Spotlight: National Headliner and Journalism Awards

A bicyclist passes by The American Theater with the sign reading "Go Away Ian" on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022 in Charleston | Andrew J. Whitaker, Photojournalist of the Year
A bicyclist passes by The American Theater with the sign reading “Go Away Ian” on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022 in Charleston | Andrew J. Whitaker, Photojournalist of the Year

Post and Courier staff has received 94 awards from the SC Press association and two National Headliners awards this year.  The Post and Courier prides itself on being a highly credible news source for readers across South Carolina and these awards are a testimony to the extensive qualifications of the publication.  These reporters, photojournalists and editors have amassed extensive audiences that our business partners have been able to reach through various advertising and sponsorship opportunities.  Follow along to learn more about these notable awards and the people behind the stories.

Editor Awards

Avery Wilks, chief investigative reporter for The Post and Courier in Columbia, was named South Carolina’s Journalist of the Year.

Avery Wilks, investigative reporter for The Post and Courier
Avery Wilks, Investigative Reporter for The Post and Courier

Wilks, who joined the newspaper in 2020, had his hands on many of the state’s biggest stories last year. He was the lead reporter on the many-faceted Murdaugh murders saga while also heading coverage of the dozen South Carolinians charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Wilks also produced numerous investigative stories that exposed rampant misspending at one of the state’s largest school districts, revealed that a small town clerk had given herself a $30,000 raise from a pot of federal money she controls and uncovered a state senator’s mysterious history of sitting on state grant checks owed to charities in his district — to the tune of $600,000. He did this while also producing political profiles, helping lead a new podcast, and coaching high school and college students on the tenets of journalism.

National Headliner Awards

The Post and Courier has received a pair of prestigious journalism honors from the National Headliner Awards.

Jennifer Berry Hawes, Former Special Projects Writer for The Post and Courier
Jennifer Berry Hawes, Former Special Projects Writer for The Post and Courier

Former reporter Jennifer Berry Hawes received a first-place award in the feature writing category for journalists working outside a top 20 media market.  Hawes was honored for a portfolio that included stories about an intellectually disabled man subjected to horrific labor trafficking, an examination of a man long reputed to be the leader of a massive but doomed slave rebellion in Charleston, and a police chief’s battle back from a rare and devastating cancer that cost him a leg and hip.

Hawes and colleague Thad Moore also won a second-place nod for investigative reporting by newspapers not in a top 20 market.

They won for “Danger on the Docks,” which investigated the safety record at Detyens Shipyards Inc., a North Charleston ship-repair business where four men died on the job in three years — more than shipyards many times larger.

The investigation found that the leaders of a Navy command had long harbored safety concerns. Yet it continued to award the shipyard work worth hundreds of millions of dollars, dwarfing fines issued by safety regulators.

The National Headliner Awards were founded in 1934 by the Press Club of Atlantic City. The annual contest is one of the oldest and largest in the country that recognizes journalistic merit in the communications industry.

The Post and Courier Launches into the Pee Dee Market

 

The Post and Courier launched into the Pee Dee market on May 1, 2023.  Find all the news you need to know from the Pee Dee area and sign up for the weekly newsletter to receive roundups of stories handpicked by Post and Courier reporters.

 

Regional Information
Horry and Georgetown are covered by The Post and Courier Myrtle Beach/Georgetown Times.

The Post and Courier is continuing it’s goal of providing quality news coverage across the Palmetto State by launching into Pee Dee, a region in the northeast corner of the state.

It is loosely defined by counties that touch the Pee Dee River watershed –  Chesterfield, Clarendon, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Georgetown, Horry, Lee, Marion, Marlboro, Sumter, and Williamsburg.  This rural area of the state has historically been considered a news desert, and the Pee Dee staff is dedicated to changing that.

Publisher and Digital Sales Director Tim Matthews
Publisher/Digital Sales Director Tim Matthews By Stephen Massar | smassar@postandcourier.com

Tim Matthews, Publisher and Digital Sales Director, said, “The first thing is to let the folks in the Pee Dee know that we are here and committed.  Part of my job is to have the pulse of what’s going on as I go around and talk to local business people. I also want to be part of the community by being involved in the Rotary, the chamber and other local organizations. ”

Matthews’ goal as Digital Sales Director is to develop digital marketing plans for small- and medium-sized businesses that includes advertising on digital platforms like Meta, Google, YouTube and others. As the publisher of the Post and Courier’s Pee Dee news operation, Matthews will represent the organization in the community.

Learn more about the Pee Dee staff.

Reach Prime Audiences Before Competitors

The Post and Courier’s launch into the Pee Dee market has created the opportunity for businesses to reach previously untouched audiences.  Your business has the chance to create a lasting impression and relationships with consumers across ten counties and countless industries.  Matthews, who has over 12 years of experience developing successful and strategic digital marketing plans, said, “We have a local partner who handles the creative process including photography, video and graphic design.  Our marketing team can customize an event tailored specifically to your business’ target audience.  We will handle all of the details from start to finish.”

The Post and Courier Pee Dee team will equip your business with the tools to be among the first companies to reach these readers.  Take advantage of the variety of advertising and sponsorship opportunities today.

Newsletter Relaunch – Rising Waters: Climate Stories of the South

The Post and Courier is relaunching their climate and environment newsletter with a new name, Rising Waters: Climate Stories of the South.  This newsletter will focus on the environment and climate issues not only facing the South Carolina Lowcountry, but the entire Southeast region of the United States.

Time for Change

Over the past few years, the environment and climate change newsletter, Tipping Point, has been sending to over 2,000 subscribers, but The Post and Courier has decided it is time for a change that will better reflect their journalism and the everchanging state of the environment.

Environment and Climate Reporter Clare Fieseler joined The Post and Courier last December and expressed an interest in starting this newsletter to better connect with her readers, and make sure that they were receiving the environmental science content that they expect from The Post and Courier.

“Some of the same issues I lived through in North Carolina for many years – storms, rising seas, land development and thorny environmental politics – followed me here to the Lowcountry,” Fieseler continues, “I knew that I wanted to give readers a weekly deep dive into our climate coverage to show how it connects to news happening across the South.”

The 2020 series, Rising Waters, documents how the quickening pace of climate change and sea level rise poses an existential threat to South Carolina.  The series was named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the local reporting category in 2021.

The Post and Courier’s Executive Editor, Autumn Phillips, said, “We wanted this newsletter to continue the paper’s tradition of excellence when covering climate change and the environment.  Bringing back the name ‘Rising Waters’ was a no brainer.”

This newsletter will focus on how climate change interacts with the environment, such as with wildlife, human health, food, housing, migration and more.  Fieseler hopes to share books, trends, scientific insights and more with her readers, and to settle how they can address the environmental changes that are surrounding them today.

Rapidly Growing Audience = Effective Marketing Opportunities

This newsletter is projected to target a highly engaged and specific audience, creating the perfect atmosphere for businesses to capture the attention of these subscribers.  The Post and Courier’s Director of Sales, Wayne Snow, said “The broad insights Clare will bring to our highly engaged audience supports our unending commitment to connecting advertisers that have a desire to capture them.  When it comes to topics like these, we’re excited about the opportunity to marry our customers to ‘Rising Waters’ thoughtful and responsive subscribers.”

Details regarding these sponsorship opportunities will be announced in the coming weeks.  For now, subscribe to the weekly newsletter and donate to support climate and environmental journalism.

Rising Waters: Climate Stories of the South will be sent directly to subscribers emails every Friday at 8 a.m.

The Post and Courier Launches Video Streaming App PC+

 

The Post and Courier has launched PC+, a new streaming app where the newspaper’s videos are curated to provide an engaging visual experience for viewers using Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku Services.

Digital Expansion

In its continued digital expansion to provide news to readers across South Carolina and beyond, The Post and Courier is seeking to meet audiences where they are.  Increasingly, that is through social media, including YouTube, and streaming platforms.

Video is an engaging way to reach digital consumers and deliver the latest news and updates, said P.J. Browning, publisher of The Post and Courier.

“We are always evolving and trying to stay up to date with the latest technology,” she said.  “This is an exciting opportunity for us to showcase the important work our photojournalists and videographers provide beyond our regular format.”

The Post and Courier, which is the South’s oldest daily newspaper and the largest based in the Palmetto State, has told stories of Charleston and South Carolina for centuries.  That includes an award-winning track record as a visual storyteller.

The company has expanded statewide with editors and reporters based in Beaufort, Bluffton, Columbia, Florence, Greenville, Hilton Head, Myrtle Beach, Rock Hill and Spartanburg.

OTT Market Takeover

Consumers continue to cut the cord and turn to over-the-top, or OTT, apps to watch videos and other digital content.

Nearly nine out of 10 U.S. households – some 86 percent – have at least one streaming video service, according to a new report from Leichtman Research Group, a New Hampshire-based firm that provides data and analysis on broadband, media and entertainment industries.  That is up from 52 percent in 2015.

Furthermore, half of U.S. households today have at least four streaming services, with Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu being the most popular.  Others include Disney+, HBO Max and YouTubeTV, reports J.D. Power.

“We have been telling the stories of Charleston and South Carolina for more than 220 years, and we are now providing those stories and coverage on more modern platforms,” said Chris Zoeller, chief opportunity and marketing officer at The Post and Courier.  “This is the natural next step as we expand our digital footprint and have already been producing high-quality video storytelling.”

Advertising Opportunities

This new video streaming app venture is good news for businesses who are looking to take advantage of The Post and Courier’s extensive advertising and sponsorship opportunities.  The PC+ app will host a variety of digital advertisements for our audiences to engage with.  For more information, subscribe to the B4B Newsletter and check postandcourieradvertising.com for regular advertising updates.

Consumers will continue to find video and other digital content on postandcourier.com, YouTube, the newspaper’s podcast channels and now streaming.  PC+ is available on app stores available through Amazon Fire TV, AppleTV and Roku.

The Post and Courier is launching new apps for video content on Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV platforms.
The Post and Courier is launching new apps for video content on Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV platforms.

Reva Henderson Promoted to Director of Revenue Operations

After nearly nine years with The Post and Courier, Reva Henderson was promoted to Director of Revenue Operations in October 2022.

She started on the ad operation team managing local and extended campaigns and third-party vendor relationships. From there, she became one of the original team members of King & Columbus – a full-service marketing and advertising agency run by Evening Post Industries, the parent company of The Post and Courier. She served as a campaign strategist as well as interim director, and for the past two and a half years, she was the Director of Client Services for King & Columbus.

As Director of Revenue Operations, Reva oversees the advertising department’s day-to-day tasks including campaign implementation, ad design, and production, campaign strategy, and client services and retention.

“Working alongside the new Director of Sales, Wayne Snow, in my new role I am looking forward to getting back to the core of business by finding ways to increase efficiencies and processes for all teams,” Reva said.

Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Reva holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations from Florida State University.

Reva and her husband, Robert ‘Trey’ Henderson, have been married for eight years. They originally lived in Avondale in West Ashley, but have been in Park Circle for the last five years. “We love to see the area up there expand and grow with restaurants, parks, and shops!” she said.

In 2021, her son, Robert IV, was born. Today Reva stays busy working full-time and keeping up with her very active almost 2-year-old.

Last year, Reva was included on the task force to oversee the transition to NetSuite for the advertising department. The new system allows many departments, such as advertising and finance, to work in one system. The program helps with managing the process of ad order entry and with reporting ads and daily advertising functions. Her hard work during the transition earned her The Post and Courier’s Leadership Award in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Her management style combines no-nonsense problem-solving with effective communication and support. Her knowledge of the company and understanding of how tasks should be accomplished provides those in her department with the tools to properly get their jobs done. This approach creates an open work environment for her team, and a relationship built on trust and mutual respect, proving her to be a competent and reliable director.

Outside of work, Reva enjoys going to the playground with her son, taking her dog on long walks and visiting local breweries with friends and family.