NSNC to Recognize 2026 Annual Columnist Contest Winners

Join or Renew Your NSNC Membership

Consider a Gift to the NSNC Education Foundation

NSNC to Recognize 2026 Annual Columnist Contest Winners

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC) President and Board of Directors are pleased to announce the winners of the 2026 Annual Columnist Contest at an online awards celebration on Thursday, July 23 at 7 p.m. EST. If you would like to join us for the awards ceremony, email nsncdirector@gmail.com for the Zoom link.

Join or Renew Your NSNC Membership

Welcome! Whether you write for newspapers, magazines, newsletters, trade journals or you create a podcast or write digital content, or you manage your own blog … whether you’re on staff, a freelancer, syndicated, self-syndicated or independent, if you write opinion or provide commentary, we invite you to join the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Join us at https://www.columnists.com/join-or-renew-membership/.

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

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…

G.I. Joe

The Story of the G.I. Joe Action Figure By Tom Henderson, Columnist You might have noticed a minor journalistic controversy a few years back after the great columnist Ernie Pyle was turned into a G.I. Joe doll (excuse me, action figure).   Purists were peeved. Ernie was rolling about his grave, they said. A humble man…

New Orleans 2008

Mike Argento, President

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Prez Column – Mike Argento

Mike Argento

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…