President’s column It’s contest time – enter your best work!

By Betsy Russell The Idaho Press Club’s annual excellence in journalism contest is now open for entries. Be sure to submit your best work from 2018 — you deserve the recognition! We have updated and revised our rules, divisions and categories this year, to ensure we’re keeping up with our fast-changing industry. There are quite a few changes! Among them: We’ll have a new PHOTO division, separate from the various publication divisions, taking in all still photography categories. It also includes a few new ones: Photo package … [Read more...]

Journalists across the state get active shooter training

By Joan Cartan-Hansen Run. Hide. Fight.  That should be your mantra if you ever find yourself in an active shooter situation.  That’s the advice from Gary Oster, a retired Boise police officer and now a trainer specializing in business planning for active shooter incidents.  The Idaho State Broadcasters invited Oster to speak to journalists across the state. Oster says most incidents are over before the police can arrive, so it is up to each individual to be prepared. He suggests:

Former publisher of NY Times visits Idaho

By Tom Michael On Friday October 26, Boise State University hosted a public conversation with Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., the former publisher of The New York Times. The event was held at the Taco Bell Arena, where he was interviewed on stage by former Boise State University president Bob Kustra. Sulzberger is part of the family that has run the "paper of record" for more than a century. He led the Times for 25 years until he retired in 2016, handing the reins to his son, A.G. Sulzberger. The public discussion in Boise was breezy and … [Read more...]

Meet your IPC Audrey Dutton, investigative journalist at the Idaho Statesman

Interviewed by Sydney Sallabanks TWITTER PROFILE: “Investigative reporter for the Idaho Statesman. Data hoarder. Public records addict. Once filed a story while in labor.” PRESS CLUB POSITION: President, Southwest Chapter; chapter representative to the state board What got you interested in journalism in the first place? I came to journalism later than a lot of people did. My first real gig was freelancing after college for an alt-weekly in Minneapolis. My day job at the time was in a sex-related mental health clinic, and … [Read more...]

Deadline is Feb. 15 Apply now for IPC’s Don Watkins student, mid-career scholarships

By Joan Cartan-Hansen Need money for that professional training? Have a great idea for a story and no funds to get it to print or on the air? The Idaho Press Club can help. The Don Watkins Mid-Career Scholarship awards $500 for any Idaho Press Club member to use for any training or project that will improve the working press in Idaho. This could include going to a conference you have wanted to attend or funding toward travel on that enterprise story you have been working on for months. The only catch: You must share what you … [Read more...]

Media Moves

New faces in your newsroom or communication department? Let everyone know. Send your Media Moves to: email@idahopressclub.org IDAHO EDUCATION NEWS Idaho Education News' multimedia specialist Andrew Reed has accepted a position with EdSource in Oakland, Calif. He will work with EdNews through the first part of January and begin his new position in … [Read more...]

Idaho Press Club Fall Conference is this Saturday

By Katie Terhune It's easy to feel like we are all doing more with less these days – but don't despair! The Southwest Chapter of the Idaho Press Club is here to help. This year's Fall Conference will showcase some awesome local and national journalists to talk about some of their best recent reporting and share their tips for how to take your own work to the next level. Les Zaitz, of the Malheur Enterprise and newly-launched Salem Reporter, and Charlie Ornstein, senior editor at ProPublica, will headline the conference. They … [Read more...]

Standing up for reporting and truth

President’s column By Betsy Russell It’s really quite heartening that with a significant case pending involving press freedom in Idaho, the Verity case that’s before the Idaho Supreme Court, not only Idaho news media organizations but major news media organizations across the country all signed on to an amicus, or “friend of the court,” brief, arguing against recognizing libel by implication in Idaho. We have all long known that truth is a defense against libel, and we certainly hope our laws in Idaho continue to recognize … [Read more...]

Can Idaho media face lawsuits for reporting the truth?

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the Idaho Press; it is reprinted here by permission. By Tommy Simmons At the heart of the case attorneys argued Friday, Sept. 21 before the Idaho Supreme Court is the question of when and why news organizations can face lawsuits for factual reporting, as well as who can file that lawsuit. The suit involves former Idaho teacher James Verity, who sued news outlets last year for reporting on a sexual relationship he had with a student and the subsequent fallout, … [Read more...]

Treat your beat like an investigation

Watchdog workshop By Holly Beech Editor’s Note: Holly Beech won an Idaho Press Club Don Watkins Mid-Career Scholarship to attend an IRE watchdog workshop in Portland in April. This is her article on what she learned there. You, too, can apply for an Idaho Press Club scholarship; the deadline is Feb. 15. See our website, www.idahopressclub.org, for details. Jason Leopold is involved in dozens of lawsuits against the government challenging public record denials. A … [Read more...]

Media Moves

ASSOCIATED PRESS Statehouse reporter Kimberlee Kruesi left the AP Boise bureau to be the statehouse reporter for AP in Nashville. Longtime AP reporter Keith Ridler in Boise will cover Idaho politics in addition to his natural resources beat. IDAHO BUSINESS REVIEW Kim Burgess is the new editor of the Idaho Business Review, replacing Anne Wallace Allen, who returned to the East Coast to work as an investigative business reporter. Burgess formerly was an education reporter at the Albuquerque Journal and briefly worked for a trade … [Read more...]

Taking some steps forward for openness

By Melissa Davlin The Idaho media has plenty to celebrate as new laws go into effect on July 1 -- both for what the 2018 Legislature passed, and what it didn’t. Each session, the Idaho Press Club’s First Amendment Committee, which advocates for public records access and open meetings, works with lobbyists and lawmakers on bills that promoted government transparency, and against proposals that go against that spirit of openness. Here are some highlights from the 2018 session:

President’s column: Idaho, where local news is going strong

By Betsy Z. Russell After nearly 27 years with The Spokesman-Review – a fine newspaper – I never thought I’d switch at this point in my career. But then the Idaho Press came along. In May, I started as the new Boise bureau chief for the Idaho Press and Adams Publishing Group, a family-owned company that in addition to the longstanding Canyon County daily (formerly the Idaho Press-Tribune), also owns the Post Register in Idaho Falls, the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello, and several other smaller papers throughout southern … [Read more...]

The American Redoubt Series by the Sandpoint Reader

Note: Ben Olson, publisher of the Sandpoint Reader, won an Idaho Press Club Don Watkins Mid-Career Scholarship of $500 to aid in this project. You, too, can apply for the mid-career scholarship, which is available for any Idaho Press Club member to use for any training or project that will benefit the working press in Idaho. The deadline to apply each year is Feb. 15; there's more information at our website, www.idahopressclub.org. By Ben Olson Every January, the alternative weekly Sandpoint … [Read more...]