SamiaNewsroom
Standards

How the desk works

How we know
what we print.

Sourcing, checking, labels, corrections and money: the rules every Samia Newsroom piece is held to, written down so that you can hold us to them too. They are short because they have to be kept.

The corrections log ↗How to complain ↓

1 · Sourcing

Sourced to
the document.

Every factual claim in a Newsroom piece is traced to at least one primary source: the treaty text, the dataset, the published study, the court record, the company filing, the audited report. A news story about any of those is a secondary source. It can support a claim; it cannot be the only thing under it. Where a claim is contested we cite more than one source and say who disagrees; where a figure is an estimate we say so, and whose estimate it is.

The sources are listed on the piece, numbered, in the order they are first used, and each number in the text leads to its source. If a source is not online we say where it can be found. If a claim cannot meet this bar, it is cut and the piece runs shorter.

  • People are named. An anonymous source is used only when a person's safety or livelihood needs it, and the piece says why.
  • Every number carries the year it was collected and the body that collected it.
  • No quotations from named living people unless we spoke to them or the words are on the public record, with a source.
  • No reporting of current events until the desk has the people to verify them; until then, evergreen explainers and Progress pieces.

2 · Verification

Five steps.
No shortcuts.

A piece is checked by someone other than the person who wrote it, claim by claim, against the sources on the piece. It carries the words "Fact-checked" only after that has happened. Until then the piece says so, in its last line; the three pieces published before the first edition all do.

  1. PitchThree paragraphs: the idea, why it matters, why you. The editor says yes or no in writing.
  2. ReportThe writer works from documents and named people, and keeps a list of sources as they go.
  3. EditAn editor works on structure and clarity, never on the facts or the argument.
  4. CheckA second person checks every claim against its sources. Anything that fails is cut or fixed.
  5. PublishThe writer approves the final page. It goes out labelled, dated and with its sources.

3 · Labels

Four kinds of piece.
Always marked.

Every piece carries one of four labels at the top, so you know what kind of thing you are reading before you start.

Report

What happened

Reported from documents and named people. States facts; draws no conclusions beyond them.

Explainer

How something works

One question, answered in the first paragraph, with the evidence after it. Evergreen; carries the date it was last checked.

Analysis

What it means

A writer's reasoned reading of the facts, with the facts sourced and the reasoning visible. Never run as a Report.

Progress

What got better

Verified good news: a place, a number, a date, the people who did the work, a primary source. The Friday letter and its longer pieces.

4 · Corrections

Corrections,
in public.

When we get something wrong we fix it on the piece, mark the change there with the date, and add a row to a public log that anyone can read. We do not quietly edit. Write to [email protected] with the address of the piece and what you think is wrong; we check it against the sources and reply either way.

A correction fixes a fact that was wrong. A clarification fixes a fact that was right but misleading. An update adds information that arrived after publication, marked with its date. All three are logged.

The full log and policy ↗
Corrections log, all pieces
DatePieceWhat was wrongWhat we changedRaised by
No corrections yet.

Nothing has been corrected yet. When a correction is made it is logged here, with the date and what changed, and marked on the piece.

5 · Money and independence

Who pays.
Who does not.

You cannot judge a publication without knowing who pays for it. Here is the answer, and what it does and does not buy.

Who pays for this

Samia Studios, a Jahangiri Enterprises company, pays for the Newsroom out of its own money. The house earns its money through Samia Agency and its book imprints, Samia Books and Samia Kids. The Newsroom carries no advertising and no sponsored pieces. If that changes, it changes here first.

Independence

No client of the Agency gets coverage, favourable or otherwise, because of that relationship. If we ever write about a business the house works with, the piece says so at the top. Editors, not the Agency, decide what the Newsroom publishes.

Written by people

Every piece is reported, written, checked and signed by a person whose name is on it. Software is used in the workshop for scheduling, sending and formatting, never to write or check what you read.

How to complain

For a factual error, write to [email protected]. For anything else about how a piece was reported, edited or labelled, write to [email protected]. A person reads every message, checks it against the piece and its sources, and replies either way. If we were wrong, the fix is logged in public.

[email protected][email protected]

Hold us to it

Read the work
these rules produce.

One email when the first edition is out, then the Progress letter every Friday. Nothing else, and you can leave with one click.