We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News:
Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.
Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year.
Fact-checking: All of our content is independently reported by paid reporters trained to talk to multiple sources, to find documentation where possible and to check facts religiously. To avoid any conflicts with unreported content, we do not accept sponsored content.
Corrections policy: We welcome reader input on errors and attend to them immediately. Readers can contact the reporters — all of their emails are at the end of each story. Or they can contact the editors at editors@missionlocal.com. Our full corrections policy is here.
Ownership and funding: Mission Local is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization (EIN:
88-3177547). All donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Checks written for Mission Local should be made out to Mission Local and can be sent to Mission Local at 2489 Mission Street, #22, San Francisco, CA 94110.
Ethics policy: We adhere to the ethics policy of the Society of Professional Journalists. The link takes you to the policy and position papers on the policy.
We have also adopted additional internal editorial standards that are, in part, laid out below.
Mission Local expects reporters to keep an open mind while reporting out a story; to report widely; to resolve contradictions that arise; and to talk to those who have immediate knowledge of any situation.
If we are writing a story highly critical of an individual or an institution, we must seek responses from anyone criticized in our coverage and to remain open to the possibility that we may be wrong. Reporters are responsible for accurately and fairly characterizing responses from the subjects of our pieces and giving the reader adequate knowledge of why they should trust that person’s views. For example, because they were an eyewitness, they had intimate knowledge and documentation, or their version of events can be corroborated.
In all cases, but particularly when the criticism is serious, Mission Local reporters should abide by a “no surprises” doctrine and lay out, in detail, the specific allegations made against a subject before publication. The reporter should, ideally, be in contact with the subject of the piece early on.
Reporters must make a real effort to obtain a full response from that individual or institution. They must give the subject of the story time to respond, and must seek comment in an unbiased manner. They must craft questions to avoid any appearance of prejudice, while laying out fully the allegations against them. For example, “This is what I know and can document. As you can see, it does not look good, but perhaps you can explain what I have wrong or what I am misreading.”
In cases in which a subject declines to respond to substantive questions, reporters must have a specific conversation with an editor to raise the lack of response. Even in those cases, reporters must make a concerted effort to reflect the subject’s perspective in their coverage. Doing so is a service to our readers.