web.aan.org » Editorial Policy

Editorial Policy

This blog is a publication of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies [AAN.org], a not-for-profit group with 130 member papers in the United States and Canada. As a trade organization, we hold ourselves to the highest level of journalistic integrity in all of our publications.

Here is an overview of our editorial policy for web.aan.org.

Positive, constructive ideas. This blog is designed to help the members of AAN improve their online publishing. When giving examples of practices that could be improved upon, we withhold the names of the publications unless it is relevant to the example.
Absolutely no pay for play. We do not receive any kind of reimbursements or free products. Any technology, web applications, software or hardware discussed on this blog appear because they interest our writers.
Full disclosure required. All of our writers and editors are required to disclose any prior, existing, or future relationship(s) with the people, publications, or technologies they are writing about.
Attribution is king. We stringently attribute any quotes or source material discussed on the blog. In the case of quotes or source material found online or via email, we contact the original author and/or source to verify the authenticity of the material. When sourcing listservs or other closed-communication environments, we treat the source information as private, paraphrasing the discussions unless we have received direct permission from the author to use their quotes.
A place for conversations. We welcome spirited conversations in our comments section, but strongly discourage the use of fightin’ words.
Opinions are opinions, not policy. Any opinions expressed on the blog belong to the author in question, and do not reflect any official position of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies or its member papers.
Reporting, fairness and accuracy matter. This blog is backed by reported facts.
We correct our mistakes. Mistakes happen — and when they do, we edit the incorrect text, and post a note explaining how the error was made.
Proprietary information is not released. We are careful not to give away any confidential information about our member papers or the vendors they work with.