Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "storyline"

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.

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...

Storylines sound like a fancy name for blogs. What is the difference?

2008-10-14T07:29:22Z

There are three main differences. The first is not technical. Right now storylines are usually written by one author. He/she is the author for each article in the storyline just like most blogs. However, we ask each author to tell just one story over time rather than posting all sorts of interesting tidbits. While blogs can go all over the place, we ask our writers to stick to one story and cover it well.

The second difference is technical. Our storylines are dynamic. Editors can combine any series of articles into a storyline. This kind of editorial control is really great. And because we built our system with this kind of flexibility in mind from the start, we have an amazing content manegement system.

Third, intent is very important. Our intent is to enable the best stories and the the best conversations. We work very hard to elevate both along side each other. We believe that each are equally important. We use many tools that blogging platforms use. We use many tools that great forums use. We have created an outstanding layout system so that editors can make the whole site look just like a newspaper. We are using the very best tools from all over the web to build the very best site for Sacramento. While the tools bear some resemblance, the most important difference is that in the right hands and with the right intent, these tools become great concepts for enabling people to tell stories and have conversations about important local issues that are not being covered by the local media.

What is a storyline?

2008-10-14T07:08:54Z

Ben, the cofounder of the Sacramento Press gets asked this question about 20 times a day, so below is the answer that he gave for this question:

Let me start with a different question: what is an article? In printed newspapers articles are the basic unit of content, it is how a newspaper tells a story. An article can only be a certain length because there is only so much room on the page. And if a writer wants to post a history of the topic covered, link to older news items, or follow up the progress of the story? Well, tough luck. Traditional papers are constrained by space and time and try to tell the whole story in any given article. So if you want to start an online newspaper, you could start with that same basic unit, the article.

But when we first designed The Sacramento Press, Geoff and I wanted to start from scratch. We wanted to enable writers to tell stories without the constraints of space or time. We wanted to establish a conversation with readers. So we came up with a new basic unit, the storyline.

We ask our writers to cover a topic and follow the progress of the story. We ask writers to find the history of the story, and cover developments over time. Each post can be treated like a separate article, but if you click the green "storyline " button on the right you will see other parts of the story like histories and updates. Now you can more easily get the whole story over time and drill down to greater depth about a topic.

We also took a different approach with comments. Geoff and I noticed that comments on small blog sites tended to be more civil than on large sites like newspapers. We believe that writers must be active and responsive to the conversation about their story. If comments are disconnected then people have little incentive to be civil, but if the comments represent a true conversation with a writer, the the quality of the comments improve. Better yet, the audience for local stories often knows more collectively than the writer. Our contributors want to learn from you and let the audience guide their next article. People love to tell stories and we love to have conversations. Commenting is a way of joining these great conversations and when writers are responsive and inclusive, the conversation will drive better and better reporting.

We wanted our initial product to look a lot like a traditional newspaper to the casual reader, so we scaled back on some of our more fanciful ideas about how storylines might look and act, but by clicking on the green "storyline" button you will get a peek at the power of thinking outside the box and creating a new basic unit of content for The Sacramento Press.

So that's it! On to another question and remember you can always comment below and continue the conversation if you still don't quite get what a storyline is.