South Carolina newspaper scene
As South Carolina’s population has grown, so too has the number of newspapers. Currently there are 16 daily newspapers in the Palmetto State and numerous others that print several times a week. Most of the daily newspapers (seven day a week publications) serve the urban areas of South Carolina although there are other dailies (The Union Daily Times; The Daily Messenger; The Daily Journal (both of Seneca) that serve smaller population centers in areas considered mostly rural. Virtually all of the daily newspapers cover not only their immediate geographical areas but also feature state, regional and national news. South Carolina daily newspapers offer their readers a concise synopsis of what the editors feel are the most important stories of the day that most impact their reading audience. Many more of South Carolina’s newspapers print on a weekly basis, serving their small town audiences. More than 80 weekly newspapers can be found across the Palmetto State. These newspapers are usually locally owned and operated with a focus on local news and events, usually limited to one town or county. Weekly newspapers attract a loyal reader base by printing stories that cannot be had in any daily newspaper. Features about local individuals, groups, civic happenings and local government are what weekly newspaper editors offer their readers. Established in 1875, the South Carolina Press Association represents and serves the daily and weekly newspapers of South Carolina. The South Carolina Press Association was founded at a time when more objective journalism was beginning to make inroads as the predominant style of practice. The objectives of the SCPA are to: SCPA provides services that include lobbying, a legal/Freedom of Information hotline, industry legal and advertising representation and conventions and workshops for members and publications. But perhaps the greatest benefit the SCPA offers is that of fostering better contact and a closer relationship among the working print media of the Palmetto State. Headquartered in Columbia, the Press Association is classified as a not-for-profit association. The association also has two related organizations: About 98 percent of the eligible newspapers in South Carolina are members of the SCPA. The principles and practices that govern today's newspapers -- journalistic objectivity, concise writing, national and international news -- emerged after the American Civil War. This was the Golden Era of daily newspapers since there were enormous numbers and diversity of newspapers across the country. Never before or since have newspapers wielded so much influence on American politics and culture. The word "news" itself has never received a common meaning among publishers but the generally accepted definition is that information that will results in the greatest impact or be of greatest interest to the reader. Many different individuals and departments contribute to the process that produces a newspaper in South Carolina. Here we will deal with the procedures that are responsible for the printing of a South Carolina daily newspaper. All weekly newspapers also follow the same basics to produce their publications but on a much smaller scale. There are five different divisions working together to print a daily newspaper that readers should be aware of—news, editorial, advertising, production and distribution. First, reporters glean information from many sources, some public, such as police records, and others private, such as a government informant. Reporters are assigned to either general beats, or areas of coverage, so that they become intimately familiar with the workings of that particular area—city hall, education, medicine, etc.—or they work on general assignments. These reporters work on a variety of stories from human interest, civic events and features. Occasionally, a reporter will go to jail rather than reveal the name of a confidential source for a news story because "burning" (publically naming) your sources is breaking confidentiality. If a reporter were to reveal their sources every time, no one would ever give them information for fear of exposure. American newspapers consider themselves the "watchdog branch of government" that exposes legislative, executive and judicial misbehavior. All reporters are ultimately responsible to an editor. Depending on its size, a newspaper may have numerous editors, beginning with an executive editor responsible for the news division. Immediately below the executive editor is the managing editor, the person who oversees the day-to-day work of the news division. Other editors – city or metro, sports, photo, state, national, features and obituary, for example -- may also report to the managing editor. These editors are called gatekeepers, because they decide much of what will and will not appear in the next day's paper. It is this very process where the priorities of news are decided. If a newspaper has even an important story that is scheduled for a particular day’s printing it can sometimes be taken out altogether if a breaking news story occurs. Often working under the stress of breaking news, their decisions translate directly into the content of the newspaper. Headlines for stories are also written by editors, not by reporters. Once the city or metro editor has finished editing a reporter's copy the story moves to copy editors, who check for spelling and other errors of usage. They may also look for "holes" in the story that would confuse readers or leave their questions unanswered. The number of pages beyond a minimum that most newspapers set is always determined by the amount of advertising sold for that day’s publication, not by the amount of news. However, most South Carolina daily newspapers reserve extra news pages for big local stories and major events. Advertising accounts for up to almost 60 percent of what runs in a newspaper. Three types of advertising dominate modern newspapers: The production division does the heavy lifting of newspaper work. It is the production division that runs and maintains the presses, typesetters, image scanners and photographic engraving machines. Some workers are assigned to the day shift, others to the night shift. The production division, working in the pressroom, prints the newspapers and assembles them in bundles for shipping to the distribution division. Responsibility for getting the newspaper to the reader falls to the distribution division. Large newspapers publish two, three or even four different editions, usually depending on which particular segment of the newspaper’s coverage area it is intended. The first edition, sometimes called the bulldog edition, goes to the outer limits of the newspaper's circulation area. Later editions contain progressively fresher news and go to smaller areas. The circulation department sets up the newspaper carrier routes. This department is also responsible for rack sales through coin-operated vending dispensers. The circulation department also maintains subscribers' billing records, customer deliver stops and starts and late delivery of missing newspapers. The price you pay a newspaper, both for an individual edition and for other advertising, is dependent on an annual audit by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which examines and verifies circulation numbers. The larger the circulation, the more a newspaper can charge for advertising. The Lowcountry was the first area of South Carolina to have newspapers because it was this area that was first populated by English settlers in 1670 at Charles Towne (now called Charleston). The daily newspaper that mainly serves Berkeley, Dorchester, Charleston and Colleton counties is the Charleston Post and Courier, the South's oldest daily newspaper. The Post and Courier is a combination of The Courier, founded in 1803, and The Evening Post , founded in 1894. The two papers were together in the same newspaper ownership since 1904 and in 1991 the two papers were merged to become The Post and Courier. This daily newspaper has been instrumental in coverage of the burgeoning medical and education sectors of the economy and the expanding and new businesses that are entering the market on a steadily consistent basis. Two other daily newspapers—The Beaufort Gazette and The Bluffton Today—cover areas of Beaufort, Hampton and Jasper counties. Finally, The Island Packet of Hilton Head Island covers items of interest along the lower South Carolina coastal area and overlaps some coverage areas near Savannah, Georgia, Beaufort and other areas in the Lowcountry. All three Lowcountry daily newspapers are also heavily into reporting about how environmental factors crucial to the quality of life in the low-lying coast affect their respective audiences. The major daily newspapers in this area of South Carolina are The Myrtle Beach Sun News and The Florence Morning News. The Myrtle Beach newspaper is the larger of the two, with a daily circulation of 50,937 and 59,945 on Sunday. The Sun News has undergone several ownership changes since it was founded as a daily newspaper back in 1936. The Florence Morning News was first published as a daily in 1928. Both newspapers, whose printing facilities are located within 50 miles of one another, have consistently dealt with the predominant issues of their areas. The Pee Dee is a primarily rural area where the base industry is agriculture, although The Florence Morning News has presented more coverage of the need to expand the economy with more heavy industry and information age businesses. The Myrtle Beach Sun News covers more local focus on the tourism industry and the boom in residential and business developments that have taken over the Grand Strand area. Both newspapers also deal with the slightly different environmental impacts faced in land development, soil and water and pollution. The Midlands of South Carolina is an area that runs from the Savannah River border with Georgia to Sumter and from Fairfield County to Orangeburg County. This vast area encompasses many different issues that are of concern to the myriad audiences represented in this diverse area. The main newspaper of the Midlands that is distributed in virtually every county of South Carolina is The State of Columbia. As the major daily in the state’s capital The State reports heavily on state government and the annual workings of each individual session of the General Assembly. How state government actions affect other issues in other parts of South Carolina is also an important part of The State’s reporting as is heavy military affairs reporting since a major basic training facility for the U.S. Army, Fort Jackson, is on Columbia’s eastern boundary. But The State also encompasses general coverage of surrounding, mostly rural counties like Sumter, Fairfield, Newberry, Lexington, Calhoun and Kershaw. The Aiken Standard divides coverage among the western South Carolina counties of Edgefield, Saluda, Aiken, Barnwell, Bamberg and Allendale. Aiken also consistently covers an area of great technological and military research related to national security at the Savannah River Site, home to the first nuclear reactors and built in the middle part of the 20th Century. Environmental and agricultural issues also are handled in pages of The Aiken Standard. The Orangeburg Times and Democrat is located in the largest county in the Midlands. A mostly rural area with a large minority population base and the largest historically black university in the state at South Carolina State, the T&D also handles many reports on economic and social growth and impact. Being near a major military installation at Shaw Air Force Base, The Sumter Daily Item is also heavily into reporting on stories that affect the American military since Shaw is a major employer of the civilian workforce in the area. Perhaps the fastest growing area of South Carolina, the Upstate, has the largest number of daily newspapers in South Carolina. All of the newspapers in the Upstate (or Piedmont) have published stories about the major issues of the area: business and economic expansion, especially from international companies; the effects of the growing population on pollution, air and water quality and waste disposal; the influx of mainly Hispanic people that began with the many peach orchards of the area and the textile industry, long a major force in the Upstate that has been waning in recent decades with the onset of strong foreign competition. Located in the Upstate, covering counties stretching from Oconee in the northwest area of South Carolina to Anderson, Laurens and out to Lancaster and Chesterfield counties, are seven dailies. The Union Daily Times prints on the five weekdays and The Daily Messenger and The Daily Journal (both of Seneca) prints Tuesday through Saturday. The remaining newspapers—The Greenville News; The Spartanburg Herald-Journal; The Greenwood Index-Journal; The Anderson Independent-Mail and The Rock Hill Herald all print every day. The Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson newspapers deal with a great deal of economic issues as all of the communities that make up their main audience base are located on the growing I-85 corridor. The Rock Hill Herald also deals with many issues relating to its close proximity to a major North Carolina city, Charlotte, just a mere 20 miles to the north. Ever since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1400s, the newspaper has been the primary source for written information on a consistent basis. Newspapers also shared that same importance in South Carolina since the earliest days of the colony. It was newspapers of the day that helped inform and arouse South Carolinians during the American Revolution, the Civil War (strong newspaper editorials helped force South Carolina’s secession from the Union in 1861) and into the 20th Century. Whether the style was partisan "yellow" journalism or the objective standard that arose in the early 1900s, newspapers have made a difference. Even though news and information through the electronic media has taken some readers away from South Carolina newspapers, the hold by the fourth estate on the general public has never waned for very long.South Carolina Press Association
Newspaper basics—News
Newspaper basics—Advertising
Newspaper basics—Production and distribution
South Carolina newspapers—Lowcountry
South Carolina newspapers—Grand Strand and Pee Dee
South Carolina newspapers—Midlands
South Carolina newspapers—Upstate
South Carolina Newspapers Offer Perspective To Your World
