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!

Schedule for NSNC’s 40th Annual Conference in LA

Hollywood Sign, Los Angeles, California

#NSNC16 – Los Angeles By Lisa Smith Molinari Vice President National Society of Newspaper Columnists The NSNC Conference Committee is proud to add a prestigious line-up of speakers and panelists to the schedule for our upcoming Annual Conference in Los Angeles, June 23-26, 2016. Although the general theme for this year’s West Coast location is “Hooray…

Young Writers, Just How Good Are You?

Poster for NSNC's 2016 College Columnist Scholarship

NSNC Scholarship 2016 By Mike Leonard Scholarship Chairman National Society of Newspaper Columnists BLOOMINGTON, Indiana — Menahem Pressler, the co-founder and pianist for the legendary Beaux Arts Trio, told me recently that this fabled career was launched almost by accident when, as a young man, he entered and won the Debussy International Piano Competition in…

From Rose Bowl to Rosebud

Walter Burns & Hildy Johnson are hot on a story.

President’s Message By Jerry Zezima President National Society of Newspaper Columnists Now that 2016 is here, and we have all recovered from New Year’s Eve, which means we are ready to repeat the conviviality in the hospitality suite at the NSNC conference in Los Angeles in June, I would like you to consider the year’s…

A Positive Honor for a Positive Guy

William Raspberry

Lifetime Achievers This is the third in a series of articles about winners of the NSNC’s annual Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award. By Dave Astor Archivist National Society of Newspaper Columnists As endless gun violence and contemptible political statements dominate the news cycle, what William Raspberry told the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in 1995…

Only the Lonely: Columnists and Bloggers Have a Home at the NSNC

Member Ship By Amanda Beam Membership Chair National Society of Newspaper Columnists Writers execute their craft alone mostly. It’s the nature of the beast. Our minds find it hard to work with the drumming and droning of others’ lives continuing around us. Thoughts squirrel about, running rabid until a yelling child or yelping dog forces…

Columnists, Are You Ready for Your Close-Up?

Faux streetsign of Hollywood at Sunset,, at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort

#NSNC16 – Los Angeles By Paul Lander LOS ANGELES — It’ll be great to have so many of you here for this year’s NSNC extravaganza. And, yeah, I’d say that to anyone coming to L.A. because it’s L.A. and we say stuff like that, even when we don’t mean it. We also say stuff like “Let’s…