Selected articles from the NSNC newsletter; only members get the entire contents of the monthly newsletter
By Samantha Bennett NSNC President Just when we thought we were over our newspapers and turning our faces into the brisk wind of New Media to blog, learn HTML, Tweet or do whatever else is necessary to stay relevant and employed, the Newspaper Research Journal comes out with this: Print editions of newspapers…
By Laura Snyder Nationally Syndicated Columnist As newspapers and columnists continue to evolve, we hold our breath to see what happens next. Every week, we hear of another newspaper closing its doors or another columnist losing his/her job. The reasons are varied, but they boil down to the fact that there is…
By Dave Lieber Fort Worth Star-Telegram NSNCEF Secretary You’re Kelly Kazek, managing editor of the Athens (Alabama) News Courier, and you just enjoyed one of the biggest days of your life. Your first book was published, and you shared the party with everyone at the town square. As a 5-year member…
by Laura Snyder The future of news is wide open. As columnists, we have a chance to shape how people receive their news by the power of our collective voice. If you have an opinion about how the news industry should work in the future, write a column about it. Imagine the day when no…
By Dave Lieber Fort Worth Star-Telegram Columnist WatchdogNation.com [The following is an abridged version of Dave’s talk at the 2009 Ventura conference.] Originally, this workshop was going to be called “How to have the best writing year of your life.” Then as the economy crashed, we billed this as “Keeping your columnist…
By Laura Snyder Nationally Syndicated Columnist “Survive and Thrive” may have been the theme of this year’s conference, but Twitter was the name and Tweeting was the game. It was everywhere. Each speaker had some very innovative ideas for getting us through the paper-to-digital transition, but the underlined advice in nearly every speech was “You…
By Samantha Bennett I don’t mean to gloat and make you feel bad if you weren’t there, but I have to say: Ventura kicked butt. It was a career seminar that was also a great party, a celebration that was also an education. Steve Lopez inspired us. Jeff Zaslow brought us to tears. Jon Carroll…
By Samantha Bennett NSNC President Well, this is it. I hope your travel plans are made and your registration is paid, because this is going to be one hell of a conference — especially considering the air of austerity and nervousness permeating our nation and our industry. Conference chairs Bill Nash and Gretchen…
By Dave Lieber http://www.YankeeCowboy.com Fort Worth Star-Telegram Do you think about your karma? I think about it every day. I don’t worry about deadlines. I worry that I’m not putting enough good karma out there so it comes back. So I go overboard, dumping karma over the side of my life boat as if…
By Samantha Bennett NSNC President We keep hearing that print journalism is dead, that no one reads it, that it’s irrelevant and dull and deservedly outmoded. And yet … somehow, your local multiplex didn’t get that memo. In “State of Play,” Russell Crowe plays a crusty investigative reporter who goes after a…
By Samantha Bennett NSNC President Hope you’re all getting registered and making your hotel and travel arrangements for the conference in Ventura! Now more than ever, we need our network and the professional advice that our speakers and panelists will provide. I joined representatives of other groups at the Council of National Journalism Organizations’…
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…
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…
By Dave Lieber, Fort Worth Star Telegram I am insecure about my life as columnist. I worry about my next column, my next error. I worry about repeating myself. I fear the next time my boss gets irritated with me. My hate mail adds fuel to the fire, as does my lack…
