We are extremely pleased to announce that The Sacramento Press 2.0 is live.
Many people have worked quite hard to make sure it functions as well as possible, but if you find bugs please email us at feedback@sacramentopress.com.
So what’s new? Just about everything. We’ve been listening to your feedback for years and we have delivered a whole new site from top to bottom.
- Calendar – Many of our readers loved the Go.See.Do newsletter, so we now have a proper calendar for events. Plus, community contributors can add events to the calendar just as easily as posting an article.
- Forums – We like to have some pretty thorough discourse on The Sacramento Press. Now we don’t need an article to start the discussion.
- New writer sign-up process – In order to collaborate better with contributors who write articles and add events, editors will now evaluate new contributors before they write. Interested in becoming a contributing writer? Simply check the box at the bottom of the sign-up form when creating your account or editing your existing account and we will be in contact with you soon after.
- New editorial workflow – New posts will be approved by an editor before going live on our front page. This will allow for easier and more efficient copy editing.
And all of those are just the highlights. We rethought advertising to be better partners with local small businesses, added profile photos next to bylines, transitioned to WordPress as our Content Management System, and made sharing easier throughout the site. You can expect even more improvements to come.
So you’re a contributor – now what?
The process of writing and contributing on the Sacramento Press has changed. We realize that throwing something new into the process can create confusion and frustration, so please do not hesitate to email feedback@sacramentopress.com if you have any questions or concerns.
On the old site, articles and stories would immediately go live. Now, they will enter into a draft phase to be copy edited and approved before being published to the front page. When writing an article, check out the box labeled “Publish” on the top-right corner of the screen. Here, you will be able to change the status of your draft. If you are still working on your article, file it under “In progress” so our copy editors won’t touch it until you’re ready. Once you’re done, change the status to “Submit a Draft.” From there, our copy editors will be able to edit and publish directly.
To add photos to the body of your article, simply click the line where you want the picture to go and click “Add Media” above the text toolbar. To add a feature photo that will appear above your article, scroll to the bottom of the tool panel on the right side and click “Set featured image.”
You will still be able to add tags as before, and we encourage you to do so.
Once you have saved your draft for the first time, you can add Editorial Comments. This is a way for you to communicate with the editors. These comments will only be visible to you and the editors.
What’s with the forums?
Our comment sections have served as a place for intellectual and lively discussions in the past. Now, an article is no longer required to get a conversation going. If you’ve got some breaking news and no time to draft an article, start a topic in the Sac Press News forum. This is the quickest way to get the conversation going between you and your fellow Sac Press members. As with everything else on our site, the forums will be heavily monitored, and content violating our Terms of Use will be removed.
Articles will still have comment threads, but the forums can be a place for more general conversation.
The Eventful Event Listing
We all know what an event-ful city Sacramento is. Now, all contributors will be able to submit event listings the same way articles are submitted. They will go through the same draft and approval process, but require much less writing. You can add as much info as you’ve got, including the admission price to the event, the location, the organization hosting it and a description of the event. There is also an easy-to-use calendar to help you plan your upcoming adventures out on the town.
Let the new Sacramento Press be your playground…
The look and feel of the site will definitely take some getting used to. The waters will be rocky for a bit, but we hope that you will all enjoy the new site as much as we do.
As always, this is your site. So explore and enjoy!
