The NSNC president’s newsletter column
By Samantha Bennett NSNC President Happy New Year! I’ve said before that what you get out of NSNC depends on what you put into it. What do you get from your NSNC membership? I’d love to hear from you, at sambennett1@verizon.net . I’d like to hear why you joined, what you enjoy about being a…
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 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 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’…
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…
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 Mike Argento, NSNC President I was reading a New York Times story about a $7 million libel verdict in a case filed by a judge and former Chicago Bear kicker against a newspaper columnist in Illinois when I stumbled upon a stunning passage. The story said, “The newspaper’s lawyers said they were handicapped because…
Samantha Bennett Pittsburgh Post-Gazette NSNC President Got that tired, run-down feeling? Are you pressured to do more with less, slash your expenses, take on extra duties, learn technologies you’d rather not? Worst of all, are you worried that your column is getting into a rut? You can’t wangle any more vacation, and besides,…
By Samantha Bennett NSNC President I don’t mean to frighten you, but I’m also sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t know: This is a weird and scary time to be a columnist. Almost every week, it seems, another newspaper announces layoffs or buyouts. Polls show the public doesn’t trust us or…
Samantha Bennett Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Hello, NSNC. I’m Samantha Bennett, and I write a weekly humor column for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Having been your membership chair and vice president, I’m now your president for the next two years. I ran on the strength of my cartwheeling prowess — but let me tell you a little more…
I was going to write about our upcoming conference in New Orleans, or how I’ve spent the week doing stuff like recording podcasts and scripting Web videos and producing parody ads. But I can’t. Not right now. My friend Jim Hubley died. He had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor just a few days…
By Mike Argento, NSNC President York (PA) Daily Record A couple of episodes ago on “The Wire,” a terrific TV show created by former ink-stained wretch David Simon, there was a scene that may be of particular interest to columnists. To digress, each season of the show has dealt with a different institution that has…
By Mike Argento, NSNC President York (PA) Daily Record A new baseball stadium opened this summer in our small city here in the heart of what we fondly call Pennsyltucky. It’s a beautiful ballpark, even if it is still under construction. It sits in a crook of the Codorus Creek, which flows through the center…
COLUMNIST ENJOYS A CELESTIAL STOGIE By Mike Argento, NSNC President (This first appeared in the York Daily Record January 22, 2007) Jan 22, 2007 – Art Buchwald appears at the Pearly Gates and is told by St. Peter to take a seat. “Mr. Buchwald, it’s about time you got here.” “Call me Art, please.”…
By Mike Argento, NSNC President I was reading a New York Times story about a $7 million libel verdict in a case filed by a judge and former Chicago Bear kicker against a newspaper columnist in Illinois when I stumbled upon a stunning passage. The story said, “The newspaper’s lawyers said they were handicapped because…
