The winners of the first Sacramento Press Pro-Am Journalism Open have been chosen.

Historian William Burg claimed the Grand Prize with his detailed, well-reasoned and beautifully-written list of 10 suggestions on how K Street might be returned to its former glory. Frequent Sacramento Press contributors Ali Tabatabai, Rhonda Erwin and Marion Millin also took top prizes, as did first-time community contributor Stephanie Rodriquez and our part-time copy editor Elisa Hough.

Their prizes will range from $100-500, with Burg’s prize a weekend at Squaw Valley. Other contributors won prizes for smaller aspects of their stories, whether the accompanying photos, a great quote or a well-turned headline. A list of the winners follows.

The prizes were decided by Sacramento Press Editor-in-Chief and co-founder Geoff Samek, Journalism Support Manager Colleen Belcher and Managing Editor David Watts Barton. We read all 82 of the entries that came in during October, and did our best to find those that reflected what we want The Sacramento Press to be. We read them without names attached, though we of course saw most of the stories as they were first posted on the site. Our goal was to find the stories that met our minimal criteria, but we also looked for things we enjoyed. Our decisions were subjective.

Most of the people who wrote for the contest are not professional journalists, but citizen contributors, and the entries reflected that. While some writers followed standard journalistic practices of calling multiple sources and trying to thread a line through conflicting versions of the truth, many others did not. We found that we enjoyed some of both. Whether an objective news story or a passionate rant, we learned something from nearly all of them.

Grand Prize winner Burg is a trained historian, though he has done some paid journalism as well. His story on K Street didn’t aim to seek out experts for expert comment; he is an expert, and likely knows more about his subject than anyone he could call. Author of books on Sacramento history and a professional historian, Burg is also a midtown resident and someone who cares about the future, as well as the past, of his adopted hometown. His story brought all of that together.

First Prize winner Ali Tabatabai is an aspiring journalist; in fact, he has his bachelor’s degree in journalism from San Francisco State, and earlier this year he won fourth place in the 49th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program. So let’s lose the “aspiring” modifier. He won the First Prize in our contest for his story on what happened to all that debris after our recent wind storm a few weeks back, talking to sources about something so mundane we might all overlook it; except it is actually pretty interesting stuff.

Some stories were powerfully moving. Rhonda Erwin didn’t approach her Second Place winner, “Our Cries Echo From One Sacramento Neighborhood to Another,” as a traditional journalist. She didn’t need to call anyone for quotes; She didn’t interview her subjects, she knows them. She didn’t speak to them as a journalist, she spoke to them as something more: a member of their community. Only later did the story itself come, bringing the raw details of teenage death among African-American youth in our city to the computer screen. Erwin’s piece was something MORE than journalism. She was speaking for those who can’t, and writing (beautifully) for those too discouraged to sit down at a computer and write. 

Like Ali’s story, Stephanie Rodriguez’ story on our local ‘zine culture found the writer contacting a number of sources to talk about a cultural phenomenon; on the other hand, neighborhood activist Marion Millin didn’t pretend to be objective when she took on the issue of Sacramento High School and the lack of a high school in the central city. Objective? No. Passionate, informed, detailed and enlightening? Oh, yes.

Finally, one of our copy editors, Elisa Hough, tackled the most mundane sort of story, about a community meeting in Curtis Park to discuss details of Paul Petrovich’s plans to develop the old Union Pacific Railyard. She strove for balanced views from both sides, and in doing so, captured a moment in the democratic process that could all-too-easily been lost amongst the bigger, more "important" stories. 

Could these stories have been better? Sure. Did you read them anywhere else? No. Because the Sacramento Press is giving people a chance to tell their imperfect stories directly, in a forum unlike any other. There's a very good chance that none of these stories would have been told, in any medium, without these community contributors.

We are also giving 10 smaller prizes for specific elements of stories that stood out. These winners, listed below, all have something to recommend them. Michael Zwahlen’s post about the proposed Community Center Theater renovation wasn’t in-depth - it was only two paragraphs long, with two illustrations - but it announced to the community a process that hadn’t been covered in any other media outlet that we know of - at least, not until he posted it on SacPress - and that made it our winner for Best “Get.” Seeing the story appear a couple of days later on local TV was proof enough for us. 

Other winners included those for Best Lede, Most Original Story or Best Use of the Storyline, one of Sacramento Press’s most compelling features. We enjoyed reading these stories, and we look forward to many, many more community contributions over the year until the Second Sacramento Press Journalism Open starts.

But no need to wait for that, right? 

Here are all ten of the category winners, who got “reporter’s packs” for their efforts.

Best Quote
Ryan Kinsel
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/16016

Best Lede
Marion Millin
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/16758

Most Original
Kate Traci, for her first person description of life as a 911 dispatcher
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/16753

Most Researched
Ali Tabatabai, for his story on storm debris
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/16551

Best “Get”
Michael Zwahlen, Community Center Theater renovation
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/15863

Best Headline
Marion Millin, Stepping Out In Midtown: Beyond the Valet of the Dilettante
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/16286

Best Use of the Storyline
Sue Wilson, for her series of stories on the Jennifer Strange Trial
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/16740

Best Accompanying Photos
Kati Garner
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/16757

Most Read
Anne Lowe, for her story on the County Sheriff issuing many more concealed weapons permits
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/16063

Most Commented-on
William Burg, for his story on K Street
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/15307