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 T... colleen thsas comment-46251 2011-02-23T05:28:45Z 2011-02-23T05:28:45Z The writing on Sac Press is laced with opinion. thsas 2011-02-23T05:28:45Z Casey Kirk comment-46231 2011-02-23T00:42:51Z 2011-02-23T00:42:51Z Hi Brian, That is something we get asked often. We are fine-tuning our guidelines every day to guide our writers in best practices for our site. The short answer is that we actually don't allow direct advertisements or spam and anything that comes across like this will be pulled. So, someone who owns a business cannot write up an advertisement selling their services with pricing, etc. However, we do invite these contributors to work with us to find other angles they can write about while staying within our guidelines. We encourage copy-editing and, most importantly, ask for transparency. To achieve this, we require that everyone disclose any affiliations they have with their articles so their motives are clear to readers. I hope that answers your questions but if not I would be happy to elaborate. I can reached by phone at (916) 596-1963 or e-mail at casey@sacramentopress.com. Casey Kirk 2011-02-23T00:42:51Z Brian Lambert comment-46225 2011-02-23T00:02:38Z 2011-02-23T00:02:38Z when are articles designed sell products/services going to labeled as ADVERTISEMENT? Brian Lambert 2011-02-23T00:02:38Z Casey Kirk comment-46132 2011-02-21T20:12:49Z 2011-02-21T20:12:49Z We absolutely allow opinion pieces but recommend that contributors clearly label them so. We hope all of you can make it! Casey Kirk 2011-02-21T20:12:49Z naga comment-46131 2011-02-21T19:36:37Z 2011-02-21T19:36:37Z hilarious naga 2011-02-21T19:36:37Z deb belt comment-46130 2011-02-21T19:25:46Z 2011-02-21T19:25:46Z The only opinion pieces I have noticed on SP are by Barton and they are clearly labeled opinion. Otherwise, I think most Sac Press writers do a good job of presenting all sides of a story. deb belt 2011-02-21T19:25:46Z TWRL comment-46129 2011-02-21T19:11:04Z 2011-02-21T19:11:04Z Much of what is posted is opinion. TWRL 2011-02-21T19:11:04Z Brian Lambert comment-46128 2011-02-21T17:54:22Z 2011-02-21T17:54:22Z does this mean SP will be accepting opinions at some point? Brian Lambert 2011-02-21T17:54:22Z