The NSNC board of directors met Monday evening online. The major topic was the the 2012 NSNC Conference in Macon, Georgia, May 3-6 at the Marriott Hotel. Ed Grisamore, conference chair reports, “Everything is going great. Sponsorships falling into place. Programs lining up.” Ed is getting help from the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and a…
Tom Rademacher Tom Rademacher, Grand Rapids Press, has a new book called “Knocking at Your Door,” a book of columns published by Lake Michigan Books. Rademacher is a prize-winning columnist who received First Place for two straight years in the General Interest Category of the annual NSNC Writing Contest, as well as scoring wins in…
By Dave Lieber Fort Worth Star-Telegram www.YankeeCowboy.com One of my pet peeves is when people come up to me and say, “It’s a shame that the Internet is killing newspapers.” I heartily disagree. Newspapers survived for 15 years with the Internet offering our stuff for free. What’s killing newspapers, first and foremost, is…
Columnist-author-speaker Dave Lieber has authored a deeply personal narrative that explores parental responsibility, child-rearing practices and discipline, journalistic ethics, small-town corruption and retribution, and the moral consequences of being a public figure. Lieber, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Watchdog columnist, said the book is “a risky project.” “Some warned me not to do this,” he said.…
By Ben S. Pollock President, National Society of Newspaper Columnists A correction has been made. It is noted below the column. The momentary loss of Jim Romenesko writing a well-regarded blog on news media news is the latest example of corporate journalism losing its way. Or it’s another inconsequential demonstration of panic in the halls…
Busy Ed Grisamore found time in his schedule of writing columns for the Macon, Ga., Telegraph and planning next year’s annual conference to turn out another book. It’s titled There Is More than One Way to Spell Wiener: The Story of Nu Way-Weiners and it’s the story of America’s second-oldest hot dog chain. …
(Two corrections made to article, in bold, below) Rick Horowitz, long-time NSNC member, announced that he is ending his twice-weekly syndicated column at the end of the year. Rick plans to devote his extensive energies to a new business venture called Prime Prose, LLC. His new enterprise will pull together an expanding assortment of the…
NSNC member Luellen Smiley was guest of Philadelphia-based radio host and television personality Mike Smerconish on The Morning Mouth earlier this month. Smiley, is the daughter of reputed mobster, Allen Smiley. Smiley’s dad was a close friend and confidant of famous Las Vegas mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and he was sitting on the couch just feet…
University of Dayton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Registration for the 2012 Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, directed toward humor writers, will open Dec. 6, per Workshop Director, Matt Dewald. Space for this conference usually sells out fast, so if you are interested in attended, we recommend registering right away. The 2012 workshop at the University of Dayton will kick…
By Russell Frank, NSNC Board Member & Penn State Faculty Member As Published at StateCollege.com 11/11/11 It’s time to stop calling this place Happy Valley. The name doesn’t fit. It never did. The out-of-town reporters describe us as “an idyllic community,” “a tranquil football Eden” “nestled” in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. Spare us. As many…
Courtesy of www.heraldtimesonline.com By Mike Leonard mleonard@heraldt.com 11/8/2011 Amid the many well-deserved tributes to the late Andy Rooney, it looks as though one of the things of which he was most proud is being greatly overlooked — his friendship with the famous columnist and war correspondent Ernie Pyle. Rooney was by his own account a…
Some observations about journalism as an occupation were recently published by the Wall Street Journal. The statistics were based on 2010 U.S. Census statistics. The median annual salary for journalism majors is $50,000, per the latest data. This is about the same as majors in English, history, or communications. However, journalists have a 7 percent…
By Suzette Martinez Standring NSNC Past President The best storytellers are like keen-nosed truffle dogs, looking for riches below the surface. It’s what columnists do most days under deadline, usually in 750 words or less. Other writers have a lot more space. Recently, I went to see The New York Times best-selling…
UPDATE: Andy Rooney died Friday night, according to CBS, only a month after delivering his 1,097th and final televised commentary. He died of complications from surgery. The article below was published about Andy Rooney Sept 28th after his retirement was announced. Rooney received the NSNC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 and is a member of our Hall of…
Philadelphia member James Smart was interviewed by Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Dan Rubin for a 1,000-word column about his career and his book, Adonijah Hill’s Journal. “It’s a young columnist (55) interviewing a less young columnist (81),” said Smart. The author also discussed his book as a speaker at a dinner meeting of the Phi Beta…
Where’s the Sin in Synchronicity? By Ben S. Pollock NSNC President “How can there be any sin in sincere? “Where is the good in goodbye?” — “Sincere” by Meredith Willson in The Music Man It may be yet another way of stalling the labor of writing, but I’m inspired when I chance upon quotes from…
NSNC Member Susan Young has a new column of being published monthly in The Hometown News, Volusia County, FL. It’s a monthly insert called “Forever Young” – aimed at Baby Boomers. Susan’s column is called “Life in the Middle” and is about the Sandwich Generation in which we live these days. Here’s the link… Scroll down and…
