Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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One of the best yearbooks my students produced is based on the theme, "Everyone has a story." Like a typical yearbook, it is stuffed with photos and cutlines and articles, from bleed line to bleed line, placed on double-truck spreads. The difference from others we previously produced: We looked for commonalities among students that weren't school related. In that edition, students wrote about their peers who participated in non-traditional sports outside of the school day, like trap shooting...
Wait, what? Governor Jim Pillen has reversed his opposition to a federal summer grocery program that would aid around 150,000 children of low-income families. Pillen succumbed to a lot of outside pressure from a bipartisan group of state lawmakers, a bill introduced by one of them to request the aid and another state senator who made it his priority to ensure it would be debated in the remaining days of the legislative session. Back in December he proclaimed that he didn't "believe in welfare."...
The dining room table, it's not my style. But it was my parents' style, and we ate every holiday meal there at the house they built after we all grew up and left home. A bigger house. A house with the dining room my mom always wanted. What my dad wanted was to die in that house. Now a dark-haired stranger was carting that table away from the retirement home my mom and dad had landed and where Dad would spend his last months. His journey was a fill-in-the-blank primer on aging, as predictable as...
The "Summerland Advocate-Messenger" brought home 17 awards from the Nebraska Better Newspaper Contest. Recipients were announced Saturday, during the Nebraska Press Association awards banquet at the Cornhusker Marriott Hotel in Lincoln. SAM competed in Class A, which features weekly newspapers with circulation up to 699. Entries were published in 2022. The paper took top honors in five categories, including agriculture advertisement, featuring Automated Dairy Specialists; signature page,...
Should I or shouldn’t I? That is this week’s question. Should I dole out money to enter newspaper contests? Or, instead, should I reinvest those entry fees in my employees and business? It’s a conundrum, for sure. It’s not that I don’t like entering contests. In the past, I have submitted pieces to the Nebraska Press Association’s and Nebraska Press Women’s annual contests. Back when creative writing filled my teaching days, several pieces of poetry were entered - and won - contests. Eve...
Talk about sticker shock. Imagine my surprise a few days ago as I grabbed a carton of eggs from the cold case at the local store: $7.45 for a dozen large eggs. Usually, grandson Jorden supplies eggs, fresh from the poultry pen, but his supply was depleted. Needless to say, I changed my menu plan and returned the carton to the shelf. Accordng to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index has seen an 8.2% increase in the last year. Electricity prices shock a lot of us, with a...
Interesting question our office has received on more than one occasion: Why does SAM sometimes run articles from other areas of Nebraska? The answer is relatively simple. We are Nebraska. I like to think our readers want to learn more about this place we call home. When we share articles from Flatwater Free Press or Nebraska Examiner or Nebraska News Service, our goal is to offer coverage that is not only interesting, but may have an impact on our lives. For example, on Page 3 in this week’s edi...
It's been more than two years since I received my last paycheck from a newspaper company. In that time, I've had the opportunity to advocate for local newspapers that remain relevant to their communities. That advocacy keeps running into tiresome arguments that are as yellow as old faded newsprint. No matter what facts you use to extinguish them, they find a way to flare up later. During National Newspaper Week, consider the following collection of statements that numb the mind, along with a suggestion: When you encounter them, just turn the...
As we gather to celebrate Independence Day, it's a good time to reflect on how our most fundamental freedoms have served this nation well. It's an even better time to think about what would happen if those liberties were taken away. Sadly, the latter doesn't take much imagination in 2022. Your closest video screen will show you scenes of Russian troops pummeling Ukraine with the support of a majority of the Russian people. The Russian public has been told that their country is doing noble work...
Gereetings from .... somewhere. At this moment, my keyboard is buried under a pile of paperwork as I finalize the program for next week’s Clearwater Rodeo and ship this week’s edition of SAM to the printer. Ten days from now, I will be saying, “Greetings from Fargo.” I know, who goes to Fargo for vaca, right? Actually, I will be taking a road trip to North Dakota for the National Federation of Press Women’s annual convention. There, I will be recognized as one of six finalists for the organizat...
Does American democracy survive without the backbone of independent local journalism? That question serves as the theme of the documentary, “Storm Lake,” airing recently on the PBS show, “Independent Lens.” The segment follows the daily ins and outs of Art Cullen and his family, who run the Storm Lake Times, which debuted in 1990. Initially, the paper printed weekly, with Friday distribution. Within three years, the Times began printing daily. A month later, another newspaper in Storm Lake st...
When it comes to saving local newspapers, the solutions won't be found in web metrics, ad rates or shrinking news holes. The solution, seemingly simple yet terrifying complicated, is for newspapers to reconnect with the people they're supposed to be serving. That's the purpose of The Relevance Project, a national effort intended to make local journalism so relevant to people's lives that papers will once again become an essential purchase. The Newspaper Association Managers, a coalition of...
The Summerland Advocate-Messenger finished third in the Class A digital sweepstakes of the Nebraska Press Association's Better Newspaper Contest. Awards were announced June 17, via video presentation. SAM staff members submitted entires in 58 categories focusing on writing, photography, advertising, digital, design and creativity. According to the Nebraska Press Association, which sponsors the contest, more than 3,100 separate entries, representing nine dailies and 66 weeklies, were judged by...
Ken Paulson Director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University When government fails, it’s the rare public official who says, “Oops. My fault.” That’s human nature, particularly for officials in the public eye who may have to run for office again. No one wants to be held directly responsible for letting the public down. Case in point is the recent catastrophe in Texas, when unexpected winter storms left 4 million homes without power, ruptured pipes and tainted the water supply for many. Texas’ energy grid essential...
The coronavirus pandemic has laid much of the American economy on its back - but a bright spot made the disaster less crippling than it might have been. That is the Paycheck Protection Program, which funneled money to workers through small businesses. More than five million small businesses took the PPP loans, representing 50 million jobs, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Congress in June. It persuaded small businesses to keep people on the payroll instead of laying them off. That helped...
What is the difference between news and opinion? This, friends, is the question of the week. In last week's issue, I explained how SAM began a partnership with Trusting News, a project of the Reynolds Journalism Institute and American Press Institute. We worked to devise strategies that promote responsible and ethical journalism. One goal I established, through the project, is to provide a breakdown of what makes a news article, an editorial and a column. In the Advocate-Messenger, opinion and...
Last week, I spent part of Thursday, Friday and Saturday meeting colleagues via Zoom, taking part in sessions of the National Newspaper Conference. The socially-distanced version offered multiple chances for sharpening skills and networking with newspaper publishers and reporters from across the United States. The event renewed nearly all of the ethics I believe are key to providing community journalism. And, several sessions left me re-evaluating some ideas newspapers use because “it’s the way...
In a year of fighting a global pandemic, historic protests for racial equality and the rapidly approaching presidential election, America needs journalists to bring them critical reporting. The events of this year have led to significant increases in traffic to news publisher websites, as Americans look to local journalists to inform them about the news and events in their communities. People trust and appreciate their local news publishers. But publishers are also losing tremendous advertising...
We, at the Advocate-Messenger, are gearing up for National Newspaper Week, which is celebrated Oct. 4 through 10. This year’s theme - America Needs Journalists - has never been more timely. In a time when we hear “fake news” uttered on a daily basis, it’s time to clear the air and face the truth. Ethical journalists do not file fake news stories. We fact check (a term Scott has learned a lot about in the last year because I use it all the time), fact check again and fact check one final time be...
I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. I have a love-hate relationship with social media. While I appreciate being able stay informed about family members, I don’t like the divisiveness I see brewing. Whatever happened to the “we can agree to disagree” mantra? That is the beauty of free speech. If you don’t agree, scroll by. If you are inclined to comment, great, but civility goes a long way. But the reality of social media, especially when it comes to social media seen as a means of “free ad...
A subscriber posed an interesting question this week. Amid COVID-19 concerns, how safe are everyday objects many of us take for granted? Can pieces of mail - more importantly- your copy of the Summerland Advocate-Messenger, transmit the virus? What about styrofoam boxes containing a carryout order from local restaurants? Take it one more step. What about foods we eat? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, data indicates it is highly unlikely any of these items carry the...
It's National Newspaper Week. Normally, I would write about the week's theme and how it relates to you, the reading public, and me, as a journalist. Think F1rst - the 2019 theme - resonates with us because it forms the backbone of our democratic society. The first amendment is important, maybe now more than ever, as we the people hold governmental entities accountable. Limits to the five freedoms - religion, speech, press, assembly and right to petition - exist. Harmful speech is not protected....
Once upon a time, having a job at a newspaper meant working in one of the most imposing buildings in town, inhaling the acrid aroma of fresh ink and the dusty breath of cheap newsprint and feeling mini-earthquakes under our feet every time the presses started to roll. For those of us old enough to remember those days, National Newspaper Week 2019 could be one big, fat elegiac nostalgia trip. Today, many newspapers are ditching the imposing buildings for low-rent storefronts and have outsourced the printing. Those could be the newspapers that...
The Summerland Advocate-Messenger, a new community newspaper, makes its print and online debut this week. The paper is a trademarked publication owned by ColdType Publishing, LLC, and operated by Scott and LuAnn Schindler, of Clearwater. LuAnn is a veteran journalist and journalism educator. She ran a successful freelance business and worked as a regional correspondent for the Norfolk Daily News before assuming the role of managing editor at the Clearwater Record-Ewing News. She has received wri...
