Clooney quipped when I interviewed him for this story. But that’s a bit of self-deprecation, because the father of actor/director George Clooney and brother of late singer/actress Rosemary Clooney has been – among other things – a well-known TV news director/anchor,…

Interview with Jim Azevedo of Smashwords

Interview was conducted by Lisa Molinari as part of her March, 2018 President’s Message. First, I’d like a little more background on you other than what is in your bio. How did you come to be the marketing director at Smashwords? My background is in high-tech marketing and PR, where I spent the first 20…