How's your New Year's resolution coming?  Part of The Sacramento Press's New Year's resolution involved some new contributor rankings. We selected six Elite Contributors to pave the way. You've met Barry Wisdom, Nancy Flagg, and Kati Garner already. Now it's time to learn a bit more about Elite Contributor Alex Cosper. Cosper's posts can almost be timed down to the minute. He posts his column reliably every Monday afternoon, which usually complements work and research he's done for his own company, SacTV, and always incorporates a video interview.  SP: How long have you been with The Sacramento Press? AC: I've been writing articles for SacPress since April 2012. SP: How did you get st

Part of The Sacramento Press's New Year's resolution involved some new contributor rankings. We selected seven Elite Contributors to pave the way, and now we're back on track with our resolution. Kati Garner won first place at this year's journalism open, and rightfully so. She is one of the most talented photo journalists contributing to The Sac Press, and also one of our most prolific posters. To say our site would not be the same without her is an understatement. SP: How long have you been with The Sacramento Press? KG: About four years. SP: How did you get started with The Sac Press? KG: Shot a photo of Amy Goodman for Ron Cooper to accompany a story he wrote about her.  SP: What

We're announcing an important change in our community contributor guidelines. The Sacramento Press has recently gone through some restructuring, and we’ve had to think hard about everything we do, with the goal of becoming more sustainable and serving our community better. It is within this context that we've decided to ask that businesses or organizations no longer publish articles about themselves or their clients on SacramentoPress.com. Instead, we ask that they submit these stories as pitches to our editorial staff and community contributors. This can be done by email at localnews [at] Sacramentopress.com or via our submit a pitch form. If an organization or a business has news to s

Have you forgotten your New Year’s resolution yet? They can be tough to stick to, so let’s do this together. Part of The Sacramento Press’s New Year’s resolution involved new contributor rankings. Earlier this week we put the spotlight on arts-enthusiast Barry Wisdom. Today it’s Nancy Flagg’s time to shine, and we couldn’t be more proud to call her one of our Elite Contributors. Nancy has a passion for local business that she channels into her monthly column, Locally Owned, which profiles local establishments and their owners. She is always quick to cover heartwarming community stories as well, and her passion for the Sacramento region shines through in her work on our site. SP: How lo

How is everyone doing on those New Year’s resolutions? I’m still eating dinner hot from the microwave most nights a week, so hopefully our readers are doing better than I am. Earlier this month, The Sacramento Press shared its own New Year’s resolution with readers, and that one we’re sticking to.  Part of that resolution involved new contributor rankings, and it is my pleasure to introduce you to one of our seven original Elite Contributors, Mr. Barry Wisdom. He has spent his two-and-a-half years with The Sacramento Press sharing his theater expertise with our readers, and providing amazing written and photo coverage for numerous local productions. While to say that Wisdom is a lover of

In honor of a new year, we’ve decided to shake things up a bit here at The Sacramento Press. Our New Year’s resolution for 2013 is to get back to the heart of what drives this site: our community, our neighbors and their stories. That is to say, both contributors and our editorial staff will turn a keener eye to local issues that generate community discussion in an effort to achieve our overarching goal, which is to enrich the lives of local residents while making our city a better place to live. We are eager to hear input from our readers and writers – what do you want to see and what do you want to share? Which does not mean that the many awesome events going on in our area don’t have

The new year starts in less than 24 hours, and you know what that means – tomorrow we will start accepting submissions to our Journalism Open 2013.  We’ve shared some details with you, including the fact that we’ll be giving away over $1,500 worth of prizes. What we haven’t told you, however, is who exactly you are trying to impress. Our panel of judges includes one of our favorite reporters at The Sacramento Bee, a local historian, a poet (not just any poet, but the poet laureate of Sacramento), two of the city’s best independent bloggers, and to add some spice, a local chef and business owner. Submissions will first be filtered by Community Manager Allison Joy and Editor Jared Goyette.

The holidays are almost here, which means it’s almost time to start taking submissions for the Journalism Open 2013. Below you’ll find how to post, what to post and how to monitor submissions. We will also hold a workshop on Jan. 3 at our office where we’ll talk about the criteria, what you need to do to win, and you can ask further questions. This will be held at The Sacramento Press office at 431 I Street, Suite 107. Please RSVP here. We will hold a second write-in on Jan. 16, also at the office, during which you can work on your submission and ask Jared or myself for feedback. RSVP here. Writers can submit their entries simply by tagging their articles “open2013.” You can confirm your

A talented local blogger once told me that he wasn't a journalist because he did not have a degree. I had to correct him. Journalism is something you do. If you're asking questions, writing about problems in your community, or offering fellow residents the low-down on a new restaurant down the block you are, in that moment, practicing journalism. Do it enough and people will call you a journalist. That philosophy underlines a lot of what we do at The Sacramento Press. It is captured in our slogan, "Commit Acts of Journalism" and it's also at the heart of our yearly contest which is about to kick off again, the Journalism Open. This year we're doing things a bit differently. We're puttin

The Sacramento Press uses Associated Press (AP) style guidelines. Although Sacramento Press copy editors are able to edit your piece for spelling, grammar and AP formatting, becoming familiar with basic AP guidelines can help you to write cleaner and stronger articles, and it can be a valuable asset in your future writing career. Use the tips below when writing your article, but remember to continue to send articles to journalism@sacramentopress.com before posting. Visit the AP Stylebook website for a more complete look at AP guidelines. timeuse a.m. or p.m. (not AM or A.M.) abbreviate the following months if they are part of a dateJan. 24, Feb. 18, Aug. 31, Sept. 19, Nov. 17, Dec.