We are excited to announce the newest addition to The Sacramento Press team – Jared Goyette. Jared is the fourth editor in chief The Sacramento Press has had since it launched in 2008. For the past three years Jared was the online producer for The Miami Herald, writing headlines, selecting the front page stories, editing images and managing social media accounts. On top of managing the morning shift at The Herald, Jared founded a hyperlocal publication called Open Media Miami. Open Media is the community news partner of The Herald and covers the downtown and Midtown areas of Miami. Jared said he started Open Media Miami because he “wanted to experiment with online news coverage … and i

Another year has passed and it’s time for reflection. The Sacramento Press has been lucky to form new relationships with some very talented contributing writers and photographers while strengthening our relationships with contributors who have been with us all along. Our region had many notable events that will forever ingrain 2011 in Sacramentans’ minds. When the “99 percent” occupied Cesar Chavez park and when Gus Vina left his post as City Manager, our community contributors were there to report. When the first cars inched their way down K Street and when the Sacramento City School Board considered relocating campuses, our community contributors were ready with notepads and cameras.

Access Sacramento opened its doors and studios to the public to mark its 25th year of offering community media for Sacramento County. For 25 years, nonprofit organization Access Sacramento has been “making a difference, one voice at a time,” through its commitment to covering local entertainment, high school sports and cultural events. Saturday’s event will showcase what local media has to offer the community and how attendees can play a major role in community reporting. I was 'the media covering the media' as I roamed around snapping photos for a couple of hours. Here are some shots: Many special guests including Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, City Councilman Steve Cohn, Supervisor

News is no longer designed for idle consumption: It is becoming more and more interactive as bloggers, community journalists, Twitter users and witnesses equipped with smart phones make their mark in distributing news. Access Sacramento will be hosting its 25th anniversary celebration Saturday and invites you to be seen and heard by telling your stories through digital media. The event also kicks off “Sunshine Week” (March 13 - 19), a national effort promoting the freedom of information and open government. To help celebrate Sunshine Week, Congresswoman Doris Matsui and city, county and state agency representatives will be in attendance. Access Sacramento is having an open house from noo

The Sacramento Press and The Sacramento Bee co-sponsored a panel discussion titled "Paying for Content" on June 22. The third floor of The Bee housed 37 people who gathered to listen to panelists discuss paywalls, online revenue and the relationship between consumer and organization. Independent journalist JT Long moderated. The panelists were Tim Foster, editor of Midtown Monthly; Michael Sanford, KVIE's vice president for content creation; Geoff Samek, co-founder of The Sacramento Press; Tom Negrete, Bee managing editor for the online edition and production; Ron Trujillo, editor of The Sacramento Business Journal; and Mike O'Brien, co-publisher and owner of Sacramento Magazines Corpor

For our readers and users who have an interest in online news sites and community journalism, we have a survey that we would like you to take. Reynolds Journalism Institute is doing a research project on local news sites and online community. On their website it states their mission as "reconnecting journalists and citizens around the importance of journalism in a democracy, and using technology to enhance methods that help journalists reach citizens in many ways." The institute is part of the University of Missouri and the Missouri School of Journalism. RJI reached out to Sacramento Press to participate in their research and created a survey tailored to our site. The survey has 36 que

The Sacramento Press is a hybrid site of professional and community-contributed journalism. One recent event that we could not cover in-house is a perfect example of how citizen journalism works best: One of our reporters, Kathleen Haley, was unable to attend a debate scheduled for Thursday night. Our editorial department e-mailed a resident Haley had met at another event who had shown interest in the debate. This resident suggested that a friend of hers, Chris Shannon, who had already planned to go to the debate, write about it for The Sacramento Press. We asked our interns to see who was available, but none of them were to attend either. Chris Shannon e-mailed us and called to confir

Navigating a newspaper is tricky. I avoid reading state government news early in the morning so as not to start my day feeling hopeless and impotent. Bring on the funnies. Who is accountable for state governance? Thursday night marked a new voice in state news and a new set of eyes narrowed on the Capitol. About fifty people gathered at Pyramid Ale House to celebrated the launch of CalWatchdog.com, a new journalism venture with a mission of “holding the government accountable for its spending and regulatory programs by exposing government waste, fraud and abuses of power.” I sat down with Steven Greenhut,, CalWatchdog editor in chief, amid beer, rain and power suits. Q: What inspired

How many times have you read a newspaper article and said, "I could have written that"? Well, now you can. For nearly a year, you have been able to do that on The Sacramento Press, where everyone can try his or her hand at writing a news story, and be published instantly, on the Web. That will continue to be the case, as the Press grows its audience and a small army of community contributors that now numbers more than 500 people. But for the month of October, The Sacramento Press is sweetening the pot: Not only can you write stories, have them copy-edited and posted on our site. Now you can win, and win big: The Sacramento Press Journalism Open is offering prizes of as much as $500 for t

We're so glad you're interested in The Sacramento Press Journalism Open! Not only can you win some great prizes, you can also have an effect on your community and gain some skills in the bargain! Contributing to our site is quick and easy - we can show you everything you need to know to take the act of making journalism into your own hands! I'm David Watts Barton, the managing editor of The Sacramento Press, our area's top hyper-local, citizen-written news website, where we focus on up-close, in-depth coverage of neighborhoods like yours. We aim to spread the traditional habits of good journalism - accuracy, fairness and a diversity of opinion - across the Web. We do it with a mix of prof

The Sacramento Press is, first and foremost, a community-contributor website. Some call it "citizen journalism." Whatever you call us, we are here to give an online voice to members of the community, to cover stories that may be otherwise ignored by the mainstream press, and to provide a forum for discussion of local issues. We are also working to promote the values of traditional journalism — thorough reporting, balanced perspectives, clear writing — through workshops and internships, while making the new tools of the web available to all. We offer copy-editing available to anyone who wants to post on the site and will continue to find ways to empower ordinary (and not-so-ordinary) citiz

Its easier than you think. If you want to be a writer, sign up or log in and click the "write!" button on the top of the page. Now you can sign up to become a Community Contributor. Our journalism support department offers a manual, seminars, and workshops on becoming a better writer and journalist. The more workshops you attend the better your credibility with us and the more likely our editing staff will place your work on the front page. For more information contact journalism@sacramentopress.com. Please pay close attention to our ethical code and disclose your biases. Our watchword is transparency because it helps us balance the news we report on the front page. Start by covering on