Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "journalism"

Intro to Photojournalism Workshop Feb. 21

2012-02-07T01:08:27Z

Photographs are an important part of storytelling and can often tell a story on their own. After a brief workshop hiatus, our first Sacramento Press workshop for 2012 will be on photojournalism. (The Journalism Open workshop wasn't a typical workshop for us.)

John Hernandez will teach an introductory photojournalism workshop from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21 at the Sacramento Press office called "Introduction to Photojournalism."

Hernandez is a Sacramento-based photographer. He has professional experience in wedding, portrait and social documentary photography as well as various multimedia platforms, including audio slideshows. He has freelanced for ABS-CBN, a Filipino American news channel, and interned at The Sacramento Press. He has a journalism degree and Asian American studies minor from San Francisco State University.

He will discuss photojournalism – what it is and what it isn’t. Hernandez will also talk about equipment, tips for shooting and demonstrate how to make an audio slideshow.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Sacramento Valley Station station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges, and we cannot cover the cost of parking.

To RSVP, email workshops@sacramentopress.com. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an email to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Thanks, and we hope to see you here!

The Sacramento Press is hiring: Reporter interns

2012-02-06T20:24:20Z

We are currently seeking highly motivated reporter interns to cover local stories in our community.

Your Role:
As an intern at the Sacramento Press, you will be a huge part of our day-to-day success. Function as a writer and cover local beats. Explore a variety of story types – profiles, sports and event coverage, reviews, press conferences and more. Meet story deadlines and generate story ideas. Be a resource for our other writers, encourage and recruit. Form and cultivate relationships with local businesses, clubs, and resource providers (PIOs, librarians, ombudsmen, historians). You will be armed with the resources (digital cameras, voice recorders, professional photographers) to do on-the-scene reporting and really fine-tune your journalism skills. Most of all, this is an opportunity to be creative and find new stories to tell and identify the people who can best follow those stories.

In addition to writing and editing, build skills to:

Create videos that tell stories
Learn how journalists use Twitter
Better understand your audience
Dialogue directly with your audience

These are the skills you will need to be successful in a changing media climate.

Hours
This position is 15-20 hours per week for 15 weeks. If you are a CSUS student you can earn 3 units of credit, per the guidelines for approved CSUS internships. UC students can also earn units for completing the internship. This is an unpaid position.

Location:

Downtown Sacramento

How to Apply:
To apply for this position, send your resume, cover letter and up to three relevant writing samples to colleen@sacramentopress.com.

The Sacramento Press is hiring: Editor-in-Chief

2012-02-06T20:18:34Z

The Sacramento Press is seeking a dynamic editor-in-chief to oversee the day-to-day operations of the newsroom. This position will play a key role in expanding the presence and reach of The Sacramento Press into the surrounding media market.

We’re looking for someone who is ambitious, confident in their ability to learn quickly, and focused on creating compelling content for the local communities. Excellent writing and reporting skills and good editorial judgment are essential.

The ideal candidate will bring lots of ideas for new ways to present stories online, through text, photos, or videos.

Experience in using a content management system is a plus, as is experience in podcasts, editing video, conducting and moderating panels. Experience working with technology teams is also preferred. Ability to edit HTML and other light coding would be outstanding.

Ideal candidates will have:

Passion for journalism and an understanding of how it can transform a community

At least three years previous newspaper and/or other publication experience

A bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university

At least two years editing experience

Experience with online publications

A deep understanding of the demands of 24/7 websites

Experience leading a team

Ability to edit copy quickly and always improve stories

Understanding of how to promote stories via social media

Ability to speak confidently when appearing on TV and radio

Enthusiasm to create and sustain relationships with stakeholders and neighborhood leaders

Excellent news and editorial judgment

Strong diplomatic skills and ability to interact with journalists at all levels of the newsroom

Excellent organizational skills and ability to work under pressure

Proven ability to break news and generate outstanding story ideas

Excellent communication and presentation skills

Enthusiasm for working with a technology team to envision the future of news

Light coding skills and competence at HTML manipulation

Your job responsibilities will include (but are not limited to):

Make Sacramento a better place to live
Maintain engaging and relevant splash pages that are refreshed daily
Seek out ways to incorporate graphics such as surveys, charts, video, etc. in content
Write editorials
Will help maintain site and produce weekly electronic newsletters
Track daily and weekly deadlines
Compile monthly analytics and reports
Adapt to changing organizational forms and help other department heads meet goals
Supervise, train and develop a staff of two reporters, an intern coordinator and up to six unpaid interns
Plan scope and content of all editorial content and assign stories
Ensure content is factually accurate, and does not violate copyright laws or contain libel
Identify and pursue ways the Sacramento Press can increase editorial outreach into local communities
Responsible for quality of online content and layouts
Curates journalism workshops

The Sacramento Press offers a competitive compensation and benefits package including medical, dental and vision plans.

This is a fast-paced role in a high potential growing company. This is a unique opportunity to be a critical piece of our growth. This position is located in Sacramento, CA.

Compensation:
This is a full-time contract-to-hire position.
Upon hire, it is a full-time salaried position.

Ready to apply? Submit your resume, portfolio or clips and any other helpful information to colleen[at]sacramentopress.com.

Journalism Open Workshop Jan. 17

2012-01-11T01:13:59Z

Need a push getting started on your article for The Sacramento Press Journalism Open 2012? We've got a workshop for that.

Bring your story ideas and questions about the writing contest to our Journalism Open workshop Tuesday, Jan. 17.

We will go over how to enter photos: standalone or accompanying, judging criteria, past winners and how to develop your stories by including sources and doing research.

The workshop will be from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. at The Sacramento Press office.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Sacramento Valley Station station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges, and we cannot cover the cost of parking.

To RSVP, email workshops@sacramentopress.com. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an email to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Thanks, and we hope to see you here!

New 'To Catch an Error' contest starts today!

2012-01-02T00:04:11Z

The Sacramento Press’ “To Catch an Error" contest has ended for the month of December. We are excited to announce our winner, Steven Chea!

Chea received a total of 46 points for catching minor spelling and grammar errors in stories by community contributors and editorial interns.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

If you missed last month’s contest, it’s time to start hunting again. Beginning today, we will wipe the slate clean and start our January contest. January’s winner will receive two tickets to see Paula Deen in the meet and greet section. One runner-up will receive a $15 gift card to Monsoon.

The deadline for entries will be midnight on Jan. 31.

See below for complete rules. If you have any feedback or questions about the contest, please email support@sacramentopress.com.

What is the contest all about?

"To Catch an Error” is a monthly contest that we hope will improve the quality of content on our site. We know mistakes are inevitable, but we want to do our best to eliminate as many as possible.

That’s why we're asking for your help to catch errors in articles on The Sacramento Press! Each month, we want you to submit any spelling, grammar or factual errors you catch to contest@sacramentopress.com.

Errors will be accepted until midnight on the last day of each month (unless stated otherwise). Throughout the month, errors will be evaluated and corrections made to articles at our discretion.

At the beginning of each month, we will announce the winner from the previous round along with the errors he or she caught, wipe the slate clean and start all over!

Errors will be assigned different values, using the following point system:

* Minor grammar and spelling error = 1 point
* Misspelling name of person = 3 points
* Factual error = 5 points
* Error in editorial intern story = 3 bonus points
* Error in staff reporter story = 5 bonus points

Note: The Sacramento Press follows Associated Press style for most spelling and word usage.

Each month, the person with the most points will receive a prize, a merit badge on his or her profile and a little bit of social media love. Prizes will vary from month to month.

Official contest rules

Eligibility: To be eligible, contestants must be registered as a user on The Sacramento Press.

Note: The same person cannot win two months in a row.

Deadline: All errors must be submitted by midnight on the last day of each month, unless otherwise stated.

How to enter: You can enter as many times as you like each month, and multiple entries can be submitted at the same time. Entries must be submitted by e-mail and will not be accepted through social media or as comments on articles.

To submit an error, send an email to contest@sacramentopress.com with the following:

* Your first and last name, along with your Sacramento Press user name
* A link to the story where you found the error
* Copy and paste the entire sentence or paragraph as it appears in the article, along with the error

If clarification is needed, a Sacramento Press staff member will follow up with you. When an error is submitted to us, a reply will be sent, verifying the number of points earned within 24 hours.

Submit errors as soon as you catch them! If an error has already been caught and a correction issued, points will not be given for the error.

Corrections: Errors will be verified by the Editorial and Community Outreach departments, and normal editorial correction policies will be applied. We will edit minor spelling or grammatical errors. More serious errors, such as factual inaccuracies, will be investigated on a case-by-case basis. Please note, we are under no obligation to issue a correction for every error submitted.

Note: The Sacramento Press has the final say in all errors being submitted.

Prizes: Prizes will change every month, and we reserve the right to change a prize at any time without notifying contestants.

Good luck!

A thank you to our talented community contributors

2012-01-01T02:19:45Z

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 Stree t and when the Sacramento City School Board considered relocating campuses, our community contributors were ready with notepads and cameras.

Our community contributors live and breathe the issues that impact our region and are truly the essence of The Sacramento Press.

This year, we reached a milestone that we are very proud of. In September, the 10,000th article was posted on our site. It would not be possible to reach that accomplishment if it weren’t for our dedicated community contributors.

Earlier in the year, some of our best contributors were recognized in short videos.

As one more small token of appreciation, we have put together digital showcases of articles and photographs posted by our Top Contributors.

Below are the community contributors who have gone above and beyond, working closely with us and submitting high-quality content that we are proud to recognize.

We hope you’ll take a moment to see what they have accomplished throughout the year! Click on the names below to see individual splash pages.

Aaron Davis played a significant role in helping us reach 10,000 articles this year. Aaron briefly worked in the Community Outreach department, supporting our contributors while continuing to contribute himself. He is a man of many talents, writing about everything from Osama Bin Laden’s death and the infamous Kings relocation debacle (yes, in the same article) to playing April Fool’s jokes on our readers. We can’t wait to see what he will write about next.

Alejandra Gonzalez is a woman about town who has embraced the essence of Sacramento. This
year she captured everything from wine-swirling at Grape Escape to tutu-twirling of the Sacramento Ballet. Whether it’s tea parties, fundraisers or concerts, Alejandra is our go-to gal for all things culture.

Amabelle Ocampo delves deep into important issues affecting our region, such as the Occupy movement. She isn’t afraid to explore delicate subjects like foster care or cancer and manages to write about them eloquently.
She balanced the seriousness by perfectly capturing the playful spirit of events like Wanderlust and Fashion’s Night Out.

Barry Wisdom has an eye for theater photography, which is almost guaranteed to come with a list of shooting restrictions. However, given a few minutes or only a dress rehearsal to work with, Barry always manages to capture the heart and emotion of every performances, putting the viewer right in the moment. His photo essays tell stories better than any article can.

Bill Burgua has truly honed his skills as a theater reviewer this year, and his passion for theater is simply contagious. He has a standing invitation to review performances at the many theaters he frequents, where we are proud to send him on our behalf. His reviews are often
boasted proudly on theaters’ websites.

David Alvarez’ talents run the gamut. Whether it’s a somber parade honoring our soldiers, a lively cultural festival or sporting event, David knows how to capture the perfect shot to convey the energy of the moments he shoots. He often serves as both the writer and photographer at the events he covers, which can be a difficult feat, but he manages to do it well.

Elaine Johnson’s feisty MidLife GridLife article series has given us an exclusive and intimate peek into her personal life. This year her readers have been privy to her first date mishaps, her relationship highs and lows and her thoughts on being called a “cougar.” We never know if we’ll laugh or cry while reading Elaine’s work and are always left wanting more.

It is almost impossible to describe the enthusiasm Kati Garner has for photography with just a couple of sentences. Her passion for the subjects she shoots run deeps and her photos speak to our readers. She kicked off the year with a stunning image of the Wells Fargo Center and ended it by lighting up our site with images of local holiday displays. In between, she treated us to the shots of the zoo and Fairytale Town’s newest critters, moving tributes on 9/11 and frame-worthy images of local scenery. Kati is unstoppable!

Much to our delight, Mary Nares has become our go-to writer if there is a choral performance in town; we know we can count on her. She often teams up with Kati Garner to review choral performances and together they make a dynamic duo. A member of a local choir herself, Mary has been welcomed with open arms to local groups’ performances who enjoy her writing as much as we do.

Mark Needham is an expert on all things black and purple. His devotion to the Kings is infectious, and we know we can always rely on Mark to go where the action is happening. This year, he took that enthusiasm to Raley Field, where we proved to be an equally fantastic River Cats writer. We’re grateful that he has chosen The Sacramento Press to express his enthusiasm for local sports.

If you’ve ever driven by the scene of a crime or an accident and wondered what’s happening, it’s almost guaranteed that the Maverick Photography team, made up of Ed Fogle and his team of photographers can tell you. The talented team live and breathe breaking news and are always at the forefront of the action. The Maverick team has filled an important gap on our site.

Patricia Willers’ passion for two topics became apparent this year: She loves beer and music. She reviewed notable concerts like Cake and American Idol Live! and sipped brews at Oktoberfest and the California Brewers Festival. This year, we were lucky enough to have Patricia become a copy editor for our community contributors. Her talents have helped developed the skills of our contributors’ and we’re happy to have her as part of our team.

Randy Miramontez was on fire covering big-name acts this year. While photography is his area of expertise, he collaborated with himself (writing and shooting) on close to 20 concerts at Thunder Valley Casino and Resort and a
handful of others at Power Balance Pavilion. Despite his packed concert schedule, Randy somehow finds the time to operate a local blog, Sac and Beyond (http://sacandbeyond.com/). He has grown his impressive portfolio immensely as both a writer and photog since we first met him.

Rik Keller's photos are a treat for the eyes. He has a knack for turning ordinary shots into exquisite pieces of art that make you stop and stare. Whether it’s a mobile food truck festival or a subdued protest rally, Rik has a knack for finding the beauty in every scene. He has given us a whole new appreciation for local surroundings.

Ron Nabity started out the year by impressing us with his drool-worthy shots of Dine Downtown menu items. Ron spent the rest of 2011 exciting us with his action shots of our local sports teams, the Capital Airshow and the Amgen Tour of California. He conveys the exhilaration of the moments he captures through his still shots, putting our readers right at the sidelines with him.

Rorie Oliver built an impressive archive of articles this year, covering everything from the legendary Beach Boys at Thunder Valley Casino and Resort to the community events like Picnic Day and the Sacramento International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Rorie gives every story, no mater how small or large, the same amount of dedication and enthusiasm.

Sandy Thomas is new to our pool of Top Contributors and we are lucky that she found us. She often collaborates with writer Trina Drotar and the pair have proved to be a very gifted duo. Together they have tackled powerful stories like poetry readings and a holiday blues concert fundraiser benefiting children in need.

To say Steven Chea’s photos are stunning is an understatement and, in fact, it might be impossible to find an adjective that appropriately describes his work. While he produces top-notch photos every time, his concert photos are the true gems in his portfolio. Steven is on his way up to big things in the photography world.

Trina Drotar’s words have helped delivered the impactful messages of the local poets and artists she has covered. While writing is not her full-time job, she gives every story her all as if it were. We are looking forward to seeing what the pair will collaborate on next year.

Last but certainly not least, we can’t forget about our weekly columnists. They have continued to educate us and give us something to look forward to on a weekly basis.

The “Pet of the Week” series, written by the Sacramento SPCA’s Julianne Byer, has helped place the local animals featured in loving homes.

“Real Relationships” is an article series dreamt up by contributor Janna Haynes, has helped solve readers’ relationship dilemmas and has weighed in on important issues many are dealing with but are hesitant to talk about.

The Sacramento Public Law Library’s weekly article series, “Ask the Law Librarian”, has proven to be a valuable resource for readers facing legal dilemmas.

Officer Michelle Lazark has put a friendly and welcoming face to law enforcement, inviting readers to ask her questions in her weekly “Ask Officer Michelle” series.

We would also like to give a shoutout to Ann Freeman Clement. It didn’t make sense to lay out a page with events that already passed, but we want to thank you for never missing a week of posting your thorough local guide to all things music.

Thanks to every single contributor who has posted an article in 2011. You are the very foundation of The Sacramento Press, and we can’t thank you enough for all that you do.

Happy new year to everyone from all of us at The Sacramento Press!

New 'To Catch an Error' contest starts today!

2011-12-01T17:02:28Z

The Sacramento Press’ “To Catch an Error” contest has ended for the month of November. We are excited to announce our winner, Marion Millin !

Millin received a total of 54 points for catching minor spelling and grammar errors in stories by community contributors and one of our staff reporters.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

If you missed last month’s contest, it’s time to start hunting again. Beginning today, we will wipe the slate clean and start our December contest. December’s winner will receive a complimentary lunch for two at Zocalo.

Due to the New Year’s Eve holiday, the deadline for entries will be midnight on Dec. 30.

See below for complete rules. If you have any feedback or questions about the contest, please email support@sacramentopress.com.

What is the contest all about?

"To Catch an Error” is a monthly contest that we hope will improve the quality of content on our site. We know mistakes are inevitable, but we want to do our best to eliminate as many as possible.

Errors will be accepted until midnight on the last day of each month (unless stated otherwise). Throughout the month, errors will be evaluated and corrections made to articles at our discretion.

At the beginning of each month, we will announce the winner from the previous round along with the errors he or she caught, wipe the slate clean and start all over!

Errors will be assigned different values, using the following point system:

Note: The Sacramento Press follows Associated Press style for most spelling and word usage.

Each month, the person with the most points will receive a prize, a merit badge on his or her profile and a little bit of social media love. Prizes will vary from month to month.

Official contest rules

Eligibility: To be eligible, contestants must be registered as a user on The Sacramento Press.

Note: The same person cannot win two months in a row.

Deadline: All errors must be submitted by midnight on the last day of each month, unless otherwise stated.

To submit an error, send an email to contest@sacramentopress.com with the following:

If clarification is needed, a Sacramento Press staff member will follow up with you. When an error is submitted to us, a reply will be sent, verifying the number of points earned within 24 hours.

Submit errors as soon as you catch them! If an error has already been caught and a correction issued, points will not be given for the error.

Note: The Sacramento Press has the final say in all errors being submitted.

Prizes: Prizes will change every month, and we reserve the right to change a prize at any time without notifying contestants.

Good luck!

Editor's Note: The official contest rules have been revised. Beginning this month, contest winners cannot win two months in a row.

See what stories we're working on at The Sacramento Press

2011-10-27T20:03:11Z

After seeing that The Guardian newspaper had made its list of stories public to its readership for a two-week trial and invited them to participate by contacting its reporters, we thought it would be a good idea to do the same at The Sacramento Press.

Often, our editorial team learns about important facts and sources after our stories have been published. We value the knowledge and contributions that our readers and commenters add to the conversation thread, and we’d love to incorporate that into our stories as we are reporting.

We would also like to encourage more people to get involved as community contributors. Casey Kirk, director of community outreach, works closely with a group of community writers to coordinate press passes and interviews for concerts, arts events and other shows happening in the Sacramento region.

A live list of stories has been published on The Sacramento Press site. By going to the footer, where it says “Assignment List,” you can view stories our reporters and editorial interns are working on, as well as upcoming assignments that will be covered by our community contributors.

On that same page, there is also a list of assignments that have not been claimed yet. We reserve the privilege of arranging press passes for only our top community contributors. To learn about how to become a top community contributor, please contact support@sacramentopress.com.

Above or beside each story assignment, there will be a name of the reporter/contributor who will be doing that story. If you click on the name of the writer, you can email him or her tips, suggestions for sources or other information you feel is pertinent to that story.

For unclaimed stories that you are interested in covering, please email support@sacramentopress.com.

The lists will appear like this:

With your help, we can further develop stories and report on a broader range of hyperlocal news that is important to our readers.

To access the list of stories, please click here or visit this URL: www.sacramentopress.com/site/assignmentlist

Not all of our stories will be published to the web, as we want to keep some of our breaking stories private until they are posted online. Additionally, some of the assignments on the community contributor list will not be made public, so that our top community contributors are given precedence to the bigger-name events.

Please note that there is a lot of switching around on the reporters’ stories. Sometimes sources don’t get back to us in a timely manner or the story doesn’t turn out how we thought it would, so we assign a different story in its place and either push back the date or abandon the story altogether. We will keep the assignment list as up to date as possible.

We look forward to your input and suggestions in our reporters’ and interns’ stories. It is our hope that more of you will be encouraged to sign up to cover assignments when you see the list published online.

The Sacramento Press wants to help you write!

2011-10-23T22:18:14Z

Here at The Sacramento Press, we want to provide you with the tools you need to confidently deliver your message to readers. To help polish your voice, we provide free copy editing to all of our community contributors. While we don’t require you to have your article edited, we strongly encourage it since articles are permanent once they are published. It’s always helpful to have a second set of eyes review your work!

The best part is, it’s a fast and easy process. Just send a draft of your article to journalism@sacramentopress.com and an edited copy will be returned within 24 hours, ready to copy and paste. We offer copy editing every day except Saturdays.

A couple quick tips about the copy editing process:

* It’s best to send your draft within the body of the e-mail instead of an attachment to be sure our editors can view your article.
* It’s not necessary to send images to copy editing.
* If you have questions about posting on the site, please direct them to our support staff at support@sacramentopress.com.
* Our copy editors typically only edit for spelling and grammar, but if you would like more feedback, just let the editor know when submitting your draft.
* Your article will be returned to you, ready to copy and paste. Please specify if you would like to see the edits that were made.

If you have any questions about copy editing or becoming a community contributor, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. If you're not a contributor yet, we will walk you through the sign up process. Just contact us at support@sacramentopress.com or (916) 596-1963. We're here to help!

News10 reporter shares tips for video storytelling

2011-09-24T01:10:29Z

“The nature of the media is changing,” said KXTV News10 reporter George Warren at Thursday evening’s video storytelling tips and shortcuts workshop, hosted by The Sacramento Press.

Warren is an Emmy-winning reporter/multimedia journalist. He recently celebrated his 30th anniversary working with News10. He started started creating videos when he was a senior in college and has shot with primitive videotapes and 16mm film.

“The equipment today has gotten so good that it’s easy for one person to go out and produce really good content in just a short amount of time,” Warren told the audience of about 30 aspiring writers, journalists and community members.

Warren used his own recent videos to demonstrate examples of what a single person can do to produce quality videos and tell memorable stories in as little as an hour and 15 minutes.

“You usually want to start with your strongest element,” Warren said. “But on the other hand you want to build to the big finish.”

Warren showed an example of this through his story about a shoplifter caught on a surveillance camera stealing $300 worth of merchandise. The piece began with the footage of the woman filling her bag multiple times with stolen merchandise. It built up to the final kicker: the shoplifter was only caught because, at the end of her spree, she filled out a raffle ticket with her full name and contact information.

“Think about how you’re going to start the story, think about how you’re going to end, and the rest will fall into place,” he said.

Warren added that when planning the beginning and end of the story, the reporter must choose strong pictures for both.

Prosumer camcorders and microphone kits are available in the $5,000 range, though small handheld cameras, camcorders and video phones work well and get the job done.

If using smaller cameras, it is important to invest in a tripod, he said. Smaller cameras are very sensitive to any type of movement – even simply the pulse in your hand, Warren joked.

For those serious about video journalism, it is not ideal to depend on the camera’s built-in microphone, he added. Investing in external wireless microphone options allows for improved audio, particularly in windy or less ideal situations.

Images should be shot wide and should not be head on. The subject should fall off-center onto the left or right third.

“Shooting people wide allows them to use their hands and guarantees they won’t lean out of your frame,” Warren said.

Other tips included: let people and cars in the background enter and exit shots; let shots linger as you film; allow natural sounds in the background; shoot more video than you think you need; avoid excessive head room; film in tight, medium and wide shots; and avoid panning and zooming in and out. These practices allow for best overall footage and edit points.

To narrate the story behind the footage, Warren emphasized the use of an active voice opposed to a passive voice. “To be” verbs such as “was,” “is” and “were” should generally be avoided. Action verbs provide a direct approach to conveying the message and setting the scene.

Narrations should be kept simple and should reinforce the videos. The audio should not retell what is already seen on the screen.

It’s important to have a specific shot in mind for every piece of narration written. To reiterate this, Warren shared the common saying, “If we didn’t shoot it, it doesn’t exist.”

Jason Silva, an architect who often makes videos about future projects, said he took away a lot of information about composing the pieces.

“It’s not just about taking shots and building it later,” he said. “It’s about building it first in your head, narrating it in your head and then filming to match that.”

“While I don’t shoot video,” said Trina Drotar, who recently started writing articles for The Sacramento Press, “I thought there were a lot of really good tips that he gave us for even taking photographs that accompany our articles as well as (for) writing our articles.”

Every year, the number of people watching local news on television drops. Because of this, Warren said there is a move toward experimenting with unconventional methods to present news in videos outside the traditional package.

“They’re encouraging us to kind of push the envelope, to be uncomfortable, to take chances.” Warren said. “Anything goes.”

Video Storytelling Tips and Shortcuts Workshop Sept. 22

2011-09-07T21:17:19Z

Thank you to everyone who attended Jeffrey Callison's workshop on "The Art and Craft of Interviewing" last month. If you missed the workshop, you can read the recap and watch the video here.

The Sacramento Press has another first-time workshop presenter for September: KXTV News10 Reporter George Warren.

Multimedia journalist Andrew Nixon taught a workshop in July titled "Intro to Video Storytelling;" we'll resume the topic of video storytelling with Warren's workshop: "Video Storytelling Tips and Shortcuts."

The workshop will be from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, at The Sacramento Press office.

Warren will discuss how to produce memorable stories with minimum time and effort. Warren will go over how to do more (interviewing, shooting and editing videos) with less - a staff of one.

Warren just celebrated his 30th anniversary as an Emmy-winning reporter/multimedia journalist with KXTV News10.

He started in the business by shooting his own stories in a small market (on 16mm film!) and in recent years has come full circle - working by himself once again.

Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a government-issued ID.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $2 per half hour, and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here - one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

To RSVP, email workshops@sacramentopress.com. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an email to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Thanks, and we hope to see you here!

Jean Stephens, Journalism Educator, June 26, 1926-July 30, 2011

2011-08-04T21:47:05Z

Jean Stephens, who taught journalism at Sacramento City College for more than 30 years before retiring in 1986, died Saturday at age 85. The cause of death was complications from diabetes.

Although she never worked in a newsroom as a professional reporter or editor, Dr. Stephens' imprimatur is set on front pages, best-seller lists, radio, television, movie screens and even the digital screens over which she chose to retire rather than face. Under her tutelage, students who were interested in art, music, business, government or nothing at all went on to careers as diverse as the managing editor of the Sacramento Bee, a blues musician on the radio and a designer of backgrounds on "Star Wars" films.

"She believed in her students and willed them to believe in themselves," said Tom Negrete, the managing editor of the Sacramento Bee who attended Sacramento City College from 1982-1984. "She built a network of internships, scholarships and career advising for her students and she put all her energy and passion into teaching her students to dream and how to realize those dreams, whether they wanted to be a photographer or managing editor of their hometown newspaper."

As adviser to the City College weekly newspaper, the Express, Dr. Stephens ran her own de facto newsroom -- more journalism boot camp than journalism school, her former students attest. Like other editors and publishers of metropolitan newspapers, Dr. Stephens was well-connected in professional and civic circles. She networked, directed and steered her students, willingly and otherwise, into media careers. With a phone call, or, more likely, an all-caps missive typed on stationery on a royal blue IBM Selectric, students could land interviews with state senators or snare job interviews at Pulitzer-winning newspapers.

One story of Dr. Stephens' influence that sounds apocryphal but is true happened like this in 1985:

Dr. Stephens commandeered a student, gave him the keys to her Oldsmobile and had him escort her to C.K. McClatchy's office at the Sacramento Bee, where, without as much as a security pass into the building, Dr. Stephens, a mighty, matronly figure not unlike McClatchy's own aunt, Eleanor, who once run the Bee newspapers, told the editor and publisher, "I need $5,000 to keep the Express alive." C.K. McClatchy wrote the check.

"They didn't do that for everybody," said Mary Cage, a former Bee reporter who was Dr. Stephens' student in 1976-1977 and who like many of her students developed a personal, lasting friendship with the teacher. "But they would do that for Jean Stephens."

Former students, friends and colleagues recall Dr. Stephens as a taskmaster who taught the basics and set the bar high. In Dr. Stephens' class rooms, tri-folding your resume and cover like a business letter was as important as writing a news story in inverted pyramid. Part den mother, part human resources dynamo, Dr. Stephens shepherded her students into careers.

"Creating writers and photographers was not Dr. Stephens' greatest skill -- creating opportunities was," said Benton Jew, an editorial cartoonist at the Express in the early 1980s who went on to design sets for Indutrial Light and Magic and other Hollywood studios. "Whether it was entering work in competition, or going after that internship or freelance gig, she always encouraged us to look for opportunities and go for them and do our best at them. If there weren't any opportunities, we made them. Experience led to excellence. Doc threw us into the deep end, but never let us drown."

Jim Jenkins, now retired as a sportswriter from both the Sacramento Bee and the now-defunct Sacramento Union, studied under Dr. Stephens in 1960.

"At the time, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do," Jenkins said. "I had planned on taking a lot of business classes in college, but my one semester of journalism in high school, plus Sacramento City College's interest, quickly turned me in another direction. I was hooked. Jean, though very respected in her profession, could be a relentless micro-manager at times directing the college newspaper, attending to every detail, but I learned a lot from her nonetheless, as did many others she taught, coached, encouraged and then proudly watched progress on to the staffs of Sacramento's two daily newspapers."

Donnell Alexander, an author and documentary filmmaker, was in Dr. Stephens' final class of students.

"She truly thought herself the boss of you — especially if you had any potential," Alexander said. "Doc drove you hard. She denied bylines until assignments were perfectly completed. And you put up with Doc's tough love because you knew, deep down, she was right."

Yvonne Jean Stephens -- she preferred to be called Jean, and her students preferred to call her Doc -- was born June 26, 1926. She attended Pacific Elementary School, California Junior High and C.K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento.

She graduated from Sacramento Junior College in 1946 and went on to earn a B.A. in English at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her master's degree before returning home to teach English and journalism in the Elk Grove School District and then at her alma matter, now named Sacramento City College. In all, she taught for more than 35 years and was named the Outstanding Journalism Teacher in the Statewide Professional Journalism Association of Junior Colleges in 1977.

Cage said Dr. Stephens was her model educator as she progressed through her own career at the Chronicle of Higher Eduction, City College of New York and Teachers College at Columbia University.

"I gotta tell you, there weren't a lot of faculty at universities across the country who measured up to her," Cage said. "There were some who were more known in their field or considered brilliant or public intellectuals -- there are plenty of those, but not necessarily anybody who spent decades finding and educating and promoting talent into a field like she had."

While on sabbatical from City College, Dr. Stephens earned her Ph.D from the University of Iowa in 1972 and published her thesis, "Seeing the Elephant," a biography of the flamboyant Western journalist Lucias Beebe, who died in 1966.

Dr. Stephens earned her first newspaper bylines at age 12, working as a paid correspondent for both the Sacramento Bee and the Sacramento Union. In junior high, she edited the school science newsletter. Beyond that body of journalism and the Beebe book, Dr. Stephens' writing during three decades of teaching journalism consisted primarily of the hundreds of letters of recommendations for scholarships, internships and jobs that she wrote for her students.

In addition to volunteer work for the Sacramento Public Library, Dr. Stephens was the long-time secretary-treasure of the Sacramento Press Club. After suffering a stroke in 1998, "her role for the Sacramento Press Club had to be divided between two people because she had been responsible for so much club work and no single person could really replace her," said current Press Club treasure Kathy Beasley.

Ginny McReynolds, now Dean of Humanities and Social Science at Cosunmnes River College, suceeded Dr. Stephens at City College. They had lunch shortly thereafter.

"She said she retired early because she didn't want to have to deal with computers in the newsroom," McReynolds said. "She didn't want anything to do with that. She said, 'I don't know enough about it and I don't want to.'"

The doctor of journalism had many interests beyond journalism. She collected hand-blown glass, doted on her Pekingese dogs and enjoyed travel and gardening.

"She loved talking to people who were journalists and she loved hearing the details of how they gathered news," Cage said, "but I think that because she got so much news first-hand from people she knew, I don't think she read the newspaper as closely as I got grilled into believing I had to read the newspaper. When she retired she'd say things to me like she didn't know what the space shuttle looked like. I said, "Jean, how could you not know? It was on the front page of papers every time it launched.' She'd say, 'Oh, I was reading about gardens."

Dr. Stephens was preceded in death by her brother, Robert. There is no next of kin, except for two generations of Sacramento journalists who regard Dr. Stephens as someone more than a teacher.

"I loved Jean Stephens," said Mick Martin, the Sacramento blues musician and radio host who attended Sacramento City College from 1967-1969, eventually working as music and movie critic at the Sacramento Union until it closed in 1993.

"She was a thorough professional and expected no less from the people around her. Some teachers can be quite imperious but she was very gentle in how she imparted how you could make your story better. There was no question that she was someone with a very powerful personality. But her warmth overcame that."

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Gormley and Sons Funeral Home, 2015 Capitol Ave. in Sacramento. She will be buried in a family plot in Sacramento City Cemetery.

Donations may be made in Dr. Stephens memory to the Sacramento City College Emeriti Scholarship Fund in care of Sacramento City College, 3825 Freeport Blvd., Sacramento, Calif., 95822, or the Sacramento Press Club, or Sacramento Friends of the Library.

Disclosure: Ed Murrieta was a student of Jean Stephens from 1983-1985.

The Art and Craft of Interviewing with Jeffrey Callison Aug. 9

2011-07-25T18:27:39Z

The Sacramento Press is excited to announce that Jeffrey Callison will be teaching a workshop at our office in August.

Interviewing is part of the foundation of journalism. It’s how reporters get a lot of their information, including the personal angles and anecdotes that make stories come alive.

But how do you conduct a successful interview?

There are some simple rules, but you also must know when and how to break them.

Jeffrey Callison has interviewed many thousands of people over the years – both as host of Capital Public Radio’s daily program “Insight” and as a reporter. On Tuesday, Aug. 9, from 6:30 - 8 p.m., he’ll discuss “The Art and Craft of Interviewing” in a workshop at the Sacramento Press.

Callison was born in Scotland. He majored in English Literature and Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and studied improvisational theater at L'Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

He moved to California in 1989 and started his radio journalism career at public radio station KUSP in Santa Cruz. He joined Capital Public Radio in 1996 as a classical announcer, but soon returned to radio news as a reporter and local "All Things Considered" host. He became KXJZ's news director in 2000, and he was named the first host of “Insight” in 2004.

Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a government-issued ID.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

To RSVP, email workshops@sacramentopress.com. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an email to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Thanks, and we hope to see you here!

Intro to Video Storytelling Workshop July 27

2011-07-18T22:13:19Z

We had a great turnout for our sports writing workshop earlier this month. Thanks to Sam Amick and those who attended. To read the workshop recap, click here.

Video is an important part of storytelling that can be difficult to incorporate without the right equipment and editing knowledge. Andrew Nixon will teach a video workshop from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 27 at the Sacramento Press office called "Introduction to Video Storytelling."

Nixon is a Sacramento-based multimedia journalist. He has professional experience in photojournalism, as well as various multimedia platforms, including motion graphics, web platforms, and video journalism. He has freelanced for Patch.com and interned at the Sacramento News & Review. He also worked as a staff photographer for Gold Country Media.

He will discuss the capture and editing of footage to create compelling video stories. The workshop will be geared more toward Mac compatible programs, but he can answer questions about other equipment and editing software.

In August, Capital Public Radio's Jeffrey Callison will teach a workshop called "The Art and Craft of Interviewing." A separate email invitation will be sent for that workshop later this month.

Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a government-issued ID.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $2 per half hour, and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here - one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

This workshop is filling up fast and will probably have a waiting list. To RSVP, email workshops@sacramentopress.com. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an email to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Thanks, and we hope to see you here!

Disclosure yourself, or else

2011-07-06T22:13:32Z

You know who you are, but when you write for The Sacramento Press, our readers might not.

That’s part of the impetus behind today’s site update concerning disclosures.

We have added a new section to our “write article” page that pokes and prods everyone from staff to community contributors to disclose personal and professional affiliations to anything discussed in stories.

This update goes hand-in-hand with an update to our terms of use policy, which now requires a disclosure in any circumstance where a contributor has a “personal or professional interest in the subject matter of such article.”

The interface is clean and simple and is just a text area that allows you to add a short description of your affiliation with anything in an article. It’s obviously optional if you don’t have personal involvement with the article!

It also saves your last three unique disclosure statements, so if you regularly need to disclose an affiliation, such as public relations professionals, it is one click to pop in a previous disclosure.

Once you add a disclosure, it will show in a consistent way at the bottom of each article and be offset from the article text, as seen in the screenshot below.

Our goal with this new feature is to make all personal affiliations as clear and transparent as possible. When you have more than 1,000 unique contributors to your site, a mark we just passed last month, it requires an enormous amount of transparency to help build trust. We hope that this update is another step in that direction.

Sam Amick to teach Sports Writing Workshop July 12

2011-06-29T08:48:50Z

Thanks to those of you who came to our Bias in Journalism workshop earlier this month. If you missed it, you can read the recap here.

For July, we are excited to announce a new workshop presenter – Sam Amick.

With the Sacramento River Cats season well under way, the Sacramento Capitals tennis team starting in July and the buzz building for the next Sacramento Kings basketball season – there will be plenty of sports stories to be covered on The Sacramento Press and on blogs, etc.

Amick will teach a workshop on sports writing at the Sacramento Press office from 6:30 - 8 p.m. July 12.

Amick is currently an NBA columnist for Sports Illustrated at SI.com.

He received his degree in journalism from Sacramento State in 2000. He began working in The Sacramento Bee's sports department on a part-time basis during his final two years of school, then returned after a short internship at The Record in Stockton during the summer of 2000.

He became a full-time member of the writing staff in 2002 and covered everything from high school sports, college sports, pro baseball and pro football before turning his attention to the NBA in 2004.

He was the beat writer for the Kings from 2005-2010 before taking a national job covering the league at AOL FanHouse and eventually landing at SI.com.

Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a government-issued ID.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $2 per half hour, and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here – one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

To RSVP for this workshop, email workshops@sacramentopress.com. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an email to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Bias in journalism?

2011-06-15T22:04:08Z

It is every journalist’s duty to provide the facts as they are, but does bias still manage to exist in journalism? This was the question posed by Clare Noonan, editor of 11 East Bay Patch.com sites and speaker at Tuesday’s workshop at The Sacramento Press.

While both Noonan and almost all 14 participants answered yes, Noonan said there were ways to pinpoint personal opinion as a reader and avoid it as a writer.

In order to provide objectivity, Noonan said that writers should make sure that facts are accurate and that the reporting is fair.

Referencing a University of Michigan website, Noonan listed five areas where bias can occur: word choice, omissions, limiting debate, story framing and sources.

Taking a closer look at each of these areas can help a writer to maintain the integrity of an article and a reader to recognize the presence of opinion in what he or she is reading, Noonan said.

The group included a variety of writers, community activists and the general public. Most, if not all, vocally expressed how extremely difficult, if not impossible, it is to find neutral reporting.

Finding unbiased sources is important, said Linda Maher, mother and regional sales director for Extended Day Hotels. She said she is worried about how her children will often take information at face value without considering the background.

“I’m not a writer, but I was just personally interested in the subject matter,” Maher said. “I’m hoping the workshop will teach me how to be an even more cautious reader by showing me how to recognize bias in writing.”

Noonan began the evening by defining bias as prejudice for or against someone or something.

Though characterization or stereotyping were noted as prevalent forms of bias, such as issues of gender, race, religion and country of origin, Noonan said these were very obvious means of bias.

“These are the type of subjects that often tick people off the most when they suspect a bias or prejudice,” Noonan said, “but there are many other ways to influence an article with bias without necessarily addressing any of those issues.”

Structured as an open forum, Noonan created and facilitated discussion around these topics and other areas where bias could be present, including but not limited to frequency of coverage, story layout and advertising. She also provided examples and excerpts from various pieces of writing.

Omissions and sources were community activist Darlene Anderson’s biggest concerns.

“I came to the workshop because I feel that journalism today is very biased and always trying to persuade the reader,” Anderson said. “For example, when it comes to public policy, the stories of the policy makers are provided, but not that of who the policies affect and how that process (is omitted). When forming an opinion, it’s important to hear all the perspectives of a situation.”

By the workshop’s end, it was the group consensus that bias exists and is unavoidable. Noonan pointed out the group’s jaded attitude and in hopes of lightening that, insisted that unbiased journalism and journalists do, in fact, exist. Quoting a co-worker, Noonan said with a laugh, “A journalist without bias is one whom both sides hate equally.”

Twitter, trunk of the tree for #HereWeBuild

2011-06-10T07:12:58Z

What began with an adult beverage and a frustrated Twitter post quickly led to a series of grassroots efforts to keep the Kings in Sacramento.

Radio personality Carmichael Dave, founder of #HereWeBuild, was relaxing in his backyard when he discovered that the Anaheim City Council had voted to pursue efforts to bring the Sacramento Kings to Anaheim.

“I thought this is frustrating and I’m ticked off and I want to let people know,” Carmichael Dave said. “So I tweeted out, ‘Carmichael Dave votes one-to-nothing to issue $200 into a fund to build a new arena. Whose with me?’”

Then the explosion happened which soon resulted in the HereWeBuild, HereWeStay and SacDeflated.com campaigns, and their spinoff campaigns HereWeSit and HereWePurple.

Founders of the movements spoke Thursday evening at the Sacramento Social Media Club #HereWeMeme event at The Citizen Hotel in Sacramento.

“Meme is basically a trend associated with something happening on the internet,” Laura Good, executive director of the club, said. “We wanted this event to focus on just that.”

Approximately 150 social media enthusiasts and Kings fans attended the event where they heard the stories of the major contributors to the campaigns, and learned how to apply similar strategies.

“We were just a bunch of regular people who saw what was happening and wanted to do something,” Carmichael Dave said.

Event panelist and blogger James Ham said the success of their campaigns couldn’t have been accomplished without the efforts of everyone involved.

“No matter what we did, we did it together,” Ham said. “We didn’t model our plan after anything, we just knew something bad was going to happen if we didn’t do something.”

With the help of their efforts leveraging on blogs, digital billboards and Twitter, enough public pressure was built in the community to result in the Kings staying in Sacramento for another year.

Matt Graham, marketing and fleet director for Jiffy Lube, followed the progression of Carmichael Dave’s tweets and the many pledges by the community in the first few hours. Graham quickly knew he had to act, pledging to be a major financial contributor to the HereWeBuild campaign.

“I felt that (pledging) was the only way to continue the voice and the passion of the efforts,” Graham said. “While we acted nimble and quickly, we were not prepared. But sometimes you just need to react, so that’s what we did.”

To watch the video of the event, visit http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15279047.

###

About the Social Media Club: The Sacramento Social Media Club was founded in March 2009 by local social media activists. Its monthly events bring together journalists, publishers, students, communicators and other interested collaborators to facilitate discussions about the key issues facing our society as technologies transform the way we connect, communicate, collaborate and relate. The Social Media Club’s primary mission is to promote media literacy and standard technologies, encourage ethical behavior and share best practices. To find out more, join their groups on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

About the author: Brittany Wesely is a member of the all-volunteer leadership team for the Sacramento Social Media Club. To find out more about her, visit her website or follow her on Twitter @brittanywesely.

Sac Press Tools and Tricks workshop May 26

2011-05-13T23:28:51Z

Thanks to those of you who attended our review writing panel Thursday with Rachel Leibrock, Carla Meyer and Nick Miller. Read the workshop recap here.

We will have another workshop this month titled, "Sac Press Tools and Tricks." Geoff Samek, vice president of product for The Sacramento Press, will highlight some of the newer and lesser-known features of the website.

Samek will also give a quick overview of important web technologies that come in handy in the current media world. He will answer any questions you may have about the site and its functionality and features.

The workshop will be from 6:30 - 8 p.m. May 26 at our office.

Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a government-issued ID.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $2 per half hour, and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here – one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Review writing panel May 12 with Rachel Leibrock, Carla Meyer and Nick Miller

2011-05-04T05:45:12Z

With Concerts in the Park kicking off Friday and the California Music Circus season around the corner, there will be lots of opportunities to review shows, both indoors and outdoors.

Looking to share your great or not-so-great experiences with others? The Sacramento Press will hold a panel on review writing at our office from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Thursday, May 12. Three panelists will teach you the do’s and don’ts of review writing and share some of their own experiences.

This is a great opportunity to ask the pros how they review concerts, theater, comedy and other performances.

The three panelists are Rachel Leibrock, Carla Meyer and Nick Miller.

Leibrock writes about arts and culture for the Sacramento News & Review. She also teaches journalism at Sacramento City College and previously worked at The Sacramento Bee as an arts and entertainment writer. You can find some of her work at thursdayafternoongirls.wordpress.com and www.writegrrrl.com.

Meyer is an entertainment writer at The Sacramento Bee. She was The Bee's movie critic from 2005-2009. Carla came to The Bee from the San Francisco Chronicle, where she wrote film reviews and features and co-wrote "Stein & Meyer: Movie Insider," a twice-weekly column about film and the film industry. Meyer also once worked as an assignment editor for the datebook and sports sections of The Chronicle.

Miller edits Sacramento News & Review's news and arts sections and writes a weekly column on the local music scene. He got his start as a distribution driver and is now associate editor.

Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a government-issued ID.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $2 per half hour, and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here – one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Doug Herndon teaches techniques of journalism to local community

2011-04-21T04:51:55Z

Tuesday night, former Sacramento City College journalism professor Doug Herndon taught a workshop that outlined the basics of journalism.

Attendees included both local, freelance and aspiring writers.

“Journalism is the collecting, writing, editing and publishing of news,” Herndon said.

Herndon started with an overview of the fundamentals of being a writer:

*Providing information
*Story Ideas
*News value
*Every story needs a hook
*What it means to cover a story
*The formula and format for journalism

When providing information within a story, Herndon said it is important that a reporter weed out any natural bias or personal opinion.

“It’s not my place to tell you what I think,” Herndon said. “My whole job is finding people who know a lot about a few things, and getting them to tell that story.”

After touching on the importance of providing accurate information in a story, Herndon talked about where writers can obtain story ideas.

“Story ideas come from other stories. It’s all been done,” Herndon said. “It’s about the new angle that hasn’t been done yet.”

Herndon passed out calendars and added that it’s all about the calendars, and as the month of May comes up, writers can begin to talk about topics such as Mother’s Day or graduation day.

Other ideas for stories can be gathered just by paying attention to what is going on around you, and a story idea can be found by walking down the street. To determine if it is newsworthy, he gave a set of values.

“What makes a story a story?” Herndon asked.

Herndon listed the basic factors that come into play, which include: impact, immediacy, proximity, prominence, novelty, conflict and emotion.

He emphasized how much of an impact a story should have on the community, and how a writer must make an analysis of whom his or her audience is and what will keep readers interested.

In addition to value, a story must have a hook.

Herndon explained a hook as having a “so what?” moment.

He gave a brief example of a story that covered the farmers market and pointed out that the hook would be the growing popularity of organic foods and healthy food choices being made by consumers.

There are several factors included in a story, but what does it mean to cover a story?

Herndon defined covering a story as doing one’s homework and learning how to write interview questions.

He continued with examples of where to learn more about the story you’re covering.

“You can learn on Google, other publications or by talking to people,” Herndon said.

The process of interviewing then takes place when a reporter proceeds by setting up an interview in a professional, polite and persistent manner.

It is important to get the correct spelling of a name, age and occupation of the person being interviewed, Herndon added.

Herndon said the best tip he could give on interview questions is to always ask whom else you should talk to and find more information on the subject you are writing about.

As the workshop came to a close, Herndon reviewed the formula and format for journalism.

“The first step is the summary lede,” Herndon said. He described the lede as a short summary of what is most important in your story, basically the who, what, where and when and how.

“After the lede comes a quote, then a short paragraph with background information,” Herndon said.

Herndon said. “End on a powerful quote, and you will have yourself a solid package of a story.”

While the crowd reflected on the main points, Herndon suggested, “I think you’re here because somebody here wants to be a writer.”

“If you want to be a writer, you can be a writer,” he said. “Take notes and find a story that you really want to write about.”

Attendee Shell Crane, 25, an analyst with the Department of Health Services, said, “I learned how to be more creative in my writing and what will attract the reader to read what I’m writing about."

Larry Groves, 53, a communications director for the Del Paso Partnership, attended the workshop to get more information on the historical background of journalism and said he looks forward to future workshops that elaborate on story writing.

The Sacramento Press will have its next workshop May 12, on “Review Writing,” led by Nick Miller, arts editor for the Sacramento News & Review.

Interviewing Techniques workshop April 7

2011-04-04T21:48:26Z

Thanks to those of you who came to the "Writing about Wine and Spirits" workshop in March. Read the recap here.

We have two journalism workshops planned for April.

Clare Noonan will teach a workshop on interviewing techniques at The Sacramento Press office from 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday, April 7.

Noonan has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Kentucky. She currently edits 11 East Bay Patch.com sites. She worked at The Modesto Bee for more than 20 years as a reporter for business, news, feature and sports while also copy editing. She also worked as assistant news editor and assistant city editor in charge of the Crime and Safety beat during her time at The Bee. She has been a copy editor for The Sacramento Press.

Noonan has taught other workshops for The Sacramento Press, including "Research and Fact-checking," and "Improve Your Writing with Self Editing."

The workshop will focus on conducting a successful interview, including how to prepare, techniques for putting people at ease and getting them to talk to you, and how to end the interview on a high note.

"Intro to Journalism" is the title of our second workshop in April. Doug Herndon will teach the workshop which will also be held at The Sacramento Press office from 6:30-8 p.m. Tuesday, April 19.

Herndon was an English and journalism professor at Sacramento City College and adviser to the college's newspaper, The Express. He has been a professional writer for more than 15 years and has worked for Sacramento Magazine, The Sacramento News & Review and The Sacramento Bee.

A separate invitation will be sent later for the "Intro to Journalism" workshop.

Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a government-issued ID.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $2 per half hour, and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here - one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

To RSVP for this workshop, email workshops@sacramentopress.com. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an email to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Writers get words of wisdom on wine

2011-03-25T20:17:01Z

Local writers and budding wine enthusiasts gathered at the Sacramento Press office Thursday evening for a workshop on how to write about wine presented by author and former Sacramento Bee columnist Rick Kushman.

“We generally associate wine knowledge with ‘class’ or as a social status of some kind,” said Kushman as he opened the workshop. “Really, people just want to know what wine to choose for dinner.”

As more than 20 eager writers listened and took notes, Kushman gave the class his “Three Rules of Wine Tasting:”

* Wear dark colors.
* If you love it, you’re right; if you hate it, you’re right.
* Always bring a swimsuit.

“That last one doesn’t have anything to do with wine, but it seems like a good idea,” added Kushman, illustrating his main point of the evening: Don’t take it too seriously.

“Wine isn’t a great mystery, and it isn’t anything to be afraid of,” Kushman said. “Embrace it! Don’t be afraid to be cheery or funny when you write about wine. It doesn’t always have to be stuffy and dry to be good.”

With that, Kushman got to the core of what writing about wine is all about.

“Wine is a confidence game,” Kushman said. “People just want to feel confident about the wine they choose.”

To develop that confidence, they look to wine writers for guidance, and this is where most wine writers start to take the topic to places they don’t really need to go, he said. All too often, wine writers use (and perhaps overuse) industry jargon and insiders’ lingo that only leaves the reader confused.

Attendee Tammi Korbmaker, 51, a writer and Sacramento Press community contributor from West Sacramento, noted this, too. “People in the industry seem to talk down to readers about wine,” she said.

It isn’t necessary to be a wine snob to write well about wine, Kushman told the audience. We need to remember that our job as a wine writer is to help people trust our judgment – something we can’t do if we are condescending or trying to show off our wine aficionado status.

“Don’t be a snob, don’t sneer, don’t talk down to the reader,” Kushman said. “Assume that it’s OK for people to like what they like.”

Which brings up Rule No. 2 of Kushman’s Three Rules of Wine Tasting: “If you like it, you’re right, and if you hate it, you’re right.”

“Just because something is popular doesn’t make it good or bad,” Kushman said. “Your job as a writer is to explain it.”

How does a wine writer do that? First, get out of your reader’s way. “It’s not about you, it’s about the wine,” he said.

Writers may have some past experience with wines or the wine industry, and that’s just fine, but unless it’s relevant to what they’re saying about the wine being discussed – if it doesn’t really add anything to the reader’s experience – leave it out.

Instead, writing about wine is all about describing. Creatively use words to convey taste, feeling, flavor, emotion and myriad other things included in the experience so that others can taste and feel it too.

“Describe it like you would a man getting off a train so someone would recognize him at the station,” Kushman suggested.

That means more than just the label or the brand name or the type of grape. Does it smell of fruit or fields of flowers or butter or chocolate? Does it have a “zing” to it, or is it soft or rich or smooth? Does the taste linger or have a crisp finish?

Use descriptive, evocative words to bring your reader to the same place you are with the wine.

It’s true that food and wine are emotional experiences to a large degree, so the way you describe wine may be very different than the way someone else would describe that same wine. To one person, it may be reminiscent of a summer garden, while to another it evokes sensations of autumn leaves and overcast skies.

There are no wrong answers, Kushman said. “You taste what you taste, and that’s OK.”

As long as you give the reader your honest and consistent evaluation of wine, you’ve done your job.

As the workshop came to a close, one audience member talked about feeling better prepared to write about wine.

“This has really whet my appetite to go out and go through the wine tasting process so I can put it into words for other people,” said Mike Tate, 52.

Tate, an artist from Sacramento, aspires to make his own wine and write about it from an artist’s perspective in a new wine and art blog he’s developing.

“(Kushman) got me thinking about how to write about my passion but keep myself out of it,” Tate said. “It’s a skill to artistically describe flavor.”

The Bee, Sac Press present 'Table Talk Sacramento' April 13

2011-03-23T19:01:04Z

Do you love talking about food? Do you flip to the food section of the newspaper before even reading the front page? Is a trip to the grocery store an excursion? For all you foodies, bloggers and lovers of Sacramento’s restaurants and food: The Sacramento Bee and The Sacramento Press have teamed up to bring you “Table Talk Sacramento: The region’s food community comes together for an evening of lively discussion.”

There will be two panels addressing different topics, including “What Sacramentans Eat” and the quality of local food writing.

Chris Macias will moderate the food writing panel. Macias has served as the Bee’s food and wine writer since 2008. The panelists include:

Niesha Lofing, who writes food and family stories for the Bee as well as a parenting column, Mom.me.
Catherine Enfield, a state worker by day and a local food blogger by night – or whenever she can sneak away to a computer. She is also a food truck advocate and co-organizer of the SactoMoFo mobile food festival scheduled for April 30.
Micah Rousey, who eats out at least five times per week and shares his experience on Yelp. He has contributed dozens of restaurant reviews and been named a member of the “Yelp Elite Squad.”

Allen Pierleoni will moderate the second panel, “What Sacramentans Eat,” which will cover local food trends. This panel consists of:

Rick Mindermann, an internationally known grocer and wine merchant and store director of Corti Bros. Market. He has 34 years in the food and wine business and acts as a personal assistant to Darrell Corti, who has been called “the man who knows the most about food and wine in the world.”
John Paul Khoury, the corporate chef for Preferred Meats, Inc., a premium meat company in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a focus on sustainable husbandry and smaller farm operations. He is also certified as a chef de cuisine with the American Culinary Federation.
Kelly McCown, the executive chef at Ella restaurant and a 1990 graduate of the California Culinary Academy. He was worked in the kitchens of Martini House, Flying Fish, Fleur de Lys, Hayes Street Grill and others, and he has been named “a rising star” and “top young chef” by several magazines, including Bon Appetit and Japanese GQ.

“Table Talk” will be at The Sacramento Bee, 2100 Q St., at 6 p.m. April 13. Source Global Tapas will provide light snacks.

The event will be live-tweeted by @sacramentopress using the hashtag #SacTableTalk.

The event is free, but registration is required. If you do not register, you will not be allowed to enter. Registration is limited to 160. To sign up for “Table Talk,” click here.

Come join the conversation as we discuss Sacramento’s rich food and restaurant culture.

Writing about Wine and Spirits workshop March 24

2011-03-17T17:56:51Z

The Sacramento Press will be hosting a new workshop for the month of March. We are excited to have our first "Writing about Wine and Spirits" workshop, taught by Rick Kushman.

The workshop will be at the Sacramento Press office from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Thursday, March 24.

Kushman will discuss techniques for writing about wine and touch on how to write about spirits and beer. The primary focus of the workshop will be wine. He will also discuss terms and phrases to avoid when writing about wine or food.

Kushman is an award-winning journalist and former columnist for The Sacramento Bee, where he spent two decades. For the last five years he wrote about wine, food and life in Northern California. His writing has appeared in publications ranging from Time Magazine to Sommelier Journal and Daily Variety.

He is a founder of the new California Wine Marketing Group, a unique business that teaches wineries, wine groups, restaurants and others how to market and talk about wine in real English sentences, not winespeak. He believes that anyone who makes wine too complicated or too scary should be sentenced to drinking low-carb beer.

Kushman earned his Certified Wine Professional credential from the Culinary Institute of America and teaches culinary journalism at the Art Institute of California.

Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a government-issued ID.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $2 per half hour, and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here - one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

To RSVP for this workshop, e-mail workshops@sacramentopress.com. Space is limited to 20 people. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an e-mail to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Opinion Writing Workshop Feb. 24

2011-02-21T06:17:12Z

The next workshop hosted by The Sacramento Press will be on opinion writing. It will be held at our office from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Feb. 24.

Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton will discuss the importance of backing up your opinion, doing reporting and keeping your column focused.

Barton worked at The Sacramento Bee from 1985-2007. He was the pop music critic until 1994 and in addition to writing reviews, he wrote weekly columns called Poplife and The Beat.

As editor in chief of The Sacramento Press, Barton writes editorials on a regular basis.

Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a government-issued ID.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $2.00 per half hour, and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here - one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

To RSVP for this workshop, e-mail workshops@sacramentopress.com. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an e-mail to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Congratulations to the Journalism Open winners!

2011-02-14T08:34:20Z

The results are in and we’re very excited to announce the winners of The Sacramento Press 2011 Journalism Open.

More than 50 community contributors accepted the challenge to commit acts of journalism. In January, 134 entries were submitted, many by writers who are new to The Sacramento Press.

Thank you to those of you who participated and those who helped spread the word about the contest.

There were three Sacramento Press judges who reviewed the entries and determined the winners: Casey Kirk, Recruitment Manager, Brandon Darnell, Copy Editor and Reporter, and Colleen Belcher, Managing Editor.

We were looking for stories with a minimum of two sources, stories that incorporated research and stories that kept us reading. Each winner could only win one prize. Click here to read the complete judging criteria.

Without further ado, the winners are:

Isaac Gonzalez, whose story, “A Towering Challenge,” won first place and $700.

Laura O’Brien, who wrote “Fave moms mag stops presses,” won second place and $500.

Corinna Fish, the third place winner of $200, wrote a two-part story titled “This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land: Looking Back at 50 Years of the Capitol Area Plan” on the Mandella Garden and the history of the Capitol Area Plan.

There were five $100 prizes, which were awarded to Eileen Wilson, who wrote about domestic violence and its lasting effects on children, Deb Belt, Mary Nares, Ron Nabity, who wrote about the heroes of the Red Cross and Brandy Tuzon. Click on each name to see the winning story by that author.

The $350 in photography prizes was divided into four amounts: three $100 prizes and one $50 prize.

The winners, in no particular order, are David Alvarez for his photo of the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival, Marc McLaughlin for his photo of the Professional Bull Riders show at Arco Arena, and Kati Garner for her photo of the Wells Fargo building in the fog. Steven Chea won an honorable mention for his photo of Deerhoof’s drummer playing a show at Harlow’s.

Click here to see the winning photos laid out side by side.

We asked the winners how they felt about winning the competition. Here are some of their responses.

Mary Nares, who wrote about the Crocker Art Museum’s new Education Center, said in an e-mail, “I'm amazed and honored to be selected. I was really impressed with the caliber of the submissions for the Open. I saw some great writing and photography, and the wide range of intriguing topics was inspiring.”

Marc McLaughlin said in an e-mail, “It is always an honor to be rewarded for the work you do. Being able to document our community through photos is something that I am thankful for.”

We were also curious to find out what each winner thought about citizen journalism.

Deb Belt, who wrote about an alley project in Boulevard Park and the controversy it created, said in an e-mail, “Citizen journalism is a new frontier and gives people the power to bring a story to light. It places responsibility in writers' hands to be accurate, fair and ethical and provides support for them. When citizen journalists meet this challenge, they forge new territory.”

Brandy Tuzon is the publisher of the Natomas Buzz and the author of the story on Natomas Unified School District’s fiscal crisis. She said in an e-mail, “I believe independent, citizen journalists are capable of providing some of the best local news coverage in the Sacramento region. We are not sitting at a desk in an office being assigned a beat to cover, instead we are living in the community and experiencing stories first-hand, as they happen.”

David Alvarez said in an e-mail about citizen journalism, “I think it's great. It's the voice of the people that can inspire, make you laugh, let you see life through other people's eyes, make you think or help get an important story to light. As a sole voice or as a voice for many in our community, citizen journalism has its place if nothing else to read another person's perspective.”

Thank you to everyone who entered. We enjoyed meeting new people, like Mama Cobb, hearing new insights, like what current students think about Sacramento High School, and discovering new places, (Firehouse 5), or history (stone sisters houses), and seeing Sacramento and its surrounding areas through many lenses (written or camera).

Upcoming workshop: Write Smarter Feb. 16

2011-02-07T22:38:42Z

We have two new workshops scheduled for the month of February.

The first is scheduled from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Feb. 16 at The Sacramento Press office.

JT Long will teach this workshop, titled "Write Smarter."

Long is an independent journalist and SEO copywriter for publications such as Engineering News-Record, Comstock's Magazine and PublicCEO. She creates communities by telling stories.

Long will discuss how to get the most out of your stories so you can use them in different publications. She will cover how to improve your interviewing skills, so you can gather enough information for multiple stories, how to come up with targeted leads and other tips that will benefit freelancers.

Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton will teach a workshop on opinion writing from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Feb. 24. More information on this workshop will be available later this month.

Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a government-issued ID.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $2.00 per half hour, and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here - one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

To RSVP for either workshop, e-mail workshops@sacramentopress.com. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an e-mail to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Today's the last day to enter the Journalism Open 2011

2011-01-31T21:06:14Z

The procrastination must come to an end. There are only hours left to enter The Sacramento Press Journalism Open 2011.

Entries must be published by 11:59 p.m. You must tag your article open2011.

There are hundreds of dollars in prizes waiting to be doled out to the winners. First place prize is $700, second place is $500 and there are cash prizes for photos, too!

If you would like to have your article copy edited, it must be sent to journalism@sacramentopress.com by 6 p.m. Any articles sent after 6 p.m. will have to be published without copy editing.

One last thing: there are three judges for this year's contest. One of the judges changed from what we announced at the Journalism Open Workshop. David Watts Barton will no longer be judging. The judges are Managing Editor Colleen Belcher, Copy Editor/Reporter Brandon Darnell and Recruiment Manager Casey Kirk.

Check out the splash page for any last minute questions. Below the page are all of the entries we've received so far for the contest.

The clock is ticking. Entries published after 11:59 p.m. will not be counted as part of the contest.

Winners will be announced Monday, Feb. 14 on our site.

Good luck!

Sac Press Journalism Open workshop Jan. 12

2011-01-10T20:23:34Z

The Sacramento Press Journalism Open is well underway and we're very pleased to see new bylines popping up on our site because of the contest.

The contest ends at 11:59 p.m. Jan. 31, so make sure you've posted all of your entries and tagged them open2011 by that deadline.

First place wins $700, second place $500, and there are many other cash prizes, including prizes for best photos.

For those of you who have questions about the contest, we will host a workshop Wednesday, Jan. 12 from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. at our office. We will be happy to give advice and suggestions on how to develop your story ideas.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $1.50 per half hour, and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here - one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

To RSVP, send an e-mail to workshops@sacramentopress.com.

For the complete rules of the contest, click here.

Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you at the workshop!

How to enter photos that accompany someone else's article in the Journalism Open

2011-01-03T23:52:38Z

Many articles posted on our site are a collaborative effort, with one person writing the text and another person taking photos.

This brings up the question of how a photographer can enter his or her photos in The Sacramento Press Journalism Open 2011 if the article has the byline of the writer.

To enter your photos from an article with someone else's byline, use this tag:

photosyournameopen2011

So if your name is Joe Schmoe, the appropriate tag would be: photosjoeschmoeopen2011

E-mail support@sacramentopress.com if you have any other questions.

A thank you to our community contributors

2010-12-24T02:14:13Z

We have a lot to be grateful for at The Sacramento Press. We celebrated our two-year anniversary in October, and we expanded our office over the summer. We are most thankful for our community contributors – you take the cake.

Your comments fill in the blanks of questions unanswered. You keep us honest and accurate by pointing out errors. Your thoughts and opinions spark a stream of community dialogue.

Your stories and photos document Sacramento’s history in the making. Your firsthand accounts often break stories like the evacuation of the Roseville Galleria Mall or give us an up-close at, say, a fire in Midtown.

A lot of what comes in is unexpected: a letter written by Thomas Enterprises addressing the foreclosure, video of political sign stealing, photos of an upside down rainbow or a lunar eclipse. We’ve had stories about rescued animals, commentary on a Second Saturday Art Walk shooting and plenty other unique and extraordinary stories.

There are a dozen or so community contributors who we work with on a regular basis. These all-stars take on multiple assignments, many of them working around their full-time jobs. We’ve been happy to work with them as they prepare for a big interview with a celebrity, or give them feedback on their sports coverage or emphasize the importance of meeting deadlines.

As a way of saying thank you to those who have really gone above and beyond in volunteering their time and energy to The Sacramento Press, we created “splash” pages to highlight some of their articles.

Lindol French, a new Sacramento resident, has entertained us with his musings on just about everything. We’ve been there for his first breakup with a Sacramento bar. We got to share his interview with Anthony Bourdain and experience the Neo-Crocker Party. And who could forget his Lindol-isms like this one from when the San Francisco Giants were in the World Series: “This is the kind of torture doled out by a beautiful woman with hot wax and a feather.”

Ron Nabity, a professional photographer, has really brought his love of sports to The Sacramento Press. He has captured stunning action shots, whether it be at a Sacramento Capitols game or of a running back sprinting down the field at a UFL Mountain Lions game. His engaging perspective, both in writing and behind the lens, are a real treat.

Alejandra Gonzalez first approached us with interest of becoming an intern. Her busy school schedule prevented her from committing fully to an internship, but that didn’t stop her from taking on assignments. She has done a wonderful job of highlighting local charities and fundraisers in the area, as well as writing captivating reviews of performers like Shakira and the Eagles.

Bill Burgua first participated on The Sacramento Press as a resident and neighborhood advocate and has since created his own niche. He has become one of our best-known theater reviewers, frequently quoted next to The Sacramento Bee’s critics in e-mail blasts from local theater companies. Bill has worked diligently, doing research and diving headfirst into his assignments. His appreciation of local theater shines through.

Marc McLaughlin has been contributing since August, and has really wowed us with his photos. Marc first introduced us to the Sacred City Derby Girls, with some great shots of mud wrestling and that captured the intensity of the sport. He has taken on some big performers, from Jay Leno to Justin Bieber, and has done telephone interviews for previews (the Judds, Tony Orlando, etc.)

David Alvarez has contributed 89 articles since May of this year! We’ve been lucky to have his coverage of many of the events in Folsom (Sutter Street construction, Ghost Train and Folsom Live!). David has tackled all sorts of stories, from fashion shows to cultural celebrations and festivals to Concerts in the Park. What sets him apart is his interactions with the people involved in the events he covers. As readers, we learn what he has learned as his curiosity leads to a deeper level of reporting.

Barry Wisdom is another fantastic photographer we’ve been lucky to work with. He has worked a lot with Bill Burgua in covering theater, doing many of the previews and showing up to dress rehearsals to get shots of the actors. He’s been there to indulge the eyes at Ginger Elizabeth’s Cupcake Day and showcase the art at Chalk It Up! Sacramento. Barry has a lot of fun doing his articles, and it shows.

Delgreta Brown has highlighted Sacramento’s music scene with her soulful music writing. She really makes you feel as if you’re right there in the audience.

Steven Chea continues to amaze us. He has blossomed from someone who has dabbled in video and photography to a valuable reporter and photojournalist. Steven is able to snap photos and capture both amusing and intense facial expressions. He is noted for taking his camera into the crowd, where the other action is.

Mark Needham is a true Sacramento Kings fan. As the 2010-11 season ramped up, Mark was there at every practice, interviewing players, sharing his predictions for the season and creating a presence for the Kings on The Sacramento Press.

Aaron Davis has his finger on the pulse of Sacramento’s music scene. He’s shared details of the Smashing Pumpkins coming to Sacramento and kept us in the know with his weekly roundup. His writing is fun to read and a pleasure to have on the site.

Ed Fogle has been with The Sacramento Press from the very beginning, chasing down some courageous shots. He has been there on the scene alongside ambulances, yellow tape and blazing fires, getting the photos and sharing them with the rest of us. Ed seems to be everywhere and anywhere the police scanner alerts say the action is.

Steven Bloom is becoming synonymous with the word “comedy” in Sacramento. He has interviewed the likes of Cedric the Entertainer and shared his reviews of Robin Williams, Howie Mandel and Conan O’Brien for those of us who couldn’t make it out to their shows.

Last but definitely not least is Kati Garner. She has taken her camera and breathed life into local media coverage. Her photos are Sacramento. She is there for major political events, for the installation of the Capitol Christmas tree, at the American Idol auditions, Sacramento’s Pride events and everything in between. She was there taking panoramic shots of the Railyards as construction was beginning, and she’s one of the first people we turn to when we hope to get photography. Kati, who has 313 articles to date, is a living camera, leaving a flurry of visual memories in her path.

Take a look at the contributors’ splash pages if you’d like by clicking on their names.

Thanks to everyone above and to everyone we haven’t mentioned. We would be nothing without you.

Sacramento Press Journalism Open returns in January 2011

2010-12-13T05:19:05Z

The first Sacramento Press Journalism Open was a success, and we’re ready to do it all over again! We will have some exciting prizes for our top submissions, and your stories could be chosen for our section pages or newsletter for thousands to read and enjoy.

Becoming a published writer is easier than you think, and we’re here to walk you through the process and get you committing acts of journalism.

I'm David Watts Barton, editor in chief of The Sacramento Press, our area's top hyper-local 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 professional and amateur writing from around the community.

We're hosting this contest because we want you to join us. The future of journalism may depend on you. Your ideas, your questions and the answers you find will increase the amount of good, local information you and your fellow citizens need to make informed decisions, whether it's about city government or where to go for entertainment. And once you've asked the questions you want answered, we want you to write for The Sacramento Press – because citizens like you are The Sacramento Press!

This contest is a pro-am, where writers of all skill levels and points of view – writers like you – are welcome to write about what interests you.

No story is too small for The Sacramento Press. Do you have a business you love, a community volunteer you admire, a trend that disturbs you, people who give you hope, city employees who drive you crazy? What don’t you understand about City Hall? What do people need to know about your neighborhood? What’s old and admirable? What’s changing?

Any of those questions could lead you to people you don’t know as well as you’d thought, or introduce you to people you didn’t know. And you can share that new-found knowledge with your fellow citizens.

That’s where The Sacramento Press comes in: In addition to providing the platform to publish, we also offer free copy editing and workshops on various aspects of journalism, from interview techniques to photography to ethics. We will do everything we can to help you create the best journalism you can.

And we have cash prizes!

For more on that and on how to enter your work in The Sacramento Press Journalism Open, read on!

To start writing, simply go to the top of this page and click the "Sign Up" button and follow the prompts. You will be asked for information and to sign off on our terms of use agreement. After you are signed up, click the "Write" button at the top of the page and start writing.

We suggest that you write your story in a separate writing application and then, when you've finished and had it copy edited, cut and paste it into our site.

To utilize our free copy editing, simply e-mail your story to journalism@sacramentopress.com, and we'll send the edited version back to you within 24 hours.

For specific questions, you can contact our customer service expert, Casey Kirk at casey@sacramentopress.com. She can help you along in the process.

Important: Every story you enter/post on the site must be tagged "Open2011" in the tag section. Just write those words in the space provided. You should also feel free to add tags to you story in the space provided, especially choosing one of our “section” tags – Culture, Business, Politics and Sports – depending on which one fits the story best.

Hit "Publish," and you have posted your first story on The Sacramento Press. You've also been entered in The Sacramento Press Journalism Open!

CATEGORIES & CRITERIA FOR JUDGING

Entries will be judged by our editorial staff, and that judgment will be subjective. But we will be using criteria for what we think good journalism is. Among those criteria are:

Accuracy: Facts, spelling and quotes should be correct. Double-check everything and use your computer’s spell check.
Writing style: Writing should be clear, concise and enjoyable.
Local focus: Stories should be set in Sacramento, Yolo, Placer or El Dorado counties.
Sourcing: Include a minimum of two living, breathing sources in your story. Quotes from people who know what you’re writing about will always enliven and improve your story. Aim to include different perspectives. Wikipedia, About.com, press releases and book or newspaper excerpts are not acceptable sources.
Impact: Your story will also be judged on how readers react in the conversation on The Sacramento Press, as well as how it is received in the real world.
Mostly though, we’ll judge entries based on how interesting they are, if they’re news or a new approach to an old story, how well-researched they are, the quality of the writing and the quotes.

Stories can be any length, but they must be original nonfiction about the Sacramento area.

Stories may not be re-posts from blogs or other publications, print or online.

Finally, we will give extra weight to high-quality photographs, either accompanying stories or standing on their own with explanatory captions.

RULES

To be eligible, stories must be posted on the site, by you (using your real name), between 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2011 and 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 31, 2011. We will be able to help you post either over the phone or in our office during our normal business hours (10 a.m. through 6 p.m. Monday through Friday).

You may enter as many different stories as you like, but please enter/post each story only once! Make sure to tag it "Open2011" in the tag section or it will not be counted as a submission. There is no charge to enter.

PRIZES

First Prize $700
Second Prize $500
Third Prize $200
Five $100 prizes
$350 in prizes awarded to best photos

Entries will be judged by The Sacramento Press editorial department. Decisions will be final. Limit one prize per applicant. Winners will be announced Feb. 14, 2011.

There will be a workshop from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 12 at The Sacramento Press office to answer your questions. Be careful that you're happy with what you've written; once it is published on the site, it cannot be modified.

You must live or work in one of our four home counties listed above, and be at least 18 years of age. High school students under the age of 18 can enter if they have a parental consent form.*

*Parental consent forms must be signed in person by a parent or legal guardian of the minor entering an article. To arrange for this, please e-mail Casey Kirk, casey@sacramentopress.com.

Editorial Note: The rules have been changed to allow for people who work (not just who live) in one of the four counties we cover (Sacramento, Yolo, El Dorado, Placer) to enter the contest.

Research and Fact-Checking Workshop Nov. 16

2010-11-04T21:38:16Z

We're very excited for Max Whittaker's photojournalism talk Tuesday, Nov. 9. The RSVP list is full, and we've set up a waiting list.

The last workshop The Sacramento Press will be holding for this year will be Tuesday, Nov. 16, from 6:30 - 8 p.m.

Clare Noonan will teach a workshop on research and fact-checking at The Sacramento Press office.

The credibility of a writer rests on the research and facts put forth in his or her stories. Journalists are held to the highest accountability when it comes to the accuracy of their information. Fact-checking is a very valuable skill to possess, and Noonan will discuss methods for verifying your research and double-checking the facts in your stories.

Noonan has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Kentucky. She worked at The Modesto Bee for more than 20 years as a reporter for business, news, feature and sports while also copy editing. She also worked as assistant news editor and assistant city editor in charge of the Crime and Safety beat during her time at The Bee. She has been a copy editor for The Sacramento Press.

Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a government-issued ID.

Please RSVP by e-mailing workshops@sacramentopress.com. Space will be limited to 40 people. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an e-mail to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Due to the high number of attendees at recent workshops, we will reserve chairs for those who have RSVP'd. Those who show up without RSVP'ing will have to wait until the workshop starts to be seated to make sure that all of those who have RSVP'd are guaranteed a spot.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Writing for Readers

2010-10-07T19:15:40Z

The Sacramento Press office was packed Wednesday night as Dianne Heimer presented the 45 attendees with tips on how to write better leads – the opening sentences in articles.

Before the workshop began, guests enjoyed sandwiches and chips from Dad’s Kitchen.

Heimer has been a professor of journalism at Sacramento City College for 17 years. She has a BA in English and an MA in English/journalism. She is currently a freelance magazine writer.

“I was excited, ’cause this is exactly what I needed help with,” Keilah Woodard said. She has a blog about places to go with kids called Sacramento Side Tracks.

This is the second workshop Sally King has attended at The Sacramento Press. “I really came to see Dianne,” King said. “It never hurts to go over information again.” In May, King got her BA in journalism, and Heimer was one of her professors.

“Make ’em wanna read ... on,” Heimer said. “Hook ’em with a good lead.” She said that you only have three seconds to compel a reader to read an article. “So if there are any photographers in here, you are important, too,” Heimer said.

“Your ideas will be lost if you don't hook ’em,” Heimer said.

Heimer went over the two different types of leads, traditional and nontraditional. A traditional lead would be used in a breaking news story: it gives the who, when and what and tells you the outcome in the first paragraph. An example Heimer gave was, “A little girl was arrested today when she broke into the little bear’s house, police said.”

A nontraditional lead is often creative. It’s also called a delayed lead. “(It) starts to tease you a little bit,” Heimer said.

Heimer gave attendees two handouts. One was about different kinds of feature leads, and the other was from a book written by Tim Harrower, “Inside Reporting: a Practical Guide to the Craft of Journalism.”

Heimer said that to write well you have to read good quality journalism. She also recommended that if you are having trouble writing, to walk away. Come back later and look at it with “fresh eyes.”

At the end, Heimer gave the audience an opportunity to ask questions. There was a question about technical writing, and Heimer recommend reading good technical writing. “It sounds dry to me (cough, cough) maybe it’s supposed to be that way,” Heimer said. The last question was about mini-leads when writing a long article, and Heimer said writers should“try to group like items together.”

“I’m impressed that they got someone who is really qualified and entertaining,” Woodard said. “It was wonderful, super-informative. Basically, I got out of it what I had hoped to get out of it,” she added.

The next workshop will teach how to write reviews of concerts, theater and other performances. David Watts Barton, Editor in Chief of The Sacramento Press, will teach the workshop from 6:30-8 p.m. Oct. 13.

Photos courtesy of Sacramento Press Managing Editor Colleen Belcher.

Writing for Readers Workshop Oct. 6

2010-09-27T20:48:37Z

It's hard to believe it but Oct. 15 marks the second anniversary for The Sacramento Press. We have two great workshops lined up for the month of October that we hope you can attend.

Lede writing is something all journalists struggle with on a regular basis, and our workshop on Oct. 6 will address that process.

Dianne Heimer will teach lede writing and story structure at our "Writing for Readers" workshop. The goal is to help you write in a way that keeps people reading your articles from start to finish. It will be at The Sacramento Press office, from 6:30-8 p.m.

Heimer graduated with a BA in English from San Diego State and an MA in English/journalism from Sacramento State.

She is a freelance magazine writer and worked previously as associate editor for Sacramento Magazine. Heimer also taught English and journalism at Modesto Junior College for three years.

For the past 17 years, she has been a professor of English and journalism at Sacramento City College, where she has served twice as journalism department chair and advises the online college newspaper.

The workshop will be interactive. You can bring articles if you'd like to ask specific questions about your own writing.

The second workshop, on Oct. 13, will teach how to write reviews of shows, concerts and performances. We will send out another invitation for this workshop when it gets closer.

Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a government-issued ID.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

Please RSVP by e-mailing workshops@sacramentopress.com. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an e-mail to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Sports Writing Workshop Aug. 25 6:30 - 8 p.m.

2010-08-18T22:36:42Z

It's not too late to attend the "Journalism Ethics" workshop tonight. It's at our newly remodeled Sacramento Press office, from 6:30-8 p.m.

Molly Dugan, an assistant professor of journalism and communication studies at California State University, Sacramento, will teach the workshop.

Our second workshop for the month will hopefully transform sports fans into sports writers. Jimmy Spencer, founding editor of PublicCEO.com, will lead the "Sports Writing" workshop Aug. 25 from 6:30-8 p.m.

Spencer has a B.A. in journalism from California State University, Sacramento. He has worked for The Sacramento Bee, NBC Sports, and the Sacramento River Cats. Spencer coaches high school basketball in the Sacramento area and writes for NBA.com.

Attendees will learn about professionalism and ethics in sports writing, how to get the best quotes, how to come up with a lede and keys to getting published. All sports writing-related questions are welcome at this interactive workshop.

Badges will be awarded to participants for each workshop they attend. Writers who show up can also become verified community contributors.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

How do I get another Storyline?

2010-08-10T00:24:36Z

All Sacramento Press community contributors are given four storylines when they first sign up for an account.

Some users never go through all four storylines. Most active writers will use up their storylines quickly.

To get more storylines, send an e-mail to support@sacramentopress.com.

Here are instructions on how to create a new storyline:

1. Click on the "Write" button at the top of the Sacramento Press home page.

2. This will take you to the screen that lists all of the stories you've written. Scroll down to the very bottom of this page.

3. You'll see that you have remaining storylines. Click on the button that reads "Add New Storyline."

4. Name your storyline and add a description if you'd like. This is NOT where you paste your article. You paste your article in the next page. After you've named your storyline, click "Create Now!"

5. This will take you back to the page that lists all of your articles. To write an article using your new storyline, click "Write New Article."

6. Make sure you click on the box next to your newly created storyline.

7. Once you've selected the storyline, paste your story in the content box below and publish as you normally would.

How do I fix an error in my story?

2010-07-19T19:37:51Z

Once you publish your story, it’s final, so we encourage you to save it as a draft or view it as a preview before hitting the publish button to make sure you haven’t overlooked any typos or mistakes.

That said, we all make mistakes, and we want your published work looking its best.

If you ever catch a spelling error, typo or spacing issue, send an e-mail to support@sacramentopress.com and we can fix it.

We also offer free copy editing. Send your story to journalism@sacramentopress.com, and we’ll get it edited and back to you within 24 hours.

How do I become a Sacramento Press editorial intern?

2010-07-16T20:04:47Z

At any given time, The Sacramento Press has six unpaid editorial interns reporting on local events and writing much of our daily content.

Editorial internships last 15 weeks and can earn students college credit. California State University, Sacramento; University of California, Davis; and other colleges have given units for students participating in our internships.

The internships aren’t limited to college students. Anyone interested in gaining more experience in journalism is welcome to apply for an internship.

What does the internship entail?

Our interns participate in weekly editorial meetings and are assigned multiple stories per week. Topics for stories range from previews of events to event coverage to exploring city issues. Most of what we cover falls in the Midtown/downtown area.

Interns are also expected to generate their own story ideas and work closely with the editorial staff to brainstorm ideas and edit their stories.

Many of the story assignments require interns to work in the evenings and on weekends. We provide digital cameras and digital voice recorders for the interns to use when interviewing people and attending events.

The weekly commitment is roughly 20 hours. We are flexible in working with your work and/or school schedules.

There will be no paper pushing or getting coffee for editors in this internship. Our editorial interns arrange for their own press passes, coordinate interviews, take their own photos and publish stories after making edits.

The editorial internship provides a solid foundation for news reporting in an online news medium. Upon completion of the internship, participants will have made valuable connections in the community and have developed a greater awareness of the potential for stories and how to pursue them.

How do you apply?

We accept applications and interns year-round. If you are interested in applying, send your resume and up to three writing samples to journalism@sacramentopress.com.

Writing samples can be clips from other publications, essays from classes or personal writing samples.

July 21 Improve Your Writing with Self Editing Workshop

2010-07-12T23:35:10Z

The Sacramento Press office is almost done with its remodel. Our first workshop in the new space will be Wednesday, July 21, from 6:30 - 8 p.m. It is titled "Improve Your Writing with Self Editing."

The workshop will teach writers how to remove unnecessary words that clutter writing and create more concise writing that is easier for readers to understand.

Clare Noonan will teach the interactive workshop.

Noonan has worked for The Sacramento Press since September, where she edits copy and designs pages.

Attending this workshop will give you the opportunity to become a verified community contributor and receive a badge.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107 in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $1.50 per half hour and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take the light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here - one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

RSVP by e-mailing workshops@sacramentopress.com. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an e-mail to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

'Paying for Content' panel to be aired on Access Sacramento

2010-07-02T22:51:13Z

In case you missed the June 22 Paying for Content panel put on by The Sacramento Bee and The Sacramento Press, you will have the chance to see it on Access Sacramento, Channel 17 at the following dates and times:

Sunday, July 4 at 10 p.m. (and repeated Monday at 2 p.m.)
Sunday, July 11 at 5 p.m. (and repeated Monday at 9 a.m.)

To read the recap, written by Agnus-Dei Farrant, click here.

Local Journalists Lead "Paying for Content" Panel

2010-06-24T06:36:16Z

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 Corporation.

The panel started with panelists introductions. Each discussed their website and explained how it makes money.

Foster said Midtown Monthly receives revenue from advertising. Sanford said KVIE relies on membership contributions. The Sacramento Press has four forms of revenue, according to Samek: display advertising, social media consulting, events and sponsorship, and digital advertising website Sacramento Local Online Ad Network (SLOAN). The Bee's website accounts for 15 percent of its revenue, Negrete said, mostly through display advertising.

Trujillo showed where advertising is placed on the Journal's website.

"Where we make our money in the newsroom is exclusive subscriber content," he said.

O'Brien said his magazine has 25,000 monthly subscribers and sells about 7,500 copies at newsstands monthly. The corporation publishes both Sacramento Magazine and Our Wedding Magazine.

"We'll extend our core niche in our print product onto the Web," O'Brien said.

Long asked the panel to attempt to predict how their sources of revenue will change in the future.

"We've gone from analog dollars to digital dimes," O'Brien said. "The big change that we see is the tablets and mobile applications. With the iPhone application, people are paying for content and I know that'll be a key issue for all of us. (Sacramento Magazine) will have our mobile application soon."

Users are in control now and have more choices than ever, Negrete said.

"Also, everybody can be a publisher now," he said. "Our marketing research department is a department with few people, and that should probably grow because that information is going to become crucial."

The topic moved into content when Long asked if the panel used freelance or staff writers, and how subjective the stories are.

"We are almost 100 percent freelanced," Foster said. "And I do worry someone is going to come to me and they're going to want to write about something that is not completely subjective objective. As far as the advertising driving the content, I have to rely on my own ethical rules, and so far I think we've done pretty good about that."

Samek said transparency helps balance bias in articles for his website.

"Citizen journalism is at the core of what we do," Samek said "For us, we see it as a mix of us and the community of Sacramento as the region's storytellers. Now when it comes to objectivity, it's a tricky thing. It's something we can't have in the same way. You'll see transparency as a crucial thing in the future."

KVIE stories and programs are submitted by producers, Sanford said.

"(Our programs) met our editorial standards and were objective," he said.

Audience members then asked questions and offered suggestions.

Questions were directed toward the entire panel and occasionally a specific person.

"How does the legacy of (SacPress) play into how aggressively you go out to new types of revenue?" Cody Kitaura of Sacramento asked. "Are you concerned about SacPress being a consulting business rather than a place they go for news?"

"It comes down to what can we do well, and we try to do that," Samek said. "I don't think that takes away from the SacPress and the branding of it. Why wouldn't we just start a business that's social media consulting? It loops back around to the fact that we became good at consulting because we ran a newsroom."

Sue Wilson of Amador County asked the panelists for their opinions on content sharing.

"I'm wondering what kind of interest there is in terms of someone producing for various local papers and for you guys on multiple platforms," she said. "Is there that interest or do you want that kind of cross pollination among your newsrooms?"

"There's many city magazines in California," O'Brien said. "And all of us, generalizing, have done a story on escaping to Carmel. Why is it that we don't collaborate with others?

“Two answers: one is that we want our own spin. We want to deliver the sensibilities of Sacramento whatever that may be. And second is these publications tend to be entrepreneurial and want to do it their own way."

Trujillo asked how the shared content revenue could be divided.

"I think that cooperation is crucial, and the fact that Sacramento Press is here at The Sacramento Bee — instead this is a step in the right direction," Samek said. "Even if you wanted to compete, local media is facing so much pressure.

“The pie is shrinking. Cooperation is very crucial in this environment. Everybody knows what they do best and overlap isn't that bad."

The discussion ended with discussing whether or not the publications intended on using a paywall.

Trujillo said The Business Journal has a hybrid of a paywall. The Journal's website has free online content, but printed content is viewable only by subscribers. Non-subscribers must wait four weeks to read printed content on the website.

Other panelists said no.

We need the traffic and that just would not work, O'Brien said.

“KVIE is focused on being the premiere storyteller about our region,” Sanford said in an e-mail Wednesday. “It’s important to us that we share this content with as wide an audience as possible – not just on television, but through our websites and social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

“Making our content available to everyone in our community regardless of their ability to pay is central to our mission and we have no plans to charge for online content.”

"I don't think a paywall is the answer for us right now," Negrete said.

The discussion was recorded by Access Sacramento. The air date has yet to be determined.

Photos:

1) The Sacramento Bee hosted the panel on the third floor of its headquarters.

2) Panelists (L to R) Foster, Sanford and Samek.

3) Panelists (L to R) Negrete, Trujillo and O'Brien.

4) Panelists (L to R) Negrete and Trujillo.

Photos by Colleen Belcher.

Agnus-Dei Farrant is an intern for The Sacramento Press.

Paying for Content Panel June 22, 6 - 8 p.m.

2010-06-03T17:29:20Z

The Sacramento Press and The Sacramento Bee are co-sponsoring a panel on June 22, titled "Paying for Content." The panel will be at the Bee Headquarters on the third floor, 2100 Q St., from 6 to 8 p.m.

We have six panelists lined up:

Tim Foster is the editor of Midtown Monthly and has been active in the Sacramento arts and music scene for over 20 years. His professional publishing experience began at the California Journal magazine in 1996 and he has worked in nearly every aspect of publishing since.

Tom Negrete, managing editor for the online edition and production at The Sacramento Bee, has been a newspaper editor since 1989. He has worked at The Bee since 1994, as an assistant city editor overseeing local education and county government coverage, sports editor and assistant managing editor for business and sports. Negrete was named managing editor in 2008, and recently helped launch Sacramento Connect, a social media and linking network involving local blogs and websites using the latest web technologies. Before coming to The Bee, Negrete was assistant to the national editor at The New York Times.

Mike O'Brien is co-publisher and owner of Sacramento Magazines Corporation, which publishes SACRAMENTO, a monthly, subscription-based lifestyle magazine. The company also publishes Our Wedding magazine for Northern California brides-to-be twice each year, and does custom publishing for a variety of clients.

Geoff Samek is co-founder of Castle Press LLC, the company behind The Sacramento Press, where he is also head of the product team. Samek's background is in technology, with four years experience doing development and project management for high-profile companies, including Live Nation Inc., the world's largest concert promoter and a huge online event ticket seller. He holds a B.S. degree in computer science from the University of California, San Diego.

Michael Sanford is Vice President for Content Creation of KVIE; he joined KVIE in 2003. Sanford is an accomplished award-winning producer of television news and programming whose previous experience includes managing the West Coast reporting team and producing television segments for "Business Now," a half-hour program on major national commercial markets; reporting and producing for the News Travel Network; and producing segments for CNN, Discovery Channel and the Travel Channel. Sanford has won several Tellys for his work at KVIE and was part of the Emmy Award-winning team of "America's Heartland," KVIE's national public television series now in its sixth season. He oversees all production content for KVIE.

Ron Trujillo is the editor of the Sacramento Business Journal. He oversees news operations of the weekly newspaper. He was previously business editor of The Press-Enterprise, a 190,000-circulation daily newspaper in Riverside. He also served as business editor of The Fresno Bee, Central California's largest newspaper. His business section was honored by the Society of American Business Editors & Writers in 2004. He was also a business reporter for USA TODAY in the Money section.

JT Long will moderate the panel. Long is an independent journalist and SEO copywriter for publications such as Engineering News-Record, Comstock's Magazine and PublicCEO. She creates communities by telling stories.

The panel will focus on paywalls and the relationship between the consumer and the news organization. There will be prepared questions, but the majority of the time will be set aside for audience questions.

We expect a large turnout for this panel. You can RSVP by e-mailing workshops@sacramentopress.com.

Online journalism survey by Reynolds Journalism Institute

2010-06-03T01:34:15Z

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 questions, 22 of which directly deal with Sacramento Press. The remaining questions touch on current events and demographic information.

The survey will ask you about how useful Sacramento Press is, how you benefit from it, how often you visit the site, the quality of coverage, your satisfaction with Sacramento Press, and whether or not it is engaging.

It also seeks to get your opinion about online community, users interacting with journalists and commenting on articles.

It is completely voluntary and confidential. You have the option of leaving questions blank or stopping the survey altogether if you don't feel comfortable with it. You will not be contacted after the survey unless you choose to include your e-mail address.

If you can spare 10 minutes of your time to complete the survey, it will help with the research to improve journalism and technology to better serve you and news consumers.

Click on the link below to access the survey:

http://rjisurvey.sacramentopress2.sgizmo.com/s3/

May 26 Interviewing Techniques Workshop

2010-05-26T03:43:49Z

We would like to invite you to our second workshop of the month - an interviewing techniques workshop at The Sacramento Press office from 6:30 - 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 26.

The interview is one of the most important parts of a story. Which questions to ask, how much time you'll need and whether to take notes or use a tape recorder are all key to conducting a successful interview and writing a compelling story.

We are happy to have Doug Herndon teach the workshop. Herndon is an English and journalism professor at Sacramento City College and adviser to the college's newspaper, The Express.

He has been a professional writer for more than 15 years and has worked for Sacramento Magazine, The Sacramento News & Review and The Sacramento Bee.

Come learn the skills and preparations necessary for different scenarios - e-mail interviews, phone interviews and face-to-face interviews. Bring any questions you may have about interviewing or journalism.

Attending this workshop will give you the opportunity to become a verified community contributor and receive the Interviewing Techniques Workshop badge.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107 in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

If you are facing Starbucks, go around the building to the left, and you'll see our Sac Press sign out front.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $1.50 per half hour and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here - one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

RSVP by e-mailing workshops@sacramentopress.com.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

May 19 Sac Press Tools and Tricks workshop - See Sacramento Press behind the scenes

2010-05-17T18:59:26Z

Have you ever wondered how the Sacramento Press functions technically or editorially? Do you want to know how many views our site gets on a daily, monthly or yearly basis? Our Sac Press Tools and Tricks workshop will answer those questions and any others you might have Wednesday, May 19 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Sacramento Press office.

Geoff Samek, one of the co-founders of The Sacramento Press, will go over many of the newer site features and discuss ways of utilizing these tools to your advantage so you are spending less time trying to figure out how to post articles, comment or other actions.

Samek will share statistics on the number of page views the site gets, when readership peaks, and he will also cover computer basics that will come in handy. Colleen Belcher, managing editor of The Sacramento Press, will be at the workshop to discuss how the editorial side of The Sacramento Press works.

The goal of the workshop is to make using the site easier and give attendees a better idea of all of the tools available and how the newspaper functions from both the technical and editorial sides.

We have a second event this month on May 26. Doug Herndon will teach a workshop titled Interviewing Techniques. Herndon is an English and journalism professor at Sacramento City College and adviser to the college's newspaper, The Express.

He has been a professional writer for more than 15 years and has worked for Sacramento magazine, The Sacramento News & Review and The Sacramento Bee.

Attending either of these events will allow you to become a verified community contributor. You will also receive a workshop badge for attending.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107 in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

If you are facing Starbucks, go around the building to the left, and you'll see our Sac Press sign out front.

RSVP by e-mailing workshops@sacramentopress.com.

Freelance writers panel photo essay April 26

2010-04-28T20:04:12Z

Here are some photos of the panel from Monday night at the Sutter Square Galleria. The Sacramento Press and the UC Davis Extension Center collaborated to present "Making it as a Writer: How to Succeed in Challenging Times."

More than 30 people showed up to hear insights from panelists JT Long, Sacramento-based freelance journalist; Peter Grandbois, published author and California State University, Sacramento, creative writing professor; Cinamon Vann, a freelance writer and editor specializing in environmental topics; Kate Washington, contributing writer for Sactown magazine and a freelance food and travel writer; Jennifer Basye Sander, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published and founder of Write By The Lake Retreats.

Janna Marlies Santoro, Sacramento writer, professor and editor, moderated the panel, asking questions about how each panelist defined success as a writer, what strategies they use for accomplishing success and what challenges the panelists have faced recently due to the economic down turn and how they managed them.

The audience was able to ask questions ranging from what a typical day was like to how much money they charge per word or per project.

The Sacramento Press has another panel planned for June so stay tuned for more information.

Late Sac State alum wins journalism award

2010-04-26T04:13:52Z

Jamie Gonzales was a good journalist and a better friend. Her tragic death at age 25 as a result of colorectal cancer never seemed fair to those who knew her.

Despite her short career in journalism, Jamie made an impact, and her work was recognized last week when the California Newspaper Publishers Association awarded her first place for column writing in its annual Better Newspapers Contest.

Her column/blog series focused on her “experiences and struggles with rectal cancer.”

Jamie graduated from California State University, Sacramento, with a degree in government-journalism in 2007. She spent some time as an intern at The Auburn Journal before working as a reporter at the Elk Grove Citizen, covering the city's government.

When she was diagnosed with cancer, the Citizen editors let her stay on, enabling her to continue doing what she loved. And when it got so bad that she couldn’t go into work, they allowed her to blog from home. In a time when newspapers are cutting every cost possible in order to stay solvent, I thought that concrete gesture of support was really special.

I know Jamie did.

I met Jamie during my first semester at the Sacramento State campus newspaper, The State Hornet. At the time, she was the photo editor. I was surprised when she made the transition into reporting, and then eventually became the breaking news editor.

It’s uncommon for a student journalist to do so much and actually do it well, but Jamie had a knack for the business. She was even writing a fantasy novel in her spare time.

“It's not hyperbole to say her work helped usher The State Hornet website into a daily news operation,” former Hornet Editor-in-Chief Nate Miller wrote in his blog.

Jamie was diagnosed with cancer in March 2008 and told she had less than five years to live. I can’t imagine how hard that would be to hear, but Jamie never let it dampen her outlook on life. During hospital visits, she was always happy to see me and our other friends, and she always wanted to know what was going on in our lives.

Her condition quickly worsened as cancer treatments had little to no effect.

She enjoyed her 25th birthday party at The Cheesecake Factory with about 25 of her friends. At that point, most of us knew it would be her last, though we didn’t want to admit it.

That was in the spring. In the fall, her doctors told her she only had a few months to live. She really wanted to marry her fiancé, James Carey, but an infection took her life a month before her scheduled wedding date in November.

On Oct. 14, 2008, Hornet Adviser Holly Heyser went to visit Jamie with another Hornet staffer.

“(We) went to see her the night she died, and we didn’t realize it going over, but when we walked in the door it was pretty clear she was on her way out,” Heyser said. “She was on a lot of morphine, in a lot of pain.

“We told her how much we all loved her and cared for her,” Heyser said. “She opened her eyes and said, ‘Hey guys, thanks for stopping by,’ like we had come over for a beer or something. It seemed so automatic to come from her like that.”

A bridal shower scheduled for later in the week ended up being her wake.

For all of us who knew Jamie, hearing she won the award was bittersweet.

“It was kind of hard, because I read her last column over again, and it made me cry,” Heyser said. “I wish she could have been alive for this award, but I’m glad she got the recognition for it, and I’m glad the paper got the recognition for it. The paper definitely deserves some kudos for it as well.”

According to the Citizen’s website, it is the first award of its kind the paper has received since 2000.

“Reading through the very end of her last column, it reminds me how incredibly important education was to her,” Heyser said. “She really valued that degree, and she was very proud of it.”

Whether she realized it or not, I think Jamie taught us all something we could never have learned in school. She taught us how gracefully people can carry themselves in the face of a horrible, incurable condition.

Because education was so important to Jamie, Miller suggested starting a journalism scholarship in her name, and Heyser helped with the process.

“We wanted to channel people’s kindness through her, and we definitely need some more contributions to her fund to make it sustainable in honor of her accomplishments,” Heyser said.

Donations to the scholarship fund can be made to:

The Jamie Gonzales Memorial Scholarship Fund
c/o The State Hornet
Sacramento State
6000 J St., University Union-2nd Floor
Sacramento CA 95819-6102 

Brandon Darnell is a copy editor for The Sacramento Press

Food editor/author gives food writing workshop

2010-04-14T19:14:42Z

The Sacramento Press hosted its first-ever "Food Writing" workshop Tuesday night to teach aspiring journalists how to write about food. The event's presenter was food editor and author Elaine Corn, who currently works for Capitol Public Radio.

The former news editor described her unique journey into the world of food. "(While working for the Dallas Morning News Austin American-Statesman) I developed an undying, indestructible interest in food," Corn explained, "but there was no food section in the paper."

After becoming the food editor in Dallas Austin, Corn quit her job and traveled to Europe, heading to Greece and ultimately landing herself a cooking job on a yacht in Turkey. "It (was) dirty work. When you volunteer they give you the onions. But eventually you stop crying," she told the audience of about twenty. "Then the next day they give you the bell peppers."

Eventually Corn found herself in Sacramento, working once again as a food editor, this time for the Bee. A look of surprise and shock filled the room as she gave a fun fact, the Bee's food section used to be 32 pages long and split into two sections.

The workshop continued with many insights and answers as Corn passed around a few examples of her work. "You have to find a way to get into the story, not let it be cliche, find your own passion," she said.

"I make a judgment without calling myself a critic," Corn told the crowd. She advised not to be judgmental as a reporter, warning that too harsh a critic can lose good standing in the future with a particular restaurant.

Budding journalists were then treated to a demonstration, invited to ask questions, and write a mock article of their own. Corn went through a seemingly simple task of cutting up an onion, pointing out her various knives and overall technique.

One participant asked if there was a technique to avoid crying while cutting an onion. "There is no cure. You just learn to do it faster." This naturally sparked a discussion about crazy food myths.

Once the demonstration was finished a few brave volunteers read their mock articles aloud. The interpretations varied wildly from the onion becoming a muse to the marvel at the sound the knives made as they were sharpened.

"Food writing is not just about cooking but really want to learn about a culture," Corn said as the evening came to a close, "We use food as a window. We learn about people through food as a base."

After an evening filled with food and laughter, one thing was clear: once cried over, Corn had now made the onion something to laugh at.

When in doubt, fact-check it out - Sac Press holds research and fact-checking workshop

2010-03-24T06:16:19Z

Professor Dianne Heimer from the Sacramento City College Journalism Department spoke about the simple steps that can be taken to make sure that you are getting the right information in stories at Tuesday's researching and fact-checking workshop held at The Sacramento Press.

This important topic focused on helping writers learn how to recognize a reliable source and when to second-guess their facts. Heimer stressed the importance of the accuracy of facts and credibility, saying, "Factual inaccuracy in your writing can discredit your reputation and your publication's reputation."

She was able to talk about this further by demonstrating the importance of getting primary sources, such as an interview with someone directly involved, to enhance accuracy. Secondary sources are also good for getting information, but with the Internet so easily accessible, it is necessary to look at where the information is coming from.

"An easy trick is to look at the tail end of a web address' URL," she said. "Sites ending in .edu, .org and .gov are more credible."

Heimer stressed that while secondary sources can be a great asset, it is important to fact-check and still get firsthand accounts when possible.

The workshop went on to focus on the importance of fact-checking. She said the best way to ensure accuracy is to double-check names, phone numbers, addresses, URL's, dates and times, any numbers and your primary and secondary sources against themselves. It is simple mistakes in these areas that can easily discredit your paper.

Her key point of the night was, "When in doubt, fact-check it out."

Audience members, many of whom came to the workshop to improve their writing, actively participated, helping bring many of the more complicated issues with fact accuracy to light.

She also made sure to point out that a great way to find helpful information for articles is through the Internet Public Library 2 at www.ipl.org.

Overall, the night was full of constructive information on how to improve researching techniques.

This workshop is only one of many that The Sacramento Press puts on each month to help local community members who are interested in writing community-based content gain knowledge.

Those interested in attending future workshops should sign up as a user on the site. Users are sent e-mail invitations for upcoming workshops.

Photos by Colleen Belcher

Citizen journalism at work

2010-03-19T19:52:43Z

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 confirm that he could cover the District 7 debate.

He took pictures and wrote a great story.

We are very lucky to have community members who are willing to write about events and issues that affect all of us. Our staff is very small and it's impossible to cover everything in our area.

Thank you, Chris Shannon, for the great coverage and we hope this example will encourage more writers to share stories on The Sacramento Press.

Research and Fact-Checking workshop March 23

2010-03-15T19:54:45Z

We have a free journalism workshop scheduled later this month.

Dianne Heimer will lead our first Research and Fact-Checking workshop on Tuesday, March 23, 6:30 - 8 p.m.

Heimer is a journalism professor at Sac City College and advises the college's newspaper, The Express.

Doing research for articles seems daunting, but we'll show you that it isn't difficult and that the added credibility and depth are worth the time and effort.

Heimer will discuss appropriate sources and will go over how to confirm the accuracy of the facts in your story. She'll also discuss the trustworthiness of the Internet as a source.

Food and drinks will be served at 6:30 p.m., with the workshop at 6:45. Our office is at 431 I Street, Suite 107, in the Amtrak station.
If you are facing Starbucks, go around the building to the left and you'll see our Sac Press sign.

We recommend you park on the street, bike, or take light rail, as parking in the Amtrak lot costs $1.50 per 20 minutes. We do not cover the cost of parking, but if you take light rail, we will provide two passes when you get here, good for the round trip.

RSVP by e-mailing workshops@sacramentopress.com.

For more information, call 916-443-5403.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Feb. 17 Intro to Journalism workshop

2010-02-09T23:13:05Z

It's very exciting to see the number of our community contributors continue to grow. We now have close to 800. With so many new writers, we want to make sure we offer you the tools and resources to improve your writing and help you feel more confident posting on our site.

We've held many journalism-related workshops in 2009 ranging from Interviewing Techniques, Bias in Media, Journalism Ethics, among others.

We're happy to announce another Intro to Journalism workshop this month, scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 17 6:30 - 8 p.m.

Brandon Darnell will be teaching the workshop. He is a freelance writer and editor, and he currently copy edits for The Sacramento Press.

Darnell graduated from California State University, Sacramento in 2007 with a degree in journalism, where he worked as a reporter, copy editor and Copy Chief of the student newspaper, The State Hornet. Darnell worked as a reporter for the Lincoln News Messenger for a year, covering everything from city government and the economic crisis to feature articles before moving to Paris, France, to research a novel he is currently writing.

This workshop is perfect for those of you without a journalistic background. We encourage you to write on our site, but some basic guidance from a workshop such as this one may help get the pen to paper or in our case, fingers to keyboard.

Attending this workshop will also earn you a badge for "Intro to Journalism workshop" on our site. You will have the opportunity to be verified as a community contributor as well.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107 in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks. If you are facing Starbucks, go around the building to the left and you'll see our Sac Press sign out front.

Please RSVP by emailing workshops@sacramentopress.com.

If you have any trouble finding our office, please call 916-443-5403.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Sac City College's magazine in jeopardy of being cut

2010-01-07T23:20:16Z

A student at Sac City College wrote to The Sacramento Press asking us to help spread the word that Mainline magazine could be cut if it doesn't reach the minimum enrollment. Below is the email we received from Stephanie.

My name is Stephanie and I wanted to write you and let you know that Sacramento City College's journalism program has really taken huge class cuts this semester, which is definitely unfortunate for young journalists.

One class that is being cut in particular is Mainline magazine. If the roster doesn't reach 20 people by Monday, Jan. 11, it will be cut. Mainline is a very important class, it helps writers, photographers, graphic designers and illustrators by putting them in an environment that mimics the development of a magazine. I don't know if you can help or what can be done, but I just thought I would throw that out there? I think this program helps students in our community a great deal and to see it be cut, would really be sad.

http://www.losrios.edu/lrc/lrc_reg_online.php

This link is where people could go if they wanted to sign up for the class. This class is award-winning and at the end of the semester students produce a magazine. There is even a working website www.sacmainline.com.

Welcome to The Sacramento Press Journalism Open!

2009-09-16T00:14:43Z

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 professional and amateur writing from around the community.

We're hosting this contest because we want you to join us! The future of journalism may depend on you: Your ideas, your questions, and the answers you find will increase the amount of good, local information you and your fellow citizens need to make informed decisions, whether it's about city government or where to go for entertainment. And once you've asked the questions you want answered, we want you to write for The Sacramento Press - because citizens like you are The Sacramento Press!

This contest is a pro-am, where writers of all skill levels and points of view are welcome to write about what you know and about what interests you.

We urge you to think small: The blighted vacant lot on your street, the business person you patronize, the leader you admire, the trend you abhor, the community group you support, the artist living above you, the band rehearsing next door. What don't you understand about your neighborhood? What's great about it? What's changing? These questions will lead you to more questions, questions will lead you to people you don't know, and people will lead you to stories that need to be told.

We're here to help: In addition to providing the platform to publish, we also offer copy editing and workshops on various aspects of journalism, from interview techniques to the use of social media. We will do everything we can to help you create the best journalism you can!

And don't forget the prizes! For more on that and on how to enter your work in The Sacramento Press Journalism Open, read on!

Join us in the first Sacramento Press Journalism Open. And remember, we are here to help you commit the best acts of journalism you can! Contact us at The Sacramento Press: To utilize our free copy editing, simply e-mail your story to journalism@sacramentopress.com and we'll send the edited version back to you. Colleen Belcher, journalism support manager, is at colleen@sacramentopress.com. Managing editor David Watts Barton is at david@sacramentopress.com.

Prizes

Journalism as a profession has taken its lumps lately, but there's still money to be made, especially if you win one of the many prizes offered in The Sacramento Press Journalism Open!

Our Grand Prize winner will enjoy a weekend for two at The Village at Squaw Valley and a meal for two at world famous PlumpJack restaurant. We'll even throw in $50 for gas money!

Our contest's first-place winner will get $500 and an original portrait of themselves by Wall Street Journal sketch artist Noli Novak; second place receives $250 and third through fifth places, $100.

All winners, including the 10 additional winners in the more specific categories below, will win a Sacramento Press journalism kit that includes an Olympus digital recorder, a bio-degradable pen, a reporter's notebook and a stylish Sacramento Press T-shirt.

Winners will be announced on Monday, Nov. 16, 2009.

How to Enter

Simply go to the top of this page and click the "Sign Up" button and follow the prompts. You will be asked for information and to sign off on our terms of use agreement. After you are signed up, click the "Write" button at the top of the page and start writing!

We suggest that you write your story in a separate writing application and then, when you've finished and had it copy edited, cut and paste it into our site.

We encourage you to take advantage of our free copy editing before you post your article. To get your story copy edited, e-mail it to journalism@sacramentopress.com.

Important: Every story you enter/post on the site must be tagged "Open2009" in the tag section. Just write those words in the space provided.

Hit "Publish" and you have posted your first story on The Sacramento Press. You've also been entered in The Sacramento Press Journalism Open!

Categories & Criteria for Judging

Entries will be judged by our editorial staff, and that judgment will be subjective. But we will be using criteria for what we think good journalism is. Among those criteria are:

Accuracy: Facts, spelling and quotes should be correct. Double-check everything and use your computer’s spell check.
Writing style: Writing should be clear, concise and enjoyable.
Local focus: Stories should be set in Sacramento, Yolo, Placer or El Dorado counties.
Sourcing: Include a minimum of two living, breathing sources in your story. Aim to include different perspectives. Wikipedia, about.com, press releases and book or newspaper excerpts are not acceptable sources.
Impact: Your story will also be judged on how readers react in the conversation on The Sacramento Press, as well as how it is received in the real world.

Stories can be any length, but they must be original non-fiction about the Sacramento area.

Stories may not be re-posts from blogs or other publications, print or online.

Ten additional prizes will be awarded to stories that succeed in various areas, as judged by our staff of professional journalists:

Best lede (opening paragraph)
Most original story idea
Best-researched article
Best "get" (unusual story or difficult-to-get interview)
Most widely read story
Most community interaction (in conversation section)
Best headline
Best quote
Best use of the Storyline feature
Best accompanying photos

All entries will be eligible for all these categories, as well as the top prizes.

Rules

To be eligible, stories must be posted on the site, by you, between 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1, 2009 and 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2009. We will help you post from Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009 at 10 a.m. through 6 p.m. until Friday, Oct. 30, 2009; you may come to our office during weekday business hours (M-F, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) to post on our computers. You may enter as many different stories as you like, but please enter/post each story only once! Make sure to tag it "Open2009" in the tag section or it will not be counted as a submission. There is no charge to enter. We will shred and recycle any entries that come in on dead trees - we're an online newspaper! Again, you must post the story yourself.

Entries will be judged by The Sacramento Press' editorial department. Decisions will be final.

We want you to win! We offer copy editing and advice on reporting. There will be a workshop on Oct. 13 to help answer your questions. Be careful that you're happy with what you've written; once it is published on the site, it cannot be modified.

You must live in one of our four home counties, and be at least 18 years of age.

New Public Art Sculpture at Riverpoint Marketplace

2009-08-14T15:30:40Z

The City of West Sacramento announces that they have installed new public artwork in Riverpoint Marketplace, the retail center off Ikea Court and Reed Avenue.

"Synergy" is a 26-foot tall stainless steel and bronze sculpture created by Alber De Matteis, a noted sculptor with works in California, Europe, and South America.

In addition to having a bold presence in daytime hours, the sculpture is illuminated by colored lights in the evening.

West Sacramento Joins in National Night Out

2009-07-30T16:47:13Z

Streets and neighborhoods in West Sacramento will again be participating in the National Night Out on Tuesday, Aug. 4, from 6 p.m.-10 p.m.

The annual event, which promotes public safety and community partnerships, brings neighbors together for block parties and cookouts.

At 7:30 p.m., in support of the Bryte & Broderick Community Action Group, the Police and Fire Departments, along with other agencies, will converge at Bryte Park at 425 Todhunter Avenue.

For more about National Night Out, contact Community Service Officer Nora McDowell, (916) 617-4837 or noram@cityofwestsacramento.org .

Final Harmony on the River in West Sacramento

2009-07-30T16:32:56Z

On Tuesday, Aug. 4, from 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m., Harmony on the River, a free summer concert series from the City of West Sacramento, will present the final concert of the season. Enjoy an evening with Hurricane Sam & the Hotshots, featuring boogie, blues, and jazz.

Harmony on the River is a family-friendly event, so please bring the kids, a picnic, and soak up the sounds. Pets on leash are allowed, but the City asks that you refrain from any glass bottles.

Parking is free also, so just see a parking attendant on site for a pass.

For more information, contact Scott Stanley of the City of West Sacramento Parks & Recreation, scottst@cityofwestsacramento.org.

West Capitol Avenue Streetscape Traffic Advisory

2009-07-29T14:59:07Z

The City of West Sacramento announces a modification underway in the traffic flow parallel to City Hall, 1110 West Capitol Avenue as part of the West Capitol Avenue Streetscape construction project.

All eastbound vehicle and bicycle traffic is shifted to a single south lane on West Capitol Avenue. Westbound vehicles and bicycles will continue using the north side of West Capitol.

All pedestrian access continues on the north side of the street, as West Capitol's south sidewalk remains closed, and the closure of Merkley Avenue from West Capitol Avenue to approximately 600 feet south stays in effect.

The two Yolobus eastbound transfer stations at Merkley Avenue and Jefferson Boulevard have been re-positioned from the median area to the south side of West Capitol Avenue. The westbound transfer stations and bus stops do not change at this time.

This traffic configuration will accommodate the construction within the West Capitol Avenue median areas, a period expected to last approximately four weeks.

All businesses in the vicinity of the construction area remain open and accessible. Please drive cautiously and pay attention to traffic/construction signs in the area.

Observe the construction zone speed limit of 25 MPH for the safety of pedestrians.

West Sacramento Announces Mini-Grant Program for Non-Profit Organizations

2009-07-29T14:38:38Z

The City of West Sacramento has announced their Mimi-Grant Program for community service organizations with a great program idea needing additional funding.

The City's "Community Mini-Grant Program" provides funds annually to help qualifying West Sacramento non-profit organizations with special funding needs.

This year, thirty thousand dollars is available to non-profit organization applicants that can demonstrate a viable need that benefits West Sacramento and its residents.

Applications for the mini-grant program must be submitted by Sept. 25, 2009, to the Parks & Recreation Department, 1110 West Capitol Ave., West Sacramento, CA 95691.

Once all of the applications are in, they will be reviewed by a Parks & Community Services Commission subcommittee, and the chosen recipients will be announced in the spring of 2010. The selected organizations must enter into a signed contract, after which they will receive eighty percent of the funding. The remaining twenty percent will be awarded when all original receipts are submitted and it is determined that the funds were spent as planned.

To apply, visit the City of West Sacramento's website at www.westsacfun.org and look for “Community Mini-Grants” under Department Highlights, or pick up an application at the Parks & Recreation office on the first floor of City Hall.

For more information or questions, please contact West Sacramento Parks & Recreation at (916) 617-4620.

Tony's Fine Foods Expanding "Green" Facilities in West Sacramento

2009-07-20T16:54:51Z

In a combined press release, Tony's Fine Foods and the City of West Sacramento have announced a major expansion of Tony's headquarters and food distribution facilities in West Sacramento. The expansion will accommodate an expanding customer base and new product lines, as well as business acquisitions generating significant growth in market share for the 75-year old, family-owned company.

The company will invest about $15 million to construct a new 77,000 square foot building to house a new freezer and automated distribution warehouse, and renovate existing warehouse and office space. The expansion will increase the West Sacramento company's workforce to 365 fulltime employees, an increase of 75 jobs. The expansion will allow the company to serve the entire California market with an expanded product mix that includes more than 12,000 meats, deli and bakery products, domestic and imported chesses, pastas, catering items, and specialty beverages.

The City's Economic Development and Development Services Divisions are assisting Tony's and BTV Development, the construction project manager, to deliver building permits and other city approvals to achieve Tony's operational goals.
Tony's West Sacramento headquarters, a combination of corporate office suites and a perishable food distribution facility, is one of the most modern and efficient in the region.

The 143,000 square foot facility is located on 25 acres. Their fleet of multi-temperature trucks and trailers are carefully designed for hot, valley temperatures. Twenty-three sealed loading bays allow perishables to be kept in a constant 35-degree Fahrenheit climate, whether in storage, on the dock, or in a truck. Tony's plant accurately tracks all products and ensures freshness by using state-of-the-art software for tasks such as radio frequency computers, real-time inventory, and automatic product rotation, voice-activated multiple order picking, and bar code scanning.

In 2007, Tony's sought an innovative technology to hedge against future energy bills, maintain the quality of its perishable food, and provide a clean energy source. Working closely with PG&E, Tony's invested in a 1-megawatt AC photovoltaic system, and applying $3.5 million in PG&E rebates to create the largest, privately owned solar system in Northern California.

"West Sacramento's business climate has allowed us to focus on serving our customers and growing our business," said Scott Berger, Tony's Chief Financial Officer. "We appreciate the City's partnership with us to achieve a phased construction schedule that meets our operational and financial goals."

West Sacramento’s Mayor, Christopher Cabaldon, said, "The City of West Sacramento is proud to be chosen by Tony's for this major business expansion. Like Tony's, The City of West Sacramento prides itself on standing above the competition in providing superior customer service. Tony's success demonstrates that quality, service and integrity, and sustainable building practices are core principles of today's business leaders."

For more information, readers can visit www.tonysfinefoods.com and www.cityofwestsacramento.org/city/depts/redev/ed/.

Kids Don't Float! Loaner Life Jackets Available

2009-07-15T16:54:59Z

The City of West Sacramento Fire Department wants everyone to know to use life jackets during water recreation!

Keep your kids safe. Free, loaner life jackets are available at the following West Sacramento Fire Stations:
• Station 41, 132 15th St.
• Station 42, 3585 Jefferson Blvd.
• Station 43, 1561 Harbor Blvd.
• Station 44, 905 Fremont Blvd.
• Station 45, 2040 Lake Washington Blvd.

Also, the Bridgeway Lakes Boathouse office, 3650 Southport Parkway!

For more information, contact the West Sacramento Fire Department at (916) 617-4600 . The free life jacket rental program is sponsored by both the City’s Fire and Parks & Recreation Departments.

Rice Exports Soar At Port Of West Sacramento

2009-07-15T16:34:56Z

In May of 2009, The Cunningham Report stated that while container volumes are plummeting at West Coast ports, the Port of West Sacramento - which does not have container facilities - is enjoying a bumper year for rice exports.

Port Manager Mike Luken said that the port is enjoying its best year for bagged rice exports in 15 years. This year, the port expects to export some 339,000 metric tons of bagged rice, which is about double what the port usually handles during the fall-to-fall rice export season.

The rice is moving primarily to Japan and Korea, where demand increased significantly this season.

Kirk Messick, vice president of Sacramento-based Farmers Rice, says the Korean demand stems from an agreement with the World Trade Organization that requires Korea to increase its imports of U.S. rice each year.

The increased demand from Japan is attributed to several factors- including a lack of rice available from China and Egypt following a perceived shortage of rice in those countries.

Harbor Boulevard Interchange Improvements

2009-07-15T16:25:27Z

Caltrans and the City of West Sacramento have jointly announced that on July 29, 2009, Caltrans will begin construction on improvements to the Harbor Boulevard interchange that crosses U.S. Highway 50 in West Sacramento.

The scope of the project includes new alignment and realignment of the freeway ramp access, widening of the roadways, removal of pavement, and overcrossing structure work.

The project is designed to accommodate increases in traffic activity on the Harbor Boulevard interchange.

An information open house will be held in room 157 of the West Sacramento City Hall, 1110 West Capitol Ave., on Monday, July 27, between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., and the admission is free.

Caltrans staff and City representatives will be on hand to discuss the potential traffic interference, like lane restrictions, speed controls, access, and how you can plan to avoid congestion during construction.

My Son is a Drug Addict

2009-07-15T16:10:10Z

He woke up this morning, finally, but he can’t remember much of the night before. He can’t remember the shouting match with his mother, telling her to “F” off and that he’ll do drugs as long as he wants too. Or the fight with his girl friend that ended with him passing out on the couch.

His name is Christopher, he’s my seventeen-year-old son, and he’s a drug addict. No, he’s not the kind of addict depicted in the movies or on television. He doesn’t sleep in alleys and creep around trying to find his next “fix.” He’s not disheveled or unwashed, though the clothes kids wear today kind of express that. No, he’s a middleclass kid from the suburbs that got off the road somewhere and can’t find his way back.

Ecstasy, “E,” “smackers,” “fizz.” It doesn’t matter what you call it, he takes it and he can’t, and won’t stop. His mother and I sit for hours trying to figure out where we went wrong, and you know, we’ve come to a conclusion that may not set well with others: we haven’t done anything wrong.

We put him through school and made him study, but the drugs took over and he quit going to school.

We taught him the difference between right and wrong, but the drugs took over and the difference to him became muddled and cloudy.

We taught him that it’s not the money or the fame, but hard work and diligence that equal success, but the drugs took over, and he no longer even wants to look for a job or accept work from anyone.

We taught him respect for others, but the drugs took over, now his hair-trigger temper kicks in and he lashes out at everyone with such anger, and distain that we fear he’ll hurt someone one night in a drug-induced stupor.

Finally, we taught him love, and not by merely saying it to him. We expressed it to him every day by example and by our actions with him. But again, the drugs take over and he yells at me in the front yard that he hates me and wishes I were dead.

No, we did everything we could to ensure that he became a good man and a positive contributor to society… but the drugs took over. We can no longer control him because his defiance is to such a point that he won’t obey anyone.

Now we’re trapped between our love for him and the knowledge that if we do nothing, he’ll eventually hit bottom, or worse.

So, there you have it. Where do we go from here? I don’t know, but we’re not going to sit still. Would an intervention work? I don’t know, but we’re going to try it. Would a stint in re-hab work? I don’t know, but if it comes down to it, we’ll try it.

I won’t be writing my articles or working on any literary projects until this crisis with Christopher is over. I’ll miss it, but not as much as I would miss my son if he were to die, and I didn’t commit everything I had to preventing that.

Supporters of Ling and Lee Plead for Amnesty

2009-07-10T08:51:14Z

The goal of the vigil held to protest Laura Ling’s and Euna Lee’s 12-year labor reform sentence was clear: bring them home.

The vigil commenced at 6:30 p.m. where approximately 400 of Ling's and Lee’s friends, family and community members banded together on the Capitol West Steps in support of the two American journalists who are charged by North Korea's high court for illegal entry and engaging in "hostile acts."

Supporters donned “Free Lisa and Euna” buttons and pinned yellow ribbons to their shirts. Many held signs with pictures of the women’s faces and pleas that said “Free Laura and Euna” and “Amnesty Now.”

The vigil was opened with a prayer by Laura Ling’s cousin, Brandon Yip. Following the prayer, Yip played an acoustic guitar and sang the song “Amazing Grace.”

News 10’s Sharon Ito introduced each speaker before they approached the podium. Amoung the speakers was California State President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

"They are two professional American journalists. They had good intentions. It is essential that we ask our federal governemnet to ask for anmesty and mercy," said Steinberg. "Let us gather here again, on the west steps of the capitol, very soon, and in addition to all of us, let's celebrate with Laura and Euna standing right next to us!"

Other speeches were made by Linda Ng of Orgaization of Chinese-Americans, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, friends and classmates of Ling, Ling's husband Ian Clayton and sister Lisa Ling.

Ling told the crowd that she and Clayton had recieved a phone call from her sister on Tuesday. Laura told them that she had violated the law in North Korea, and the only hope for her and Lee's return is if the government asks North Korea for amnesty.

"That's why we are out here tonight; to ask for amnesty, but to also ask for forgivness," said Ling. "The notion of forgiveness is something that we could all use a little bit more of in our lives."

A journalist from Sactown magazine offered brief anecdotes about Lee as told to her by Lee's husband. She reminded the crowd that this situation is not just a global one, but a personal one as well.

Joan Burke, Director of Advocacy for Loaves and Fishes, also commented on the personalized aspect of Ling's and Lee's detainment in North Korea.

"I think all of us can identify with just how frightened and powerless the families of these two young women must feel to have loved ones imprisoned, incommunicado and serving 12 years at hard labor on the other side of the world," said Burke. "By our presence at the vigil, we hope to surround these families with a caring community that has not forgotten its own in their time of need."

The vigil reached its close with a final prayer, and Yip, together with Ling's and Lee's 400-plus supporters, singing "One Love."

12 Year Sentence Spurs Sacramento Vigil

2009-07-08T04:11:18Z

On June 8, American Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to 12-years of "labor reform" by North Korea. This Thursday a candlelight vigil will be held on the Capitol west steps in peaceful protest.

On April 27 a vigil was held for Laura Ling and Euna Lee to raise awareness for the two journalists' detainment in North Korea. This time it is in support of the two women who face the notoriously harsh conditions of North Korea's labor camps.

The two American journalists were on assignment for Current TV, a cable and web network co-founded by Al Gore, when they were detained on March 17 and convicted of illegal entry and engaging in "hostile acts" after a four-day trial North Korea's high court.

In a letter invitation to the vigil, Ling's sister, a CNN correspondent and Sacramento native, Lisa Ling, voices her concerns about the women's condition in North Korea.

"What Laura and Euna were trying to do was give a voice to those who have none," writes Ling. "Now their voices have also been silenced. Since their detention, their health has deteriorated quite a bit, we are extremely concerned. We are making a plea for mercy with the hope that they may be released on humanitarian grounds."

Community figures such as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California State President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Mayor Kevin Johnson, "Good Day Sacramento" host Mark S. Allen as well as many other organizations and media are expected to be in attendance. Lee and Ling's sentence has the United States in nationwide protest and vigils will be held in other cities such as Phoenix, San Francisco, Birmingham and Washington, D.C.

Support the Ling family on Thursday evening at the Capitol's West Steps.

WHO: Lisa Ling, the Ling Family, friends and community of Sacramento

WHAT: A community gathering in support of Laura Ling and Euna Lee

TIME: 6:30 to 8 p.m.

WHERE: California State Capitol west steps (10th St. between L and N streets

Sac Press June 30 Interviewing Techniques workshop

2009-07-01T03:27:35Z

The Sacramento Press office was buzzing with questions at the Interviewing Techniques workshop on Tuesday, June 30.

Holly Heyser, Faculty Adviser for The State Hornet and Professional Journalist in Residence at Sac State, went over the key steps to a good interview.

About 12 people showed up and learned a lot about one another, firsthand accounts of what it's like to be a historian, what it's like to be a part of a television show and what it was like to offer aide to New Orleans residents as a part of FEMA.

The Sacramento Press holds regular journalism workshops each month on various topics.

To sign up for the e-mail list and receive invitations to future workshops, please e-mail journalism@sacramentopress.com

Whitey’s Jolly Kone Hosts River City Rodsters

2009-05-29T05:00:46Z

     Like a blast from the past, the parking lot at the oldest burger joint in West Sacramento was packed this evening with classic cars from Model T’s to custom Firebirds. It was “Cruise Night” again at Whitey’s Jolly Kone, a Jefferson Blvd. landmark since 1964.
     Tommy Kale, the empirical master of ceremonies and all around car enthusiast was glad to show me around. Along with his cohort Frank Baschal, I got the grand tour and a little history of the River City Rodsters and “Cruise Night” at Whiteys.
     The late Whitey Boisclair started hosting this local car show several years ago, the last Thursday of every month from April until October. Every year it grew larger until the parking lot today is filled from the burger stand to the street. And even with the passing of Whitey and his dear wife Maxine, they still come out in droves to enjoy Whitey’s burgers and the glistening polished paint jobs of the vintage autos from bygone eras.
     There was one car owner that stood out this evening. His name is Ray Campagna. Ray has been blind and in a wheelchair since childhood, suffering from degenerative cerebral palsy, but it hasn’t seemed to stop him from being the consummate car enthusiast.
     In 1984, Ray bought an old, dilapidated 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air for $450.00. Apparently, it was being used to haul dirt.
     Ray hung onto that car for years, until in March 2009, twenty-two of his friends, led by Ted Pangle, met at So Cal Speed Shop and, in what Pangle calls a “car party,” they stripped the Bel Air to a rolling chassis and body. Once that was done, that very same day they moved the car over to Miracle Auto Body, who did the extensive bodywork needed to prepare it for paint. Next, it went to Artistic Paint and Body, who put on the custom paint, Dusk Rose with an Ivory Roof. Then off to Jim’s Chevy Parts to be assembled.
     So, on May 23, 2009, the new custom Bel Air was delivered back to Ray, who was too excited to talk.
     Tonight was Ray’s third car show this week, and once they pack up here, they’ll be off to Lovelock, Nevada for the next show.
     Ray is a shining example of the fortitude of man. Never deterred, he’s proud that he’s been living on his own all of his adult life. The friends and business owners who put this car together for Ray should be equally proud. Their altruistic efforts to restore Ray’s pride and joy should make us all think that maybe there is good people in the world. That there are people who, for whatever reason, will go out of their way to help their fellow man.

There’s certainly more to come and I’ll be there to get the facts and bring them to you.

Sacramento Press contributor wins Hearst journalism prize

2009-05-17T17:20:01Z

We at The Sacramento Press are pleased to note that one of our new community contributors, Ali Tabatabai, who wrote just two days ago on a local health forum, has won a journalism award.

Tabatabai, who went to journalism school at San Francisco State, won fourth place in the 49th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program. Ali won in the second year of the Multimedia Competition, coming in fourth out of 78 entrants from 47 undergraduate journalism programs at colleges and universities around the country.

Ali won a $750 award for his work on a project he explains here.

“We did a street level ‘non-linear’ multimedia project, documenting the goings-ons of the community of Sixth Street (in San Francisco)," Ali said. “The area, ridden with SRO (Single Room Occupancy) hotels and drug problems has been a quagmire for the city for a while. Our project ... brought you to the lives, homes and businesses on the street, to meet the people and give you a chance to explore the area via the internet.”
To see Ali’s work, visit newsworx.org.

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program is funded by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and awards $550,000 in grants and awards every year. It is conducted under the auspices of accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, and is made up of six monthly writing contests, three photojournalism contests and four broadcast news competitions. Ali competed in the multimedia competition.
Judging the multimedia competition this year were: Arthur S. Brisbane, ASB Consulting, East Dennis, MA; Janet Reeves, Former Senior Editor/Photography and Multimedia, The Rocky Mountain News, Denver, CO; Fred Young, Former Senior Vice President of News, Hearst-Argyle Television, New York, NY.
For samples of winning work, please check the monthly winners section of the Journalism Awards’ website, hearstawards.org, which is updated shortly after each competition.

Congratulations, Ali!

Feb. 2, 2009 Intro to Journalism handout

2009-04-19T04:02:33Z

There’s news right under your nose!
Feb. 2, 2009
Holly A. Heyser, Professional Journalist in Residence, Sacramento State

Questions that help you find news

Do you see a problem that needs to be solved?
Is something happening that changes how you and your neighbors function?
Did you see an unusual event or happening
Can you see a new trend? (Magic Number: 3)
Is there an interesting new business or person in your neighborhood? (Or has one left the neighborhood?)
How are national trends (e.g., the economy) affecting you and your neighbors?
Do you know about something being planned?

So, what’s interesting? The test is this: Will you mention it to a friend or family member? If it’s worth mentioning to someone you care about, then it’s probably interesting.

What takes this from idle chatter to journalism?
FACTS. You have to know what you’re writing is true. This means you:

Observed it yourself
Were told about it in an interview with someone credible
Verified it with other sources
Found it in official documents

Two rules:

If you don’t know or can’t prove it, leave it out.
Even if you’re writing opinion, you must avoid presenting opinion as fact.

Writing
Getting ready:

Decide what you’re writing about.
Gather and make note of all facts that are immediately available. You’re looking for who, what, when, where, why, how.
Determine what you don’t know. If you can fill in the blanks quickly, great.
Think about how you would share this story with a friend or family member. What are the most interesting parts? They should be your focal point.

Writing

The lead of your story – the first paragraph – should provide key information to the reader. If s/he stops reading there, will s/he at least know what happened?
Write the rest of what you know in a logical order, which may be chronological or in order of importance.
Write what you don’t know. This can be a foundation for further research – or it can invite reader input that answers questions.

March 19, 2009 Interviewing Techniques handout

2009-04-19T03:56:22Z

The Art (and Science) of Interviewing

Martin Kuz, Senior Editor for Sactown magazine, March 19, 2009

Pre-Interview

Deciding what your story is about will help you determine what questions to ask. What are the primary points or themes you want to touch on in your story?
Who is your audience? Understanding who reads the publication you’re writing for – and what writing style that publication prefers — will also help you craft your questions.
Research your subject. Read what’s been written about the person. Depending on the story’s complexity, talk to other sources before you interview the main subject.
Prepare a list of questions and bring it to the interview. Ideally, you’ll have your questions memorized so that you can stay in the flow of the conversation, but the list can help if you forget a question or get sidetracked.
Practical matters: Pick a place that isn’t especially noisy (for taperecording purposes). Find out beforehand how much time the person has for the interview – you don’t want the interview to end with your most important questions left unasked. And always, always, always plan to take notes so that you have backup if your recorder malfunctions.

The Interview

Keep an open mind. Don’t assume you know how a subject will answer a question – you want to try to understand how he or she sees the world. But an open mind isn’t an uncritical one – don’t necessarily take everything a person says at face value.
Establish rapport. Some people are more comfortable than others giving an interview. But either way, you want to make the person feel less like they’re doing an interview and more like they’re having a conversation with you. Start with easy, open-ended questions that can’t be answered with “Yes” or “No” so you can draw out your subject.
Ask your questions and then listen. (In other words, don’t pull a Charlie Rose.) Remember: It’s the other person who’s supposed to be doing the majority of the talking.
Be patient – but not overly so. Always give your subject ample opportunity to answer a question because you never know what may
be revealed. At the same time, remember that this is your interview – if the person is ranging far afield on a tangent, don’t be afraid to (politely) interrupt and steer the conversation back to where you want it to go.
Save the toughest questions for last. If you plan to ask questions that might compel your subject to end the interview, wait until you’ve asked everything else first.
Don’t forget to ask for the person’s e-mail address and cell phone number if you don’t already have them so that you’ll have a way to follow-up if necessary.

Post-Interview

Don’t wait to transcribe your tape or go over your notes. It’s best to have the interview fresh in your mind when you review the tape or
notes for several reasons, including a) It will help you to more clearly see what were the most interesting responses, which in the normal flow of conversation can sometimes be missed; and b) You’ll have a better sense of what follow-up questions you may want to ask.
Organize your transcripts/notes into an outline so that you can see what topics and themes are most relevant and engaging.
If necessary, arrange a follow-up interview, making clear to the subject what points you want to delve into more deeply

Bringing Sacramento Press workshops to you

2009-04-19T03:49:13Z

It was suggested by one of the users of and contributors to the site that the Sacramento Press create a section where people can access the materials from the workshops that we hold. Many people who have been unable to attend the workshops have also requested copies of the handouts from the various workshops.

In order to better arm our readers with the tools that will help them write, there will be a section where all of the materials from the past workshops can be found. If you type in "SP workshops" in the search field, all of the articles and handouts dealing with our workshops will come up.

Also, in the future we will upload a video feed of the workshops, if people are interested, so that you can watch the workshops from your own home as if you were really there.

We still encourage people to attend our workshops, as we'd like the chance to meet you in person, however, we understand it's not always possible to make time in your busy lives.

If you have any other suggestions on how we can improve your experience with our site or feedback on how to make our workshops better, please email journalism@sacramentopress.com.

Interviewing Techniques workshop April 15

2009-04-14T21:10:50Z

For those of you who missed our first Interviewing Techniques workshop, given by Sactown Magazine's Senior Editor, Martin Kuz, we'll be having another one on Wednesday, April 15 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Molly Dugan, an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Communication Studies at Sacramento State, will discuss how to tailor your interviews toward articles that you would be writing for Sacramento Press. Attendees will learn the art of interviewing and the types of articles that work best for our site.

We'll serve food at 6:30 p.m. and the workshop will start at 6:45 p.m.

Our office is located at 431 I Street, Suite 107 in the Amtrak station. We are in the same building complex as the Starbucks. If you are facing Starbucks, go around the building to the left and you'll see our Sac Press sign out front.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges $1.50 per half hour and we cannot cover the cost of parking. If you take light rail, we will give you two passes when you get here -- one to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back.

Please RSVP by e-mailing colleen@sacramentopress.com.

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Sacramento Press workshop gets community writing

2009-04-10T05:19:43Z

Ballpoint pens wiggled, keyboards clicked and seven community members fought writer's block during the Intro to Journalism and Article Composition workshop at the Sacramento Press office Thursday evening.

Holly Heyser, faculty adviser for The State Hornet and professional journalist in residence for the Communication Studies Department at Sacramento State University, was on hand to help writers develop their stories and flesh them out onto paper.

Attendees brought ideas such as how to get a motorcycle license, what it's like to be a delegate for the Democratic National Convention, the Assembly bill that would legalize marijuana and the positive aspects of RT, among others.

Heyser gave basic advice about writing news stories and tailoring them to the Sacramento Press. She stressed the importance of good grammar, accuracy and breaking up your story into simple, easy-to-understand sentences and short paragraphs.

The headline and lead should also grab the reader's attention. Depending on the way your headline is worded, you might attract some people who are just searching on Google, according to Heyser, and even better, they might keep coming back to the blog or website.

Heyser also encouraged people to read their articles out loud after writing them.

As the workshop ended, participants walked away with stories in hand and the story-writing process know-how.

If you were unable to attend this workshop and would like to receive the powerpoint presentation, please e-mail journalism@sacramentopress.com.

A farewell to comrades

2009-03-29T23:20:44Z

Some 50 or so people gathered Friday night at Bee reporter Ed Fletcher's East Sac home to say farewell to a couple dozen of the reporters, graphic designers, photographers and editors who were let go during The Bee's most recent staff cuts, this time through layoffs. For most, Friday was their last day.

So you will not see the names of many wonderful reporters and photographers in the paper from here on out, and there will be little notice in The Bee's pages themselves. Melissa Nix, Chris Bowman, Florence Low, Brian Baer, Robert Faturechi, Walt Yost, Marty McNeal, Jennifer Morita, Bob Walter, Quwan Spears, Scottt Howard-Cooper, Sandy Louey, Ramon Coronado, Charles Waltmire, Brian Ching, Rachel Leibrock and Rachael Bogert...all gone.

But there are names you never, or rarely, saw in the paper, of people who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure that stories read well or business ran smoothly: Yvonne McKinney, DeWitt Russell, Kim Rutledge, Chad Jones, Randy Allen, Scott Lorenzo, Shahryar Ahmad, Brian Daly, Terry Dvorak, Debbie Meredith and George Costenbader.

And then there was Marco.

Marco Smolich was - I don't even know what his title was, but he was indispensible. Marco knew stuff. Lots of different stuff. If your computer was malfunctioning, he knew what to do, or who to call. If you needed help with your HOME computer, he knew what to do. If some editor was driving you crazy, he could explain why. But more than that, the guy was - is, he is not dead, after all - funny as hell. And his wit came in part from the fact that he knew more about what was going on in the newsroom - and saw it for the bittersweet human comedy it was - than most or any of the reporters he was tasked with assisting.

As someone pointed out Friday evening, Marco was the guy who gave newcomers the tour of the building and explained how things REALLY worked. He had a great sense of humor, knew who you could trust and who you couldn't, and was the best source for news inside Sacramento's "most-trusted" news source.

It's hard to imagine him not there. Imagining The Bee without Marco Smolich is...well, it's like not having The Bee itself. But then, that's the big story, isn't it?

More than that, Marco, like George Costenbader, Bob Walter, Walt Yost, Debbie Meredith and many others, was at The Bee most of his career, or at least seemed to be. They literally spent their lives at the paper, and when the paper couldn't pay them anymore, that was that. And that is one of the subtext's of the events of the last few years at the paper: long careers with established employers are going the way of the newpaper itself. That's painful to many, this cultural sea change, and it was a subject of much conversation Friday night.

Marco wasn't at Ed's party, which was a shame. It was a great party, of course - the esprit de corps of Bee reporters is legendary - but it was also a sad occasion, as people spoke about their work at The Bee, and what the future might hold. And they worried quietly about each other.

Those conversations were, of course, off the record, and will remain so. But I could not let the occasion pass without one more mention of the passion for journalism of the people who until Friday helped create it in this town. That passion will survive, whether or not they find another newspaper job. Whether The Bee will survive their loss is an open question. They're cutting into muscle now. But let the record show that the people who made the paper cared about it right up until the end.

As I was leaving the party well after midnight, a night shift partying on into the early morning hours, huddled against the cold but unwilling to part ways, I saw a pile of front page mock-ups honoring a number of the editorial employees who had worked their last shift Friday afternoon. I shot the above photos of those mock-ups and now post them (with apologies to whoever made them, please comment for credit) with the idea that these people, like the hundreds who preceded them out the door, deserve more honor than was given them at The Bee.

We will miss them, even those of us who never knew them. Good luck to each and every one.

Local Author Releases New Book

2009-03-24T22:49:57Z

The publishing world today is awash with inflated egos and literary limitations. Also, when one decides to become a writer (which is a career requiring much dedication), the crooks come out of the woodwork like roaches feeding on sugar.

Every kind of scam is available for the unsuspecting would-be author, from publishers that take your money and disappear, to others who tell you one price up front and load the back end with nonsense costs that are rarely affordable, leaving the writer with a product he or she can’t sell.

I’m not going to load this article with the names and locations of the many scammers I have been bombarded with after finishing my first novel, but I am going to submit for the reader’s approval, the product of my many months of work and let you judge for yourself if I made the right choice.

The best advice I can give any local author waiting to be discovered is join a group like The California Writer’s Club. The Sacramento Branch of the California Writers Club is one of 17 branches located throughout California. The Sacramento Branch has monthly luncheon meetings at 11:00 a.m. the 3rd Saturday of every month, except July, August, and December, and members receive the Write On! Newsletter, published every month except July, August and December.

Now I have written several different large papers as an analyst for the state, many articles for this publication and for other monthly magazines, and a myriad of short stories. This is my first venture into fiction.

"The Measure of a Man" is the story of Neal Archer, a former Marine intelligence operator in the Persian Gulf conflicts. He is now working for a private intelligence think tank run by his old operational control officer, retired Marine Colonel Kingston Roberts. But this think tank does more than analyze data. They secretly conduct covert operations for friendly countries that cannot be associated with such activities, providing those countries with plausible deniability.

The feedback so far has been sparse, because the promotional aspects of writing don't lend themselves well to the author. But, I have chosen to take it upon myself to do just that: promote my own book.

Anyone who is interested in a copy may get one from my website, www.fdcrandallwriter.com, and, in a matter of three to four weeks, they will be able to order it from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Borders.com.

If you have a book in you, a subject of much discussion as many believe that we all have at least one book in us waiting to be written, then make sure that you find a mentor, a person who has done it before you, and learn everything you can from them. Publishing is cruel venture that leaves marks from every rejection on the writer’s soul.

The future of news

2009-03-23T05:45:51Z

Newspapers are in peril. There is very little doubt about that, and if you are somehow doubting that, I point you to last week’s news that the revenues of the world’s most-read newspaper, USA Today, are likely down year over year 30%. Aside from industry-wide declining revenues, last week also saw the closure of the Rocky Mountain Post News and the end of the print edition of the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

From these events a heated discussion was born. What is the future of news, and if newspapers are heading the way of the Dodo, who will report the news? The goal of this storyline is to address those very serious questions, especially from a local news angle. Over the course of the next few weeks I intend on exploring, in great detail, the nature of the problem, how it affects our local news and eventually why the sky is not, in fact, falling.

In this process I want to present opinions from many perspectives, but I want to be very clear that I do not see a future for printed media delivered each day to millions of homes covering a wide variety of general interest stories. This is of course an editorial, and that is my perspective. With this loss I don’t see an end to the reporting and journalism that is vital to our society.

This optimism may cause some to inform me that I should put my money where my mouth is. In this regard I have already gladly obliged. I am the editor in chief of this publication, and the co-founder of Castle Press L.L.C., the company that publishes it. With that company and this publication I have done exactly what many critics have suggested someone with my viewpoint do – take action.

While publications and companies may fall, the news never dies. Quality analysis and reporting no more requires printing presses and the companies that run them, than transportation requires horses, buggies and the companies that bred and manufactured them.

To do this I plan on addressing the problem by discussing these points:

What we stand to lose in terms of information, by precisely recording stats from one week of the Bee.
What the current business model of newspapers is and how this can be covered online. A general overview will be given as well as a close look at the Bee specifically.
What do we lose in terms of the medium itself, paper, and what are the options: paper, computer screen and ePaper/eInk.
Our vision of the future incorporating all the points made in the previous articles and discussing the role of citizen journalism

This is a contentious issue and I would love to have the feedback of our readership to help me shape this storyline and how it is written. Please share your comments below and do your homework by reading some of the opinions that are currently out there, as linked to below.

Clay Shirky, Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Morford, Die, Newspapers, Die?
Steve Johnson, Old Growth Media and the Future of News
Dave Winer, If you don’t like the news

Sactown magazine senior editor gives interviewing workshop

2009-03-21T00:15:49Z

Experienced journalists, students, photographers and community members delved into the art and science of interviewing during the Interviewing Techniques workshop given Thursday at the Sacramento Press office.

Martin Kuz, Senior Editor from Sactown magazine provided an in-depth approach to interviewing. Kuz has been a journalist for 15 years and has worked for alternative weekly and daily publications such as the Los Angeles Daily News, the Cleveland Scene, the Las Vegas Sun and has also been a staff writer for SF Weekly. He has won awards for a variety of stories, including a profile on Golden State Warriors coach Don Nelson, the U.S. Military's reluctance to divulge details on non-combat deaths in Iraq and an investigation into the hardball legal tactics of Wal-Mart.

The workshop covered pre-interview preparation, during-the-interview techniques, and post-interview tips to make sure you get the most out of the time you have with your subject. Kuz shared his experience interviewing Mayor Kevin Johnson, Darrell Steinberg, and even a pedophile and the victim and family.

Attendees enjoyed food from the L Wine Lounge and Urban Kitchen. Many of the people who came for the workshop were former journalists and were looking to get back into writing.

Our next workshop will be held on Tuesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. It is perfect for those of you who have been intimidated or hesitant to post on our site. Geoff Samek, our editor-in-chief, will go over how to get the most out of the tools on our website. You can bring articles that you've been wanting to publish. If you have had any problems with our website, we can address and resolve them.

We will be serving food at 6:30 p.m. and will start the workshop at 6:45 p.m.

We hope to see you next week at our office, which is located at 431 I Street, Suite 107 in the Amtrak station. Please RSVP to colleen@sacramentopress.com.

Interviewing Techniques workshop March 19th

2009-03-16T05:34:54Z

Don't miss out on our next workshop, Interviewing Techniques, which will be held this Thursday, March 19, from 6:30 - 8 p.m.

Stephen Magagnini will be leading an interactive workshop on how to make the most out of interviews, which will help to improve the quality of your writing, whether it be for school, Sacramento Press or your career.

Magagnini has taught journalism, advanced composition, investigative reporting and narrative writing at UC Davis.

He continues to teach professional journalists how to do their jobs better as part of USC's Institute for Justice and Journalism and Health Journalism Fellowships, and the American Press Institute's seminars on compelling writing.

He's been teaching professionals for many years, and has done so at Columbia, Poynter, Harvard and USC. Arlene Morgan of Columbia University has called him “one of the finest teachers of beat reporting in the country,” and in 2001 Columbia gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award “for outstanding coverage of race and ethnicity in America.”

His stories have won numerous local, state and national awards, and his work appears in the anthologies Best Newspaper Writing 2001 and 2002.

We'll be serving food promptly at 6:30 p.m., and the workshop will start at 6:45 p.m., ending around 8 p.m.

Our office is located at 431 I Street, Suite 107 in the Amtrak Station. The parking spaces are not free, so try and find street parking if you can. If you are able to take light rail to our office, we will have passes to give you. We'll give you two - one to cover your ride here and one to cover your ride back.

Please RSVP by e-mailing colleen@sacramentopress.com, so we know how many people to expect.

This article was written by Colleen Belcher of The Sacramento Press.

Sacramento Union stops publication

2009-03-10T22:07:21Z

After two and a half years in its latest incarnation as a weekly news magazine, the Sacramento Union has ceased publication once again.

In a statement to Union readers, editor-in-chief James Dutra blamed the closure on "the difficulties so many local businesses are encountering," likely a reference to the economic hardships imposed by the global recession.

The closure of the Union comes amidst news of further cuts and layoffs at the Sacramento Bee, fueling concern among newspaper employees over the industry's future.

The Union, which was originally founded in 1851, was published as a daily newspaper until its closure in 1994. When it resumed operations in 2006, it was a changed publication. Eschewing the traditional daily paper format that had proven uncompetitive against the Bee, the new Union was published as a free weekly news magazine, much like the Sacramento News & Review.

For much of its history, the Union was regarded as a conservative news source. From 1977 to 1989 it was owned by billionaire publisher Richard Mellon Scaife, a member and financier for many conservative organizations, like the Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institute. More recently, the Union was edited by Joseph Farah, who would later found World Net Daily, a rightward-leaning news and commentary website.

The Sacramento Bee's crisis of relevance

2009-03-10T01:49:00Z

The Sunday, March 1, edition of the Sacramento Bee, included an article written by publisher Cheryl Dell entitled "It's not a lack of readers, it's a lack of advertising." The gist of the article was that despite the Bee's growing readership, advertising revenue has fallen, forcing the paper to reevaluate its business model. While it's never a bad idea to revisit policies when times get tough, I don't think Dell's column went far enough to acknowledge one of the biggest albatrosses hanging around the Bee's neck : the McClatchy Company.

I'm not trying to demonize McClatchy. The problem is that as a profit-seeking business, McClatchy has institutionally different goals and definitions of success than do its subordinate parts, including the Bee. McClatchy is a profit-seeking corporate entity, but the Bee is a member of our cherished free press, an institution enshrined in the Constitution and fundamental to our civil society. And though the Bee should be a civil servant in the best sense of the term, its expensive investigative reporting is going to create natural conflicts with McClatchy's profit motivation, beyond corporate editorial pressures.

For starters, consider that many papers nationwide, McClatchy-owned or not, are profitable in and of themselves but were required to make drastic cuts because their corporate owners incurred too much debt too quickly to maintain their business expansions. While the Bee may not itself be profitable, it is hard to believe that the paper has been so hammered by the recession that it had no choice but to eliminate half its staff and cut valuable inches from the printed edition. Not when its parent company, McClatchy, has watched its stock price drop from $74.50 in 2005 to $0.41 today. Sacramento's primary news source is suffering because McClatchy can no longer make the payments on its purhase of Knight-Ridder.

Consider also that though it is a sound business decision to save money by adopting corporation-wide platforms and standards, it undermines the ability of a newspaper to acknowledge and embrace its city’s character. Instead of a newspaper tailored to the unique interests and values of Sacramento, we readers are treated to mostly the same diluted content as other McClatchy readers. This is especially evident with McClatchy's web properties. Given an amazing and infinitely malleable digital distribution medium, Sacbee.com is a bland pixel-for-pixel rehash of McClatchy’s Charlotte Observer. Blank out locations and names, and you could not tell California from North Carolina.

Another sound business decision is to drop expensive original reporting in favor of cheaper, already-ubiquitous feeds. These days, there are more ways to receive an AP news feed than there are AP stories, and the same is true of nationally syndicated columns. Unfortunately, the Bee does neither itself nor its readership any favors by reprinting what is already widely available and eliminating what it alone can provide: local news, local opinions, a broad and diverse forum for community discourse, and public scrutiny of local powers.

A strong Bee would measure itself in its relevance to Sacramento, not its contribution to McClatchy’s share price. This means cutting back on wire and syndication reprints in favor of a renewed focus on local stories and local issues. This means celebrating life in Sacramento. This means redesigning the paper to reflect Sacramento’s unique character. This means prioritizing investigative pieces. Where advertising is concerned, this means pushing advertising quality over quantity and providing more column inches than ads.

As we've seen, good journalism can be severely undermined by the pressures of profits. If a for-profit business model is failing the Bee (and by extension, Sacramento), perhaps the paper should be excised from its corporate parent and given new life under a business model that would let it get back to journalism. That's something Cheryl Dell ought to consider.

New layoffs at The Bee: Who?

2009-03-09T22:49:48Z

Just one work day after union members voted to accept wage cuts and layoffs to postpone even more cuts, The Sacramento Bee started laying off some 128 employees in editorial and other departments Monday morning.

Among the names of those getting pink slips today were pop music writer Rachel Leibrock and sports writer Martin McNeal, as well as general assignment reporters Ramon Coronado, Melissa Nix, Walt Yost, sports writer Scott Howard-Cooper, and photographers Brian Baer and Florence Low. And for virtually the first time since the paper started shedding positions nearly three years ago, there were editors among the casualties.

Also leaving are IT wunderkind and newsroom gadfly Marco Smolich, and longtime newsroom aide George Costenbader.

Coming after the departures of some 65 newsroom employees over the last year through buyouts and attrition, the layoffs further weaken The Bee's news-gathering operation, bringing the editorial staff down to 190.

A number of positions are also being eliminated in advertising and the classified call center, as well as a graphic artist, an ad assistant and three people in the IT department. Other jobs in the packaging center are also being eliminated.

Early waves of departures have come over the last three years, after buy-out packages were offered to a range of names such as Bob Sylva, R.E. Graswich, Janet Fullwood and other name writers. The cuts have accelerated in the past year: The Bee's Dale Kasler reported today that the paper has cut 301 jobs since last June, about a quarter of its staff. But unlike earlier rounds, this one featured little to soften the blow.

There could have been even more layoffs, if the Guild members hadn't voted to accept the company's latest conditions: 3 to 6 percent salary cuts, and a week's unpaid furlough, and freezes in pension contributions and 401k matching contributions. Accepting those conditions allowed management to keep 19 other employees on, at least for now.

According to today's Bee, the news department is losing 29 union and non-union workers, or nearly 13 percent. That brings the total of newsroom jobs shed over the last year to about a quarter of the original 250 employees. Parent company McClatchy is laying off 1600 employees, or 15 percent of its work force.

There's no guarantee that this will be the end. With McClatchy's stock under fifty cents a share today (down from a high of $77), the future of the company looks bleak.

It could have been worse. The Rocky Mountain News recently stopped publishing entirely, and both the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the San Francisco Chronicle are apparently weeks or even days away from doing the same.

Ed Fletcher, a Bee reporter and shop steward for the Newspaper Guild's unit at the paper, said in an email that he didn't want to release the names of those being laid off yet, out of respect for their feelings.

But because they are, many of them, public figures whose departure is a loss to Sacramento, their names should be mentioned. So here, pieced together from different sources, is a list of the names of people said to be laid off today at The Sacramento Bee. If you heard other, or different, names, please comment below. Note that these are only half of the people being let go today.

Melissa Nix

Martin McNeal

Quwan Spears

Brian Baer

Florence Low

Rachel Leibrock

Terry Dvorak

Walt Yost

George Costenbader

Yvonne McKinney

Robert Faturechi

Scott Howard-Cooper

Rachael Bogert

Marco Smolich

Debbie Meredith

Chad Jones

Jennifer Morita

Ramon Coronado

Sac Press ethics workshop covers libel, blogs, disclosure

2009-02-26T08:13:19Z

Just under 20 people gathered in a semi circle at the Sacramento Press's office to listen to a Journalism Ethics workshop on Wednesday night. Molly Dugan, assistant professor of journalism and communication studies at Sac State, led the workshop.

Participants enjoyed pizza and salad from Hot Italian and mingled with other professionals from various media organizations.

Dugan covered the basics of libel, public figures, honesty, accuracy and disclosure when writing articles. She encouraged writers to utilize public records and disclose their connection with the story - whether it be revealing that they have made a donation to the political candidate they are writing about in an article, or that they are married to a city official if it relates to the topic being written about.

She shared many of her own experiences as newspaper reporter and discussed the ethical implications of undercover investigative journalism.

Dugan also covered ethical writing in blogs, explaining that the same rules apply to personal blogs as news articles.

Two attendees tweeted the workshop as it unfolded, making the content available to all of those followers who weren't able to make it that evening.

The Sacramento Press will be holding many more workshops. We'll be sending out information soon for the next workshop in March. If you have any suggestions for future workshops, please e-mail journalism@sacramentopress.com

Thanks to those who came out to the Journalism Ethics workshop last night!

Free journalism ethics workshop

2009-02-18T06:06:50Z

Are you looking for an excuse to come meet the staff of the Sacramento Press? Come join us for our next workshop on Feb. 25th from 6:30-8 p.m.

Molly Dugan, an assistant professor of journalism and communication studies at Sac State, will be leading the workshop on Journalism and Ethics. She'll be discussing how ethics come into play when we write and publish articles.

We'll be serving food and drinks at our office.

Our last workshop had a fantastic turnout, with more than 30 people in attendance. We'll continue to hold more workshops covering a variety of topics. If you have any suggestions for future workshops, please send them to colleen@sacramentopress.com or comment below.

We look forward to seeing you next Wednesday! Please RSVP to Colleen at colleen@sacramentopress.com so we can have a good idea of how many people will be showing up to the workshop.

Our office is located at 431 I Street, Suite 107, inside the Amtrak Station. We have light rail passes for those who use RT; we'll give you two passes when you get here. One will be to cover your trip here and one to cover your trip back. Give us a call if you have any trouble finding the office, 916-443-5403.

Sac Press holds writer's workshop

2009-02-05T07:59:52Z

About 30 people gathered in the Sacramento Press office Feb. 2 and learned how to convert everyday events in their lives into compelling news stories.

The workshop was given by Holly Heyser, professional journalist in residence at Sacramento State and adviser to The State Hornet newspaper.

The focus of the workshop was on helpful guidelines for how to turn ideas into news articles and how to find topics that are newsworthy.

Heyser also went over the foundations of journalism and writing in general.

The night started out with food for participants and introductions to some of the Sacramento Press staff.

As everyone finished socializing, they sat down to start the workshop. Heyser asked participants to suggest as many topics as they possibly could to turn into stories.

A lot of people were surprised to find out things that they found interesting could develop into a solid news story. Many people came up with worthy topics such as the bird problem at the Sacramento International Airport, the closure of local elementary schools and the rainy weather that is approaching for the weekend.

Before she got into how to get started with an article, Heyser went over how to back up stories with hard facts and the rules that go along with including facts and quotations. At about 7:55 p.m. Heyser wrapped up the workshop and took open questions. Geoff Samek the editor in chief/co-founder of Sacramento Press, also answered questions.

Everyone then gathered toward the front of the office for more socializing with Heyser and the staff.

Free journalism workshop

2009-01-26T00:02:11Z

We are now in our fourth month of operation, and we are happy to see the growing number of community members writing for our site. I'm sure there are many of you who have been reading but are hesitant to post your own story.

You may feel like you aren't a good enough writer, or you may not know what you should be writing about. Whatever the reason may be for you not writing, we'd love to get you to change your mind by attending our next workshop.

The next scheduled workshop, titled Intro to Journalism, will take place from 6:30-8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3.  Holly Heyser, a journalism professor at Sacramento State, will be discussing how to discover news in your everyday life and how to go about making it into an article.  We will have food for dinner, so bring your appetite for food and news.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107 at the Amtrak Station. If you take Light Rail, we will give you two free passes to cover your ride to the office and back.  Please tell anyone who may be interested in learning more about our site and journalism in general.  We look forward to meeting new faces and hopefully many future writers!

This article was written by Colleen Belcher. Colleen is the Journalism Support Manager at The Sacramento Press.

Inside out-sourcing

2009-01-08T22:49:40Z

It’s one thing to read in the local paper about the outsourcing of jobs abroad, to India, to the Philippines, and it’s quite another thing to have it happen to you. And if you happen to work for the local paper, well...

The Sacramento Bee, under enormous fiscal pressure, is finding some unique ways to cut costs, from offering buy-outs to a hefty percentage of the people who write and edit the paper, to outsourcing the work of the people who design advertising, and currently, to the people who have, for decades, kept track of where the money goes.

The money is going to India. That’s the big story. It doesn’t seem right, but it adds up for The Bee’s parent company, McClatchy, which is desperate to avoid sinking out of sight altogether as its stock price plummets and circulation drops at its newspapers. The logic of the market is brutal.

But the little story is sadder, and more interesting, and it’s happening right here in midtown Sacramento, just blocks from where I write. Right now, a handful of eager young Indians from the city of Jaipur are getting the chance of a lifetime: They are spending their days at 21st and Q Streets, learning how to do the jobs of people who live in Sacramento, people who, come March 1 or thereabouts, will join the ranks of the local unemployed.

I spoke with Lanny Shay, a Bee employee for the last 18 years, who is currently doing the appalling task of training the people who will soon take his job back to India.

We could discuss the rightness or wrongness of this, but Shay himself says he understands the financial logic. And we could talk about the money that McClatchy is saving, and thereby, perhaps, saving our hometown newspaper. We could talk about the money that Shay and his soon-to-be-former co-workers will NOT be spending at the Tower Theatre and the Co-op and the Pine Cove and Cafe Bernardo and perhaps even on things advertised in The Bee’s shrinking classifieds.

Instead, we’ll just let Shay - who says he has a masters degree in finance from Stanford - talk for a bit about what he is seeing, and feeling, as he presides over his own obsolescence.

Basically, you have to train the person who’s taking your job. So if you do everything that’s asked of you, work long hours, do overtime, the best you can hope for is...you lose your job. My manager is trying to keep that in mind, but I think they lose sight of that. It’s weird.

I work in finance, accounting. On Sept. 14, they called six of us in and explained that the jobs were being outsourced to India. Our jobs are going to Jaipur. They’re jobs as finance clerk, accounting clerk, credit clerk, it’s a smattering of positions. All six people whose jobs are going do different things.

First, in mid-November, we had a number of people come to do discovery, to lay out the mapping of the jobs, what the jobs are, what they entail, how they’re done. Then, in December, the people who are going to be doing the jobs, or will be training the people in India who will be doing the jobs, came for 3-5 weeks. There were four the first time, and four or five of them the second time.

They’re all very young - the average age is, I’d say, 23. The project manager I have less interaction with, she’s early 30s, but the others are young. They actually are pretty rural. I don’t know what level of education they have, but none of them has a car or can drive, most of them live at home with their families, and at least one had the equivalent of a CPA. I’m guessing that some might have college degrees, but I don’t know.

They speak great English. Their written English is kinda stilted, but it’s far better than my Hindi will ever be. All they do is work. They’re staying in a Residence Inn or something somewhere outside of midtown, and every morning they show up at The Bee, then work with us the whole day, then they stay until 7 or 8 at night, after we’ve left, and then they cab back to the hotel. And I have the distinct impression that they work until they go to sleep. This group has been here for five weeks, and one or two weekends they may have gotten out to SF or Tahoe, but mostly, they work. I don’t know how much they’ll make for doing our jobs in India.

It’s frustrating, there are communication issues. They’re exceedingly polite, and totally avoid conflict, which is a cultural thing. There are times when you have to push them, and often, you have to stop and say, “Repeat what I just told you.” Because they’ll act as though they understand, even if they don’t. But they’re really nice kids, and work really hard.

At some point, there’s going to be some sort of anger about it, but at this point, we’re still working. I’m certainly not mad at the kids from India, this is probably the best chance they’ve had for a job, and it’s not their fault that it’s taking my job away. And realistically, it’s not my bosses’ fault either, I think my boss feels terrible about it. One of the people who is being replaced has been there more than 40 years. I’ve been there 18. Someone else has been there 26.

So, who do you get angry at? I haven’t really figured that out yet. It’s bad that it has to happen during the worst economy in 60 years, but it’s just one of those things. It’s just the way America works now. The people who make bad decisions that effect hundreds or thousands of lives pay no price at all for making those decisions. For all the talk of the “culture of responsibility,” we’re at the point where you can do everything right and potentially lose everything. And you can make disastrous decisions and retire with a $30 million golden parachute.

There have been times in the past when I thought I could work somewhere else and get paid more, but I like living and working downtown, and The Bee’s been here for 150 years. I figured that if I got to work every day and did a good job, I’d retire comfortably. Now we’re at the point where, is anyone’s job safe? I don’t know this for a fact, but if this outsourcing is successful, other things at The Bee that can be outsourced, will be outsourced.

They’ve outsourced circulation customer service, they’ve outsourced the classified phone bank, and now us. Which is funny, because the thing we had that craigslist didn’t have was really good customer service. So what did we do to compete with craigslist? We gave away customer service! To me, that doesn’t make a whole lotta sense.

Supposedly, March 1 will be the date we turn everything over. The people go back to India, they ramp up and start doing more and more of the work, and then I’m checking it to make sure it’s alright from my side, and then I’m out of a job. In a really horrible economy. But I can collect unemployment, I have skills, and they’re giving us severance packages. But I never thought I’d have to look for work.

And the sad part is, I believe in newspapers. I believe that there’s a good reason why freedom of the press is in the First Amendment and the right to bear arms is in the Second. I believe in media telling the truth to power. And watching the industry sink is really sad. As much as I love Huffington Post and Real Clear Politics, I take with a grain of salt everything I read on the web. I don’t see how websites can compete with real newspapers doing real journalism. Maybe it’s the permanency of ink: It’s real. If you put it on your blog and it’s wrong, you delete it and it’s like it was never said. I don’t know if the effort to get it right is there in electronic media the way it is, or was, in print media.

But I guess we’ll see.

What makes Sacramento Press Great, An open letter to the editors and contributers

2009-01-03T20:07:17Z

Since the beginning I have been in a guarded state of well being since the creation of this format. An information via that brings usable and more important constructive data to me for my daily life. No school shooters mug plastered all over the front page raising my concerns that copy cat horrors might emulate from the daily fishwrap. Very little politico dogma and best of all hope for the future. For me this works and I am slowly getting addicted to what is happening here. Guarded as it is as I know todays reality and journalistic code is you must somehow shock your reader to attention. The gossip,scandal, blood and guts are designed to hypnotize its readers this bike advocate thinks.

Thus we have very few solutions to mans problems rising to the top.

So my open letter to the Sacramento Press is simply keep doing what your doing and try and refrain from the daily horrors of life on our mudball.

We need all the optimism we can get so leave the muckracking to that other media.

Yours truly,

John Boyer

What should I write about?

2008-12-17T23:38:52Z

OK, here's a big question, one that stops everyone at some point, even veterans:

What should I write about? What's "interesting"? And there are other questions: Is this story too small? Too big? Not local enough? TOO local?

We're feeling our way on this one, but we've been very specific that this is about The Grid, the central city, midtown/downtown. (BTW, I'm not that keen on the midtown/downtown distinction, because they're such vague areas. A map I once saw in the Bee had the line demarcating the two meandering all over the Grid, making hash of the distinction. So let's just call it "downtown" or the Grid, eh? And don't get me started on the whole "Handle District" or "SoCap" thing ... that's marketing, pure and simple.)

We want reporting on what's happening in this little 806 square block of heaven and hell known increasingly, if not universally, as the Grid. Because that's what it is, a grid, and one of the great beauties of it is that it is so well-defined. Though I've heard people extend the Grid into East Sac, and past Broadway into the inner suburbs like Curtis and Land Parks, the Grid is very well defined. And that's a good thing. We've got two freeways and two rivers hemming us in, and that gives us something to push up against. We should keep it well-defined, in the same ways that San Francisco and Manhattan are "hemmed in,' and Los Angeles is not. Limits are a good thing, they literally "define" something.

I focus first on the geography because Sacramento is a place more than, say, an idea. In fact, the idea of Sacramento is rather dull: Capital city. Zzzz. I grew up in the suburbs and lemme tell ya, that was not an inspiring idea then, and it still isn't.

However, the reality is much more interesting than the idea. Sacramento, the place is, in a word, cool. Yeah, that's right. No, it's not New York, but it's also not Albany, NY, or Salem, Oregon. (Austin? C'mon, be fair...) But people who come here from other places - unless those other places are Chicago or SF or other much larger cities - are struck by Sacramento's complexity and depth.

After all, Sacramento is one of the most diverse cities in the US, and thus, in the world. We have a new African American mayor, who follows a Latino mayor and a female mayor, and they represent us well. We have thriving communities that are almost cartoonishly diverse. My street in the grid, on the south side, is home to Chinese immigrants, Indian shopkeepers, gay couples, a mahjong parlor, dive bars, several Burners (denizens of Burning Man) and more than one drug dealer. And a Latino family of four, and a Vietnamese family of three. And musicians. Musicians everywhere.

Sacramento is diverse in every way, and the Grid squares that (pun intended). My point is this: Every single one of those people has a story. Some of those stories are old - my ancient Chinese neighbors came here in 1969, escaping Communist China, and still barely speak a word of English - but others are as fresh as daily headlines: One neighborhood house has seven guys living “halfway” to somewhere, and there’s an art gallery - wait, now there are two - just down the street. We used to have a record label two blocks down (they moved to nicer Digs), and we’ve got a cigar store that is all the way Cuban. There used to be an all-local-rap radio station next door.

These are ALL stories. They’re too small for The Bee. But they’re perfect for us. We’re interested in the Capitol and its craziness, but we’re not at this point equiped to cover that (on the other hand, if you're in the Capitol, we'd love to hear from you). But the above stories, and so many more, are instantly available to us.

Or rather, to YOU. It is you who will tell these stories, and the more that are told, and linked to each other, the more we will create a crazy quilt of cross-referenced stories that will reinforce each other, and teach us about each other.

And there is no story too small for SacramentoPress.com. In fact, as a new writer, you're more likely to go too big, to be too inclusive. My advice: Forget trying to cover the waterfront (unless you've found a very interesting part of the waterfront); just tell a simple story. You'll find that even the smallest story isn't all that simple, and as you build it, and post it, others may have aspects of the story to add.

This is another remarkable part of what this site can do: Every story is potentially just the start, not the end, of any story. When I used to write a story for The Bee, I'd cover it the best I could, then it would be published, and that was that. If someone called to add something to the story, as often happened, I had no way to update the story. That's changed, even at The Bee, but at SacramentoPress.com, that's our bread-and-butter. Every single reader has the opportunity to add something to the story, and that, again, is the essence of the Storyline. Stories do not end just because a reporter stopped reporting, and wrote it. Life goes on, and SacramentoPress.com captures that ongoing story.

Start the conversation!

Editing a new kind of newspaper

2008-12-17T23:13:08Z

As the Managing Editor of SacramentoPress.com, and a life-long journalist of more than 30 years, I thought I should start a storyline about what I'm trying to do here. My purpose is to get feedback, and to give you, the potential or current contributor, and above all, to give MYSELF, some idea of what's going on with SacramentoPress.com. Despite my experience as a writer for The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento (and other) magazines, my own blog and with stints at radio, this is as new for me as it is for everyone else.

Because this is NEW. The internet is not yet a generation old, blogging far newer. And journalism - well, what is that? Our Thursday, Dec. 18 workshop will answer that, in part, but let me try to demystify it a bit for you, especially in context of SacramentoPress.com. Because while we use the word "press," your laptop is the press. There are no big - and we're talking BIG - presses like those that cost The Sacramento Bee so much money to run. There is no paper, though founders Ben and Geoff routinely refer to the press as "the paper."

So what is this? It's not a "paper"; that’s just a convenient metaphor. SacramentoPress.com is something new. It's contributor-driven, amateur in the best sense of the word (for the love of doing it) and, especially as we get more and more people contributing, self-edited. There is no way that Editor-in-Chief Geoff Samek or I can edit everything that goes on this site, and that will become even more true as the readers/contributors grow in number, as you already have significantly, in just a month.

So, how to get a handle on this thing? As I see it, the essence of what drove newspapers into existence two centuries ago, and continues to drive the news, is very simple: STORIES. We love to hear stories, to tell stories, we tell each other stories all day long, just as we tell ourselves stories as we live our lives. These stories range from purely factual (and possibly even accurate) to fantastical. Along with Geoff and Ben, I’d love to see SacramentoPress.com become a repository of stories about this central city, where there is so much going on, against a backdrop of so much history, and with so many unimaginable things yet to come.

Stories boil down to people. "Who?" is always the first in the old cliche who-what-when-where-how (and why). Yes, the trees are beautiful, the architecture rich and sometimes grand, the art and music compelling at times. But it’s always the people who make Sacramento what it is, and that should always be our focus. Good people, bad people, and as often as possible, interesting people.

Regarding journalism and how that applies at SacramentoPress.com, amateur as it is, the main thing that it boils down to is what journalists call “reporting.” You’ll all heard the word, and everyone knows that journalists are “reporters.” But what does it mean?

It means that, above all, your responsibility as a reporter for SacramentoPress.com - self-assigned though you may be - is always to find out what is, to the best of your knowledge, true. What was actually said, what was actually done, where and when did it actually happen? In blogging, it’s too easy to just go straight to the WHY - you’ve got a theory about why trees are being cut down, why drug dealers are suddenly in an apartment complex, why a developer is building in this spot rather than that spot - but if you post accurate information, you empower every reader who comes after you to add more, to build something true, together. Something that will literally serve the entire community, in ways you can’t even imagine now. Perhaps even years down the line. But it has to be TRUE.

How do you know it’s true? Best is to see it with your own eyes, though even that’s not foolproof. Next best is to talk to someone who saw it themselves, and better still, two or three people who did. You do this every day, in things that matter to you. So, write about things that matter to you.

And if you get to a point where you don’t know something - and that is devoutly to be hoped for, because when you have to learn something, then you’re really going somewhere - you need to call someone. You may not know what you need to know, but someone else does, and more often than not, they’re happy to tell you. And they’ll tell you something that you didn’t know, and it may well be something completely contrary to what you thought you’d find. And that’s when it really gets good.

OK, that’s enough for now. I’ll be posting more, in part to give you a break, and also to give you a demo on how storylines work. And to get myself better at it. Because I’m just a step or two ahead of you...

Writing format and style

2008-12-07T01:25:13Z

Format and writing style is about more than just looks. How you format your writing might make the difference between people reading your article or passing it by.

One of the trickiest parts of news writing is keeping things brief and to the point.

Stylistically this means paragraphs that don't exceed two sentences. While it seems excessive, if you read any major newspaper you will realize that this rule is nearly universal.

By adding whitespace an article seems more readable; huge paragraphs deter readers.

Good grammar, spelling and punctuation, is another important part of having your work read. Proofread your work, or have another person proofread it.

If you have no one to proofread your work we, at The Sacramento Press, will proofread your work for you. To do this, simply send us your article at journalism@sacramentopress.com.

We will edit your work and send you the edited version. Our goal is not to change your message, just to make it the best version of your work possible.

There are many more style guidelines that we abide by here at The Sacramento Press and in the next update I will post a list of the most important of those guidelines.

Free food, first Sac Press workshop

2008-12-01T04:07:28Z

One big resource that The Sacramento Press provides all of our writers, are all the workshops that we will be hosting.

The first of those workshops is this Thursday. In order to attend you must sign up for the site as a writer and email us that you are interested in coming, it's very simple.

This workshop will be one of many that we will put on. This first workshop will focus on meeting the people who run The Press and how to best use our tools.

The workshop will be from 6:30pm - 8:00pm Thursday, December 4th at The Sacramento Press office.

We'll start off with a little bit of food and introductions and move on to an interactive talk about how to use our site and what it can do for you.

Parking is available in our lot however it can be rather pricey, $1.50 per half an hour. A good option is to take a bus or take light rail.

To take light rail you will want to take the Gold light rail line to Sacramento Valley Station, the last stop.
To take the bus simply take the 30 or 31 bus line which also has its last stop at the Sacramento Valley station.

If you take a bus or light rail and bring your ticket from the trip into the workshop we will give you 2 new tickets.

Above is a map of our office, and here is a link to a similar map.

Please R.S.V.P. by Wednesday, December 3rd, and do so by emailing journalism@sacramentopress.com.

I look forward to seeing lots of new people!

How do I become a writer?

2008-10-14T08:52:17Z

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 one story. Just think of an itch that you need to scratch on a topic you know really well. A lot of you may know about the music scene, and a lot of you can write great reviews of local restaurants. But if you want to get on our front page, you are better off focusing on a story that really isn't being told elsewhere in the local media. The triumphs of your softball team or that mysterious vacant mansion down the street might be great stories. Write what you know and become an expert on your neighborhood in the process.

Pay attention to the conversations going on in your storyline. Use your audience to guide your next article and ask them questions when you don't know the answer. Trust that they are just like you and want to build a better neighborhood.

Finally, we want to support you in every way possible. We will help set up peer editing groups if you want the perspectives of other Community Contributors before publishing a headline. We have a network of resource providers in city government and private institutions who can help you find the answers to some of your tougher questions. In some cases we can even get you a press pass to an event.

Take the plunge. Click the "write!" button, become a Community Contributor, and cover a story with us.