Honoring the Best of 2010 It’s contest time – get your entries in!

By Joan Cartan-Hansen

The Idaho Press Club’s “Best of 2010” awards contest honors the best work in print, broadcast, online and P.R. in Idaho in the past year - and you should enter. This year's contest features an array of categories in which to compete, generous discounts for IPC members, entry fees held to last year's level, and a chance at bragging rights, adulation from your peers and a boost for your resume. The deadline to enter is Jan. 20, and entries are now being accepted.

All the details are at our website, … [Read more...]

Report from fall conference ‘Behind the Lines: A Reporter’s Path to the Truth’

From new media law to fact-checking political ads to Twitter as a reporting tool, the Idaho Press Club's fall conference this year brought Idaho journalists timely and useful training.

The conference, put on by the Press Club's Southwest Chapter, took place Sept. 25 in downtown Boise. Here are some of the tips the presenters passed along to the assembled journalists:

(@carsonjw on Twitter) discussed how to break news and interact with the audience through such tools as Twitter and Facebook. Walker said social networks can be an … [Read more...]

President’s Column City shouldn’t charge big labor fees for public records

By Betsy Russell

Recently, after receiving several complaints from members of the media about their experiences making public records requests of the City of Boise, Press Club board member Allen Derr and I met with Boise Mayor Dave Bieter.

The mayor graciously met with us for more than an hour, and discussed our concerns in depth. A city attorney and city spokesman Adam Park also participated in the meeting.

Mayor Bieter was quite concerned that we thought the city was taking a troubling new hard line on public records … [Read more...]

Reflections on an Idaho newspaper career

By Tim Woodward

Most of us probably gave thanks for about the same things Thursday — homes, families, health, the usual. For me, though, something else came to mind this year: My job.

Not that I haven’t always been thankful for it. These days, anyone with a job should be thankful. But with the end closer than the beginning of a career in what has become an uncertain occupation, I’ve come to appreciate more fully the good luck of having spent my life in the newspaper business.

True, it’s a business that isn’t always held in … [Read more...]

Meet your IPC: Deanna Darr, Boise Weekly

Board member profile

By Natalie Hurst

It's no wonder creativity is interwoven into sentence structure at the Boise Weekly. Just take a look at the Features Editor.

She's a founding board member of Riot Act, Inc., a theater company in Jackson, Wyo., has enjoyed whitewater rafting her whole life and travels whenever she can.

"It's no secret that we do have fun in our jobs and our writing reflects that," said 34-year-old Deanna Darr, the newest member of the Idaho Press Club Board. "As an alternative paper, we … [Read more...]

Media Moves

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TIMES-NEWS

The editor and publisher of The Times-News in Twin Falls says he plans to retire at year's end. Brad Hurd has worked for Lee Enterprises for 31 years and has been publisher of The Times-News since November 2004. He was named editor last year. He also oversees the Elko Daily Free Press in Elko, Nev. Hurd joined Lee in 1979 as an assistant city editor for the Missoulian in Missoula, Mont. He was the Missoulian's editor from 1982 to 1994, when he became manager of Farcountry Press, a Lee-owned book and magazine … [Read more...]