Nice news is still news.
Everything here is reported, checked, and attributed the same way it would be at any paper. The subject matter is cheerful. The standards are not.
This page is what we hold ourselves to, published so you can hold us to it too.
Getting it right
Every factual claim gets checked against a source before it publishes. Names, ages, titles, dates, distances, dollar figures, and the spelling of every proper noun. Checked against something, not against memory.
We confirm the spelling of your name with you, out loud, letter by letter, before we leave. If that feels excessive, it is because a misspelled name is the error readers remember longest and the one that stings most.
Headlines, photo captions, social posts, newsletter teases, and podcast titles are held to the same standard as the article. A headline that promises more than the story delivers is an inaccuracy, not a marketing decision.
When somebody tells us something and we cannot confirm it, it does not run. When we cannot confirm it and it does not matter, we cut it.
Where information comes from
We name our sources. You cannot weigh what you read without knowing who said it.
Anonymity is rare here and it is the publisher’s call, made before publication. It requires all of the following: the source insists on it, the information matters to readers, there is no other way to get it, and the person is in a position to know.
A promise to a source is kept. If we cannot keep it, we do not make it.
Quotes are accurate and in context. We clean up filler words. We do not stitch two separate statements into one quotation.
We identify ourselves as working for Minnesota Nice News before any interview. Reporting that first appeared somewhere else is credited by name and linked.
Press releases
A release is a tip, not a story. Everything in one is a claim by the sender until we check it, and we never publish one as written. If an organization wants its own words under its own name, that is sponsored content and it is labeled.
Corrections
We run them in full and fast. The corrected article carries a dated note at the bottom saying what was wrong and what it now says.
We do not quietly edit an error out of a live post. If the record changes, the record says so.
Every correction request gets a real answer, including the ones we decide were not errors. Send them to corrections@minnesotanicenews.com with “correction” in the subject line, or through the contact form.
Corrections are the publisher’s call.
Photos, audio, and video
We do not alter the content of a photograph. Cropping, exposure, color correction, and noise reduction are fine. Adding, removing, or moving anything in the frame is not.
Photo illustrations are labeled. Any image generated by AI is labeled in the caption. Stock imagery is credited.
Podcast and broadcast audio gets edited for length and clarity. It does not get edited in a way that changes what a guest said or the order they said it in.
The people in our stories
Most of the people we write about are private citizens who did not seek attention. Somebody caught a fish, opened a bakery, or sang at the VFW. They get treated accordingly, with far more privacy than an official or anyone seeking power, money, or an audience.
- ChildrenWe get a parent’s or guardian’s permission before naming a minor or running a photo where a child is the subject. If a school or organizer has stricter rules, we follow theirs.
- Withholding a nameAnyone can ask that their name or photo be left out. We honor reasonable requests, and we say so in the story when it leaves a visible gap.
- Taking a photo downAny photo of you or your child comes down on request, no reason needed.
- GriefObituaries, memorials, and anything touching loss are handled with the family’s knowledge and at the family’s pace.
- Off the recordTell us before you tell us, not after, and we will honor it.
We report on reservation communities, farm towns, resort towns, and cities on their own terms, and we do not write our assumptions about any of them into a story.
Money and who pays
Anything paid for is labeled at the top, in a box, before the headline. Same place every time.
This is what it looks like. If a story does not carry that label, nobody paid for it.
Advertising buys ad space. Sponsored coverage buys sponsored coverage. Neither one buys a place in the regular run of the site.
Advertisers and sponsors get no editorial consideration and no editorial penalty. They do not see stories in advance, they are not told what is coming, and advertising decisions do not enter editorial conversations. Founding members are advertisers under this rule like anyone else, and $2,000 moves a story exactly as far as $0 does.
Content written by an outside organization runs under that author’s name with a line identifying the arrangement. We fact-check it, we copy-edit it to our standards, and we can decline it.
Comped meals, tickets, and lodging accepted for a review or event coverage are disclosed in the story and never conditioned on favorable coverage.
Reviews
We publish reviews only of places we would recommend. If a place does not earn one, we do not write it up, and we do not write it up unfavorably either. We are not going to pan the café in a town of 400 people. That is the arrangement, stated here so you can weigh what you read accordingly.
Conflicts we have
We cover places where our staff have neighbors, relatives, employers, and church pews. Conflicts are going to happen, and the honest thing is to handle them out loud rather than pretend otherwise.
- Family and financial interestsNobody writes about a business or organization where they, their spouse, or an immediate family member has a financial stake or a leadership role. Where it is unavoidable, the relationship is disclosed inside the story.
- GiftsWe refuse gifts, fees, free travel, and special treatment.
- Outside rolesOutside employment, campaign work, and officer positions in organizations we cover are disclosed to the publisher before anyone accepts them.
Who decides
Report the story, build the timeline, check the facts, and file. The byline is theirs.
Anyone can write for us, and members can send a writeup of an event they posted to the calendar. Those run under the contributor’s own name and are edited to the same standards as anything else. Send us details instead of a writeup and one of our writers may take it, in which case the byline is the writer’s.
Reads every word before it publishes. Jodi Moyer.
Final call on anonymity, corrections, unavoidable conflicts, and anything involving a minor. Gregory Moyer, and the responsibility for what publishes is his.
No government body licenses journalists and no agency enforces any of this. These standards are ours. They draw on the Associated Press Statement of News Values and Principles and the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, adapted for a small publication covering the communities its staff live in.
Think we fell short of something on this page? Say so. editor@minnesotanicenews.com
