Category: Uncategorized

2021 Is Done

by John Branning 2021 is done – it won’t be called the greatest year.Covid we could not outrun, with Omicron the latest fear. Sports went on despite the risk; tried protocols to make it safe.Jeffrey Epstein’s odalisque got jail time for procuring naifs. Trump impeached a second time, because of insurrectionists.NFTs arrive and I’m confused:…

Adam Earnheardt Chosen to Serve as Interim Executive Director

Adam Earnheardt

By Telly Halkias, NSNC Board Secretary Adam Earnheardt has been chosen by the NSNC board of directors to serve as the organization’s interim executive director. Adam brings executive leadership experience to the NSNC. Aside from serving as executive director for the Ohio Communication Association for 5 years, and currently serving as executive director for the Youngstown…

NSNC and Suzette Martinez Standring – 20 years

Suzette has been an absolute force in this organization since she stepped onto the scene in 2000. She’s served as president from 2004-2006 and was the 2017 Will Rogers Humanitarian Award recipient. She brings so much fun, life, and expertise to our organization and annual conferences. The NSNC is honored she will remain on the…

2020 NSNC Column-Writing Contest Winners

Thank you to everyone who entered this year’s competition. A special thank you goes out to our panel of judges for reading this years entries and choosing those who stood apart for recognition. Below you’ll find this year’s winners. For the online categories we’ve provided links to the winning entries for you to enjoy reading.…

Now Is the Time for You to Be a Leader

By Dave LieberThe Dallas Morning News City mayors, county leaders, state governors, and presidents are expected to show leadership in times of crisis. But I would argue that now is the time for columnists and bloggers to do the same. We learned after 9/11 what a difference one great column can make for readers. Remember…

Low-Pay Writing

Moliere said: “Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for the love of it. Then you do it for a few friends. And finally you do it for money.”

My ‘Cinderella Story’: Following Leads to Success

By Susan Moore Jordan NSNC Member In the performing arts, we often hear about an overnight success that isn’t really that at all; it generally follows many years of hard work. But we love the glamour of the myth. A few years ago, I heard this from a former private voice student near the end…

April 18: A Day to Celebrate Columnists and Their Readers

By M.C. Coolidge April 18 is National Columnists Day, and whether you love ’em, hate ’em, or love to hate ’em — newspaper columnists sure can make reading the paper a lot more fun. We all need to stay informed with hard news, but honestly, there’s only so much Brexit and brouhaha about the economy…

Who’s Talking About National Columnists Day 2019

Thank you to all columnists who took the time to write about National Columnists Day! Below are the columns penned in honor of National Columnists Day. In the social media-Julian Assange era, would Americans click ‘like’ for Ernie Pyle? By Chris Carosa Would America today embrace the next Ernie Pyle? He wasn’t a muckraker, a…

Happy National Columnists Day 2019!

What a great day to be a columnist! If you missed our awesome video watch and share below. A huge thank you goes out to NSNC member Gary Yordon who made this video possible. Thank you to all who participated with the hashtag #IAmAColumnist Many columns were penned in honor of National Columnists Day. Read…

I Am a Columnist

By Paul Lander NSNC Member Confession, on National Columnists Day = I’ve wanted to hold up a sign that says “I Am a Columnist” with an arrow pointing at an actual columnist. With that in mind, I spent what appeared to be most of July in court. Actually, it was only one day; but if…

John Avlon Has Been a Columnist in Various Media

By Dave Astor NSNC Archivist   CNN’s John Avlon will be one of the NSNC’s main speakers during our June 20-23 conference in Buffalo, NY. Avlon – who’ll keynote the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award evening on June 21 – is a senior political analyst and fill-in anchor at CNN, former Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beast, author…

NSNC Criticizes Attacks on the News Media

In the run-up to tomorrow’s election, President Trump has made several attacks on news media and journalism, calling us an enemy of the people and purveyors of falsehoods. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists condemns these statements on journalism as both inaccurate and harmful.  Since 1977, the NSNC has been comprised of writers who are…

My Top 10 Columnist Books. Have You Read Them?

You, the Columnist By Dave Lieber Dallas Morning News columnist My kid brother visited recently and gasped when he saw my home office library. Hundreds of journalism books. Biographies of newspaper legends. Many columnist collections. “Get rid of them,” he said. “Why?” “Cause when you die it’s a pain to handle this. I had to…

Nick Clooney: Things I Thought I Knew, and Other Reflections

On June 9, 2018, as people applauded Nick Clooney’s wonderful speech, NSNC member Rick Horowitz sprang into action. Rick asked me, “Any way we can ask Nick for his speech notes?” It hadn’t occurred to me that Nick Clooney had his entire speech written down on the yellow notepad in front of him. Bullet points, sure. But…