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 ca

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 f

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 th

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 d

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.

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 eve

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 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

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.

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 Corpor

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 e

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 que

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, Th

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 peak

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 Publ

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 Ci

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)

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 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 confir

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 offi

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 C