The Sacramento Press has approximately 2,000 contributors signed up on our site to voluntarily write articles. Without them, we wouldn’t exist. To just tell you how great they are isn’t enough. In an effort to show you why we love them, we will be putting the spotlight on a new contributor every month in our “Community Contributor Spotlight” video series. Without further ado, we present to you Mark Needham:     If there's a particular contributor you would like to see featured, let us know! Send us an email at support@sacramentopress.com. To meet contributors featured in the past, visit our Community Contributor Spotlight splash page.

The Sacramento Press has approximately 2,000 contributors signed up on our site to voluntarily write articles. Without them, we wouldn’t exist. Among this group, there is a small core of writers and photographers whom we work closely with on a regular basis. These contributors go above and beyond by taking assignments from us, having their articles copy edited and making us very proud as they represent us in the community. To just tell you how great they are isn’t enough. So we’ll show you a tiny snippet of why we love them. Through next week, we will continue rolling out our “community contributor spotlight” video series featuring six of our top community contributors. Without further

The Sacramento Press has approximately 2,000 contributors signed up on our site to voluntarily write articles. Without them, we wouldn’t exist. Among this group, there is a small core of writers and photographers whom we work closely with on a regular basis. These contributors go above and beyond by taking assignments from us, having their articles copy edited and making us very proud as they represent us in the community. To just tell you how great they are isn’t enough. So we’ll show you a tiny snippet of why we love them. During the next week, we will continue to roll out our “community contributor spotlight” video series featuring six of our top community contributors. Without furt

The Sacramento Press has approximately 2,000 contributors signed up on our site to voluntarily write articles. Without them, we wouldn’t exist. Among this group, there is a small core of writers and photographers whom we work closely with on a regular basis. These contributors go above and beyond by taking assignments from us, having their articles copy edited and making us very proud as they represent us in the community. To just tell you how great they are isn’t enough. So we’ll show you a tiny snippet of why we love them. For the next two weeks, we will continue rolling out our “community contributor spotlight” video series featuring six of our top community contributors. Without fu

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

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

The Sacramento region is about to see even more hyperlocal news coverage as TV station News10 and AOL's Patch.com roll out new media sites nearly simultaneously. Sacramento's ABC affiliate, News10, and its website, News10.net, are preparing to launch 30 hyperlocal news sites in early 2011. Patch.com flipped the switch on its first site in suburban Rosemont on Thursday and plans to start 11 more sites in Davis, the suburbs and the foothills within the next year. The sites add to a recent proliferation of online media offerings in the area. "News10 is now getting down deep into the hyperlocal news business," said Tim Geraghty, vice president of the News10 Information Center. The TV stati

The Sacramento Press is getting bigger digs. The home of the unique daily news website will more than double in size with its expansion in the historic Railway Express Agency Building, next to the downtown train station. Construction work began a week ago to link the existing 2,300-square-foot space to two adjoining groundfloor suites. Set in an industrial-vibe loft, the newsroom and supporting departments will fill roughly 5,500 square feet when finished. On Thursday, staff began moving desks and equipment to make way for the renovation. The Sacramento Press is an evolving experiment with community journalism. The online paper uses a small professional editorial staff, interns and a la

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

The winners of the first Sacramento Press Pro-Am Journalism Open have been chosen. Historian William Burg claimed the Grand Prize with his detailed, well-reasoned and beautifully-written list of 10 suggestions on how K Street might be returned to its former glory. Frequent Sacramento Press contributors Ali Tabatabai, Rhonda Erwin and Marion Millin also took top prizes, as did first-time community contributor Stephanie Rodriquez and our part-time copy editor Elisa Hough. Their prizes will range from $100-500, with Burg’s prize a weekend at Squaw Valley. Other contributors won prizes for smaller aspects of their stories, whether the accompanying photos, a great quote or a well-turned headl

How many times have you read a newspaper article and said, "I could have written that"? Well, now you can. For nearly a year, you have been able to do that on The Sacramento Press, where everyone can try his or her hand at writing a news story, and be published instantly, on the Web. That will continue to be the case, as the Press grows its audience and a small army of community contributors that now numbers more than 500 people. But for the month of October, The Sacramento Press is sweetening the pot: Not only can you write stories, have them copy-edited and posted on our site. Now you can win, and win big: The Sacramento Press Journalism Open is offering prizes of as much as $500 for t

You can help us make Sacramento a stronger community by contributing to The Sacramento Press. Our website is free and open to the public. To become a community contributor, all you have to do is: 1. Sign up by clicking the button at the top of the page. 2. Then, once you are signed in, you will see a "write" button at the top of the page. Just click the "write" button, fill out a form and watch a tutorial. 3. Title your Storyline. This is the topic you intend to write about and it helps tie your articles about the same topic together. 4. You can start writing immediately inside the browser or copy and paste your article from a word processor. You can save your draft on our system and come