Editorial Standards & Ethics

What these standards are for

This page is the set of rules our newsroom actually works to, written down so you can hold us to them rather than take our word for our good intentions. They are not a marketing statement. They are the standard a story has to clear before it goes out under the Newfound Times name, and the standard we measure ourselves against when a story goes wrong.

We are a small independent team covering a wide range of subjects, which makes discipline more important, not less. The fewer people between an idea and publication, the clearer the rules between them have to be.

Sourcing

We build stories from primary sources wherever we can: official statements, filings, figures, transcripts, documents, and named people who were there. When we rely on reporting by others, we say so and link to it, and we try to trace a claim back to where it started rather than repeating the version that happens to be loudest. A single anonymous claim is not a story on its own. It is a lead to be checked.

We prefer named sources, because a name lets you weigh a claim yourself. We use anonymous sources only when the information matters, when there is a real reason the person cannot be named such as risk to their job or safety, and when we can corroborate what they tell us. When we grant anonymity we protect it completely, and we do not reveal a source to anyone, advertisers and lawyers included. How to reach us securely is on our contact page.

Accuracy and verification

Getting it right comes before getting it first. We check names, figures, dates, quotations, and the basic claim of a story against the source before we publish. If we cannot confirm something, we either leave it out or say plainly that it is unconfirmed, rather than reaching for a confident verb we have not earned. The detail of how claims are tested is in our fact-checking policy.

Speed is real and we do not pretend otherwise. On a breaking story we publish what we can stand behind and label the rest as developing, then update in the open. What we do not do is dress a guess as a fact because the clock is loud.

Keeping news and opinion apart

A report is our best account of what is true. A comment piece is somebody arguing a case. These are different kinds of writing and we do not blur them. Opinion and analysis are labelled, so you always know which one you are reading, and the views in a comment piece belong to its author, not to the newsroom as a whole.

Reporters keep their own opinions out of their reporting. That does not mean a report has to be limp or pretend every claim is equally true. Fairness is not the same as false balance, and giving a baseless claim equal weight with an established fact is its own kind of inaccuracy. Our job is to be accurate first and even handed within the bounds of what is true.

Fairness, harm, and the right of reply

When a story makes a serious allegation against a person or an organisation, we put it to them before publication and give them a fair chance to respond, and we carry their answer. If they decline or do not reply in time, we say so. We do not ambush people with claims we could have checked with them in advance.

We weigh the harm a story can do against the public interest in telling it. We take particular care with private individuals who did not choose public life, with children, with victims of crime, and with people in grief or shock. Public interest is a high bar about power, safety, money, and accountability, not simply whatever the public is curious about.

Independence and conflicts

Our coverage is not for sale and it is not steered by anyone outside the newsroom. Advertisers get no say over stories, no advance look at coverage, and no veto, and a company that advertises with us is reported on exactly as any other would be. Where a story touches an advertiser, the coverage does not soften. The wider picture of how we are funded is on our ownership and funding page and the rules for buyers are on our advertise page.

Where anyone here has a personal, family, or financial interest in a story, they declare it and step aside, and the handover is recorded rather than agreed quietly. We pay our own way on the stories we cover and do not accept gifts, trips, or hospitality meant to buy favourable coverage. Where we accept something modest that is standard to the work, such as a review copy, we disclose it where it matters.

Holding ourselves to it

Standards mean nothing without a way to enforce them, and the plainest test is what we do when we fail. We correct openly, on the story, with a dated note, as our corrections policy describes. We answer readers who challenge our work, and where we can we route those challenges to an editor who had no hand in the original. If we have fallen short of anything on this page, tell us at support@newfoundtimes.com, and be specific, because a specific complaint is one we can actually act on.

Last updated: August 2026