Editorial Standards and Corrections

How the Valley Signal reports, edits, corrects and handles conflicts of interest. The short version is on our About page.

Editorial standards

We aim straight down the middle. Here are the facts. Make your own decisions.

We report what happened, what the documents say, who voted which way, what it costs, and who responded or declined to. We attribute. We cite. We let readers draw their own conclusions.

Opinion is labeled, and it doesn't shape the news. Everything else is news or analysis grounded in the documented record.

How we work

We report, edit, and verify each piece against primary sources before it runs. We read each document we cite. We confirm each vote we describe.

We use any legitimate tool available: public records requests, government agenda feeds, court filing databases, reader tips, direct reporting, and AI. AI does not decide what we cover or publish, and it does not replace reading the source or listening to the meeting.

Byline policy

Some work is produced by the publication as an operation: the Sheriff Blotter, the Week Ahead, briefs, and much of our reporting. That work runs under Valley Signal Staff. The byline tells you it came from the Signal itself, not from a guest columnist or an outside contributor.

When one person reported and wrote a piece, it carries that person's name. Opinion runs under the writer's name and is labeled as opinion.

Whatever the byline, the same editorial standards apply.

Conflicts of interest

When a story touches any entity in which Valley Signal LLC, its owner, or a contributor has a direct financial or leadership interest, the story says so.

Coverage is not for sale. Our income is published at Open Books.

Corrections

We correct errors in public. If you think we got something wrong, email [email protected]. We fix the original story and note the date and what changed.

Sometimes we make adjustments to a story after it's written to fix something immaterial, a spelling, a picture, something else. We don't say what changed in that case. If there's no correction note, you can safely assume that the change was immaterial.

What we publish

The best feedback we've gotten from readers is the plainest: "factual reporting, way overdue." "Thank you for covering the valley." That's the bar for anything that runs under the Signal's banner.

We welcome opinion, as a short letter or a longer piece. Both run under the writer's real name and town. We publish pieces written to persuade someone who doesn't already agree. That means arguments that take the facts seriously and engage the strongest version of the other side. Push the reader somewhere new instead of registering a reaction.

We're not a channel for routing complaints or personal grievances from one person to another. If you're writing to a council member, write to the council member. If you're writing to our readers about what the council member did, we want to see it.

We want the Signal to host the valley's discourse: writing aimed at persuasion, not applause. Go hard at a decision or an argument where the evidence supports it. You can't make it personal. Go after what someone did, not who they are.

Letters and opinion pieces go to [email protected], with "Letter:" or "Opinion:" in the subject line. Keep it concise. Sign your real name and town, and disclose relevant affiliations or conflicts; we publish the disclosure alongside the piece. We may edit for clarity. We won't edit your argument.

Tips and pitches go to the same address. Tips don't need to be polished. That's our job. To cover a beat or report a story, put "Pitch:" in the subject line and tell us what you want to cover and why you're the right person.

LION Publishers member

The Valley Signal is a member of LION Publishers, the national association of Local Independent Online News publishers.

LION reviews its members for independent ownership, original local reporting, labeled opinion, a public corrections policy, and a commitment to accuracy, transparency, and journalism ethics. Membership renews annually. We are listed in LION's member directory.