The National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC) Board of Directors is pleased to announce the launch of the 2025 Annual Columnist Contest. The contest will officially kick off on January 15 and run through April 15, 2025. To enter the contest, click go to https://nsnc.submittable.com/submit
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
We are excited for What’s in-store for NSNC members this year. We just launched the 2025 NSNC Annual Columnist Contest, 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!
By Laura Snyder Nationally Syndicated Columnist “Survive and Thrive” may have been the theme of this year’s conference, but Twitter was the name and Tweeting was the game. It was everywhere. Each speaker had some very innovative ideas for getting us through the paper-to-digital transition, but the underlined advice in nearly every speech was “You…
By Samantha Bennett I don’t mean to gloat and make you feel bad if you weren’t there, but I have to say: Ventura kicked butt. It was a career seminar that was also a great party, a celebration that was also an education. Steve Lopez inspired us. Jeff Zaslow brought us to tears. Jon Carroll…
NSNC member Beth Ashley, a longtime columnist for the Marin Independent Journal in Northern California, has announced her retirement after 40-some years, 26 of them as a columnist. Craig Wilson broke the news in his column in USA Today. They met when she worked at Wilson’s paper a few months “on loan” from the…
Mike Harden was a regular attendedee at our conferences until 2008 when he was busy working on a book about a restaurant chain founder Bob Evans. He collaborated with his daughter, Robbin, on the book “A Bountiful Heart.” Retired from the Columbus Dispatch, Harden still writes a twice-weekly metro column.
“A Year in the Life of a ‘Working’ Writer. A Memoir to the Best of the Recollection of Ernie Witham“, chronicles Ernie’s constant search for that next humor column and the life surrounding a humor columnist, including the daily interactions with his family, friends, fellow writers and all the people he meets in a year’s…
By Samantha Bennett NSNC President Well, this is it. I hope your travel plans are made and your registration is paid, because this is going to be one hell of a conference — especially considering the air of austerity and nervousness permeating our nation and our industry. Conference chairs Bill Nash and Gretchen…
NSNC Annual Columnist ContestDeadline Extended Until May 2 Words you probably never hear from your editor: Deadline extended! You can count on NSNC for a lot of things. State-of-industry knowledge. Writing clinics. Good friends. Count our “contest deadline extensions” among those. This year we’re extending the deadline to Friday, May 2. Categories include humor, sports,…
Happy National Columnists’ Day and Ernie Pyle Remembrance Day! We celebrate on April 18 to honor the accomplishments of Ernie Pyle and all of those who are dedicated to column-writing today. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists, founded in 1977, created National Columnists’ Day to be celebrated each year on April 18, in memory of…
Suzette Standring is now the Chief Correspondent for Firefighters Vs Cancer, http://www.firefightersvscancer.org, a website that promotes early cancer detection for firefighters, who have a significantly higher risk of occupational cancer. Suzette will share their stories, and the website also has a purchase link for OneTest early cancer screening kits available to the public. She also…
Sunshine Week occurs each year in mid-March, coinciding with James Madison’s birthday, March 16 (1751). Madison was a driving force behind the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and presented the first version of the Bill of Rights to Congress. He also was the fourth president of the United States. Coordinated by the nonpartisan Joseph L. Brechner Freedom…
Jerry Zezima Celebrates 40 Years of His Syndicated Humor Column! This marks the 40th anniversary of my syndicated humor column, which is distributed to 600 newspapers nationwide and abroad by Tribune News Service. I began writing my column in 1985 at my hometown paper, the Stamford (Conn.) Advocate, which still runs it. I write humor…
