October 4th, 2026 • 2026: Columbus
The Confidence Tax: Why Even Seasoned Journalists Still Doubt Themselves
The rejection email is easy to blame. So is the job posting with one qualification you don’t have, the editor who doesn’t respond to your pitch or the story you decided wasn’t good enough — only to watch another publication run it the next day.
October 3rd, 2026 • 2026: Columbus
Campus is a City: Rethinking How Journalists Cover Colleges
Colleges and universities can be some of the most powerful institutions in a community, shaping where people live, work, study and spend their money. But journalists often overlook the stories happening beyond the classroom. That was a central message Oct. 2 during “Campus is a City: Covering Colleges as Accountability Beats,” a panel at SPJ 2026.
October 3rd, 2026 • 2026: Columbus
How journalists can explain data centers to their readers
As data centers expand across the country, journalists are being asked to explain a world that involves megawatts, transmission lines, utility bills and billion-dollar infrastructure projects to audiences who may have little reason to understand how the electrical grid works. Anna Staver, a reporter for the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, said the challenge is not simply learning the technical details, but figuring out how to make the details meaningful.
October 3rd, 2026 • 2026: Columbus
New SPJ President Nicole DeCriscio is ready to champion reporters, students and press freedom
For Nicole DeCriscio, journalism was not something she always knew she wanted to pursue. It began more quietly, with a writing class at Homestead High School in Fort Wayne, Ind., and a growing curiosity about what it meant to tell other people’s stories.
October 2nd, 2026 • 2026: Columbus
For Walter Robinson, the Real Story Is Never Where Reporting Begins
For more than five decades, Walter V. Robinson — one of four SPJ 2026 Fellows of the Society — has chased stories around the world. He shared one important lesson he has learned: The story is rarely what you think it is when you start reporting it.
October 2nd, 2026 • 2026: Columbus
From newsrooms to neighborhoods: SPJ Georgia helps journalists bring news literacy into communities
What is media? Who is a journalist? Who decides what becomes a story? How can someone tell whether a story is factual, misleading or AI-generated? Why should someone trust a journalist? At the 2026 SPJ conference in Columbus, Ohio, journalists learned about an initiative in Georgia that helps communities understand how journalism works.