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

Here at The Sacramento Press, we want to provide you with the tools you need to confidently deliver your message to readers. To help polish your voice, we provide free copy editing to all of our community contributors. While we don’t require you to have your article edited, we strongly encourage it since articles are permanent once they are published. It’s always helpful to have a second set of eyes review your work! The best part is, it’s a fast and easy process. Just send a draft of your article to journalism@sacramentopress.com and an edited copy will be returned within 24 hours, ready to copy and paste. We offer copy editing every day except Saturdays. A couple quick tips about the c

“The nature of the media is changing,” said KXTV News10 reporter George Warren at Thursday evening’s video storytelling tips and shortcuts workshop, hosted by The Sacramento Press. Warren is an Emmy-winning reporter/multimedia journalist. He recently celebrated his 30th anniversary working with News10. He started started creating videos when he was a senior in college and has shot with primitive videotapes and 16mm film. “The equipment today has gotten so good that it’s easy for one person to go out and produce really good content in just a short amount of time,” Warren told the audience of about 30 aspiring writers, journalists and community members. Warren used his own recent videos t

Thank you to everyone who attended Jeffrey Callison's workshop on "The Art and Craft of Interviewing" last month. If you missed the workshop, you can read the recap and watch the video here. The Sacramento Press has another first-time workshop presenter for September: KXTV News10 Reporter George Warren. Multimedia journalist Andrew Nixon taught a workshop in July titled "Intro to Video Storytelling;" we'll resume the topic of video storytelling with Warren's workshop: "Video Storytelling Tips and Shortcuts." The workshop will be from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, at The Sacramento Press office. Warren will discuss how to produce memorable stories with minimum time and effort. Warre

The Sacramento Press is excited to announce that Jeffrey Callison will be teaching a workshop at our office in August. Interviewing is part of the foundation of journalism. It’s how reporters get a lot of their information, including the personal angles and anecdotes that make stories come alive. But how do you conduct a successful interview? There are some simple rules, but you also must know when and how to break them. Jeffrey Callison has interviewed many thousands of people over the years – both as host of Capital Public Radio’s daily program “Insight” and as a reporter. On Tuesday, Aug. 9, from 6:30 - 8 p.m., he’ll discuss “The Art and Craft of Interviewing” in a workshop at the S

We had a great turnout for our sports writing workshop earlier this month. Thanks to Sam Amick and those who attended. To read the workshop recap, click here. Video is an important part of storytelling that can be difficult to incorporate without the right equipment and editing knowledge. Andrew Nixon will teach a video workshop from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 27 at the Sacramento Press office called "Introduction to Video Storytelling." Nixon is a Sacramento-based multimedia journalist. He has professional experience in photojournalism, as well as various multimedia platforms, including motion graphics, web platforms, and video journalism. He has freelanced for Patch.com and interned

Thanks to those of you who came to our Bias in Journalism workshop earlier this month. If you missed it, you can read the recap here. For July, we are excited to announce a new workshop presenter – Sam Amick. With the Sacramento River Cats season well under way, the Sacramento Capitals tennis team starting in July and the buzz building for the next Sacramento Kings basketball season – there will be plenty of sports stories to be covered on The Sacramento Press and on blogs, etc. Amick will teach a workshop on sports writing at the Sacramento Press office from 6:30 - 8 p.m. July 12. Amick is currently an NBA columnist for Sports Illustrated at SI.com. He received his degree in journali

It is every journalist’s duty to provide the facts as they are, but does bias still manage to exist in journalism? This was the question posed by Clare Noonan, editor of 11 East Bay Patch.com sites and speaker at Tuesday’s workshop at The Sacramento Press. While both Noonan and almost all 14 participants answered yes, Noonan said there were ways to pinpoint personal opinion as a reader and avoid it as a writer. In order to provide objectivity, Noonan said that writers should make sure that facts are accurate and that the reporting is fair. Referencing a University of Michigan website, Noonan listed five areas where bias can occur: word choice, omissions, limiting debate, story framing a

The 2011 Art Happens, hosted by the Sacramento Artists Council, took place June 4 in Midtown. The venue was held inside the Sacramento Art Complex on 2110 K Street. This was a benefit event to support art in Sacramento. Sutter Middle School and Nevada Union High School students exhibited works of art by their students. Artwork created by the students also helped their school art programs as  one 100 percent of sales was given to the respective school’s art program. The event was sponsored by Sacramento News and Review, Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, Sacramento Bee, Sacramento Press and others. A day full of art, music, food, wine tasting and great music contributed to the fest

On Thursday, June 2, Sacramento saw the start of another year of the Hot Lunch Concert Series and a new free music event playing at Cesar Chavez Plaza; “Fiesta en la Calle” (Street Party). The Hot Lunch Concert Series is a collaboration between Hot Italian, Sacramento News and Review and Friends of Fremont Park. Musical guests perform on Thursdays from June 2 to September 1 during the lunch hour (11:30 to 1p.m). Promoter Jerry Perry has put together a great lineup. Fremont Park, located on the corner of 16th and P Streets hosts the event. Musical Charis was the first band scheduled to perform this year. The weather cooperated and made for a delightful lunch concert. People from around t

We are excited to announce a new feature that you will see on our front page and other section pages. We now have the ability to display audio clips and videos on our layouts.  Every week, we will include the audio clip from "Insight" on Capitol Public Radio where Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton discusses what's going on in the city and what stories our reporters are working on that week. Our reporters are beginning to incorporate more videos into their stories and we look forward to highlighting those videos as well as your videos on our front page and in the other sections. Friday's front page will feature our first featured video, produced by HellaTV on Josh Fern

Local indie bands offered up a hearty dose of energy and a touch of theatrics to the 1,000-plus-person crowd at Cesar Chavez Park Friday night for the latest installation of the Concerts in the Park series. On the sidewalk leading up to the stage area, vendors were selling gyros, drinks, necklaces and earrings. The CHP had a tented booth, as did radio station Radio 94.7 FM and The Sacramento Press. The night’s diverse crowd included families, neon-haired teens and seniors, all basking in the glow of live music and sunshine. Friends spread out islands of blankets on the grass, and children ran around with balloons attached to their wrists. Siblings Juli and Tyler Lydell of The Dreaded Di

The weather forecast is positive for this Friday Night Concert in the Park. Join The Sacramento Press at Cesar Chavez Plaza for an eclectic evening of indie music with a visit from headliners Agent Ribbons, former Sacramento girls. This week’s show kicks off at around 5 p.m., runs until 9 p.m. and will also feature sets from Roman Funerals and Golden Ghosts. Located between Ninth and 10th and I and J streets, this free, all-ages outdoor concert series will run every Friday until Aug. 12. See a full schedule of this season’s lineup here. Remember, street parking can be a challenge. If you want to avoid hunting for a spot or parking blocks away from the action, parking is available at th

Thanks to those of you who attended our review writing panel Thursday with Rachel Leibrock, Carla Meyer and Nick Miller. Read the workshop recap here. We will have another workshop this month titled, "Sac Press Tools and Tricks." Geoff Samek, vice president of product for The Sacramento Press, will highlight some of the newer and lesser-known features of the website. Samek will also give a quick overview of important web technologies that come in handy in the current media world. He will answer any questions you may have about the site and its functionality and features. The workshop will be from 6:30 - 8 p.m. May 26 at our office. Badges will be awarded to participants for attending t

The Sacramento Press has close to 2,000 contributors signed up on our site to voluntarily write articles. Without them, our site would fail to exist. Among this group, there is a small core of writers and photographers whom we work closely with on a weekly 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 in the six videos below. Without further ado, we present to you six of our fabulous top community contributors.   Bill Burgua Julia Marino David

With Concerts in the Park kicking off Friday and the California Music Circus season around the corner, there will be lots of opportunities to review shows, both indoors and outdoors. Looking to share your great or not-so-great experiences with others? The Sacramento Press will hold a panel on review writing at our office from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Thursday, May 12. Three panelists will teach you the do’s and don’ts of review writing and share some of their own experiences. This is a great opportunity to ask the pros how they review concerts, theater, comedy and other performances. The three panelists are Rachel Leibrock, Carla Meyer and Nick Miller. Leibrock writes about arts and culture for t

Thursday, April 21, The Sacramento Press site will be Sacramento Kings purple instead of its normal green color. We are changing our site's colors to support the #HereWePurple effort. For more information on the NBA visit to Sacramento and the pledges to keep the Kings in Sacramento, read Sacramento Press staff reporter Suzanne Hurt's article here. We encourage you to take photos of the purple you see Thursday or share photos from Kings games or events you've been to in the past. We will put together a splash page for Friday with some of the submissions. If you have any questions about how to post, email support@sacramentopress.com. Dust off your purple clothes, and be on the lookout f

The Sacramento Bee and The Sacramento Press teamed up Wednesday night to host Table Talk Sacramento inside the Sacramento Bee building at 2100 Q St. The two-panel discussion addressed the need for a variety of local food writers and various trends being seen within the food and dining communiy. The first panel focused on the state of Sacramento food writing. Moderated by Chris Macias, the Bee's food and wine writer since 2008, the discussion featured local blogger Catherine Enfield of Munchie Musings, Niesha Lofing of The Sacramento Bee and Micah Rousey a member of the Yelp Elite Squad for his bulk of restaraunt reviews on Yelp. “The purpose of this is to get people into a room, get peop

Thanks to those of you who came to the "Writing about Wine and Spirits" workshop in March. Read the recap here. We have two journalism workshops planned for April. Clare Noonan will teach a workshop on interviewing techniques at The Sacramento Press office from 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday, April 7. Noonan has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Kentucky. She currently edits 11 East Bay Patch.com sites. 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 of the Crime and Safety beat during her time at The Bee. She has be

Do you love talking about food? Do you flip to the food section of the newspaper before even reading the front page? Is a trip to the grocery store an excursion? For all you foodies, bloggers and lovers of Sacramento’s restaurants and food: The Sacramento Bee and The Sacramento Press have teamed up to bring you “Table Talk Sacramento: The region’s food community comes together for an evening of lively discussion.” There will be two panels addressing different topics, including “What Sacramentans Eat” and the quality of local food writing. Chris Macias will moderate the food writing panel. Macias has served as the Bee’s food and wine writer since 2008. The panelists include: Niesha Lofin