NSNC 2026 Columnist Contest - Now Open

Sunshine Week March 15-21, 2026

Consider a Gift to the NSNC Education Foundation

Join NSNC and Reap the Benefits!

NSNC 2026 Columnist Contest - Now Open

Contest submissions now open! We are accepting entries from columnists, bloggers, and serial essayists  for our 2026 Annual Columnist Contest (for work published in 2025). We will accept entries from columnists, bloggers, and serial essayists published in 2025.  Everyone is welcome to submit. You don’t have to be an NSNC member.

Sunshine Week March 15-21, 2026

We’re counting down to #SunshineWeek 2026, March 15-21. Together, we champion #OpenRecords and #OpenGovernment nationwide March 15-21. #FOIA #transparency. Free resources: sunshineweek.org

Consider a Gift to the NSNC Education Foundation

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists Education Foundation is a tax-exempt charitable organization [501(c)3] devoted to the education and training of new and experienced columnists everywhere. Donate here: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/NSNCEdFnd

Join NSNC and Reap the Benefits!

We are excited for What’s in-store for NSNC members this year. We are gearing up to launch the NSNC Annual Columnist Contest on January 15, so you’ll want to be sure your membership is up-to-date. Also, if you have ideas, suggestions, etc., please share them with our President Meredith Cummings at meredithcummings@gmail.com or Executive Director Ginny McCabe at nsncdirector@gmail.com. Thank you for your support of NSNC!

Humorous Horror Novel Released By E. Mitchell

E. Mitchell’s humor novel, “The Amazing, Incredible, Shrinking, Colossal,  Bikini-Crazed CREATURE FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN” has just been released by Outskirts Press.  The publisher says: “The formula is simple: Take one mad genius, add a luscious lady in a lab coat, mix in a sex-starved scientist stirring up trouble with mutant movie monsters and you’ve…

Florida Blogger Is Finalist in Readers’ Poll

MC Coolidge had just won a Florida Press Association award for column writing when less than a week later she learned that she was a finalist in the blogging category of Sarasota Magazine’s “The Best of 2009  Readers’ Poll.”   Her reaction: “kind of stunned and more than a little honored.”   “As an independent…

Suddenly Senior Overwhelmed

Frank Kaiser is delighted but overwhelmed at the response to his offer to print selected columns on his “Suddenly Senior” Web site.  The longtime NSNC member from Florida said he received about 30 columns following a notice in the March newsletter inviting the submission of columns that would appeal to his readers.  The nationally syndicated…

Presidents Message – Samantha Bennett

Samantha Bennett

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…

Never Surrender

Dave Lieber

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…

Astor was Columnists Biggest Cheerleader

Dave Lieber

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…