Editorial Standards
These standards apply to every article on The Local Promoted and to every other surface of the network. One article is written once; the same rules follow it wherever it appears.
Every article is labelled by source
Business submission, contributor submission, original reporting, public information, sponsored, partner content, or AI-assisted with human review. The label is shown on the article itself.
Attribution is always visible
Author, publishing organization, original publication date and last updated date appear on every article, together with the sources it relies on.
Sponsorship is disclosed
Sponsored and partner content carries a disclosure that cannot be turned off, and is never presented as independent reporting.
Review before publication
Submitted articles move through review. An editor approves, requests changes or declines before anything is published to a surface.
Corrections are recorded, not erased
A published article that changes is versioned and dated. The change history remains available rather than being quietly overwritten.
AI assistance is declared
Where a draft was AI-assisted, this is stated and a person is accountable for reviewing it before publication.
Geography decides placement
An article is published to a surface only where the places it concerns fall inside that surface's scope. National placement requires editorial nomination.