The Plumas Sun is working to expand our reporting, both topically and geographically, to cover more of the stories you care about. We are prioritizing growth areas in line with our mission and your feedback.
We are seeking new, part-time reporters throughout Plumas County, especially writers able to cover Chester and Indian Valley. We are looking for writers with experience or education in journalism, nonfiction writing, copywriting or a related field. Writers receive a small stipend of $20 per hour for a maximum of 40 hours per month. As our organization grows, we hope to be able to offer more stable, full-time opportunities.
Our top priorities for expanding coverage currently include the follow beats:
- Human interest features. Interviews with community members, coverage of service organizations and nonprofits.
- Sports. High school, college and rec department sports, including game coverage and features on specific teams or athletes. Outdoor sports including hunting and fishing, ski/snowshoe, cycling, hiking, swimming/boating.
- Art and events. Attend and report on events taking place in the county (theater and music, awards and ceremonies, county fair, grand openings, etc.). Separate from upcoming events announcements.
- Education. Covering public and private schools within Plumas County, Plumas Unified School District board meetings and elections, school events. Note: To avoid competing interests, reporters on this beat may not be employed by (or closely related to someone employed by) the school district, or any school within the region.
- Natural resources. Stories about wildlife, forests, rivers and lakes. Unusual occurrences and/or the amazing ordinary of the natural phenomena of Plumas County. Note: If the story involves a federal, state or local agency, reporters on this beat may not be employed by (or closely related to someone employed by) the agency.
Reporters will work closely with our editor-in-chief to identify and select stories, and polish drafts prior to publication.
If you are interested in joining our team, please send an email expressing your interest to [email protected]. Please describe your past writing experience, including links to any published works. Let us know which geographic and topic areas interest you most, and about how much time you have available for this work.
Other areas of coverage
We sometimes receive questions from readers about areas we don’t (yet) cover. The following are among the most common requests:
- Breaking news. At this time, we are not in a position to take on breaking news, emergencies, roads or weather. We are still primarily a volunteer-run organization, and do not yet have the editorial staff, reporting staff or financial assets to support this type of round-the-clock coverage.
- Opinion pieces. Opinion pieces are demanding from an editorial perspective, since they require careful screening for libel. At this stage, our editor-in-chief is also one of our lead reporters; we feel it’s more valuable to devote limited editorial time to hard news stories.
- Letters to the editor. Like opinion pieces, letters to the editor require review and careful vetting for libel. For now we are opting to focus on news stories.
- The Sheriff’s Blotter. While we do cover the sheriff’s office, law and law enforcement stories, the weekly Sheriff’s Blotter, which was a staple of Plumas News, will not be part of The Plumas Sun. Given our current resourcing, we prefer to focus on in-depth stories that make a positive contribution to our communities.
Press releases and tips
As a small (but growing!) organization, we rely on partners within the community to help keep us informed about happenings through press releases. Press releases are free to submit, and are carefully vetted by our submissions editor prior to posting. The press release submission guidelines are available on our website. In the coming months, we look forward to hosting in-person press release workshops in various locations throughout Plumas County. Watch this space for more details.
We are always happy to consider your story ideas. If you know of a story we should be covering, please send details to [email protected].
