Silent edits are a journalistic original sin. When we change a story after it has gone out, we say so here.
Four kinds of change, each with a defined workflow. Corrections and retractions need editor-in-chief approval; clarifications and typos need a sub-editor.
Every change writes to this ledger within an hour — usually fifteen minutes. The Editorial Standards Board reviews the ledger monthly and its findings become rulebook amendments.
Spelling, punctuation, or ordinal fix. No change to meaning. Sub-editor approval.
Changes wording without changing facts. Adds context or resolves ambiguity. Sub-editor approval.
Changes a fact. Produces a new version, attaches a correction note above the article body, writes here. Editor-in-chief approval.
Article removed from reader feeds. URL resolves to a retraction notice. Editor-in-chief and Standards Board.
Silent edits are a journalistic original sin. When we change a story after it has gone out, we say so here — what we changed, why, who approved it, and when. No entry is ever removed. Nothing is edited in place. This page is the receipt.
Entries are immutable. Mistakes in a ledger entry produce a new entry.
Every correction shows on the article itself too, in a visible note above the body.
Every change lists the editor who approved it. Anonymous corrections do not exist.
Four kinds of change, each with a defined workflow. Corrections and retractions require editor-in-chief approval; clarifications and typos require a sub-editor. Every change writes to this ledger within one hour of being approved — usually within fifteen minutes.
The Editorial Standards Board — the editor-in-chief plus two external members — reviews this ledger monthly. Patterns they identify become changes to the rulebook, which runs every future story.
Spelling, punctuation, ordinal, or surface-typography fix. No change to meaning. Sub-editor approval.
Changes wording without changing facts. Adds context, resolves ambiguity, specifies a role. Sub-editor approval.
Changes a fact. Produces a new version, attaches a correction note above the article body, writes here. Editor-in-chief approval.
Article removed from reader feeds. Canonical URL resolves to a retraction notice explaining what was wrong. Editor-in-chief and Standards Board.
Trigger.A reader flag, a source retraction, an editor noticing, or the engine’s own post-publish integrity check.
Classify.Sub-editor decides: typo, clarification, correction, or retraction. Threshold test is “does this change a fact?”
Approve. Corrections and retractions go to the editor-in-chief. Typos and clarifications to any sub-editor on shift.
Publish. New article version goes live with an inline note; this ledger gets the entry; the archive retains the old version indefinitely.