A ‘community’ is just a ‘place’ if the newspaper dies

By Bob Morrison This column originally appeared in the Urbana (OH) Daily Citizen, a publication of AIM Media Midwest. “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” The old adage came to mind as I thought about my local newspaper – the one that’s been printing my columns for several years. It reports on local government, sports, arts, births, […]

NNA urges US Senate to protect FOIA on Supplemental Nutrition Benefit Assistance (SNAP)

By Tonda Rush, NNA General Counsel National Newspaper Association President Susan Rowell, publisher of the Lancaster (SC) News, this week wrote to the heads of the Senate Conference Committee on the fast-moving “Farm Bill”—HR 2—to urge protection of the Freedom of Information Act records on Supplemental Nutrition Benefit Assistance (SNAP) benefits. NNA learned that some grocery industry groups are seeking […]

Newspaper adds a sunset to searching police public records

By Randy Picht, Reynolds Journalism Institute “Please take my story down.” If you’re an editor, you’ve gotten that plea, perhaps many times. The answer of the future may start in Cape Girardeau, Mo. The Southeast Missourian announced a policy to block search engines from court and police public records and subsequent articles after six years. “Our policy up until now has been […]