Postindustrial's Code of Ethics

Because we want to earn and keep your trust, we are glad to share our reporting process with you.

Postindustrial follows the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics, found here.

At a time when there’s increased disdain for journalists, and misunderstanding of how we gather news, we think it’s important that we let our readers and viewers know how we do what we do.

Also, we distinguish our independent, original journalism across all platforms from advertising and partner content.

Our writers, editors, and photographers are from around the world.

We seek out journalists without regard to geographic boundaries and language barriers. But what they have in common: A body of work that speaks to their commitment to producing high-quality, independent, journalism.

We define independent journalism as:

Seeking and reporting truth, based on facts, to produce reports with context and fairness that shine a light on an important matter of the public interest, inform, inspire, and we hope sometimes, laugh.

Behind our journalism:

• Opinion pieces — those written in the first person — are separate from the reported stories we produce. Reported stories contain interviews with experts and other primary sources.
• No anonymous sources, unless on that rare occasion we believe sharing the news with the public is so important we could not report the story any other way. And if so, we will explain our reasoning.
• No fabricated first or last names to shield an individual’s identity.
• We do not accept preferential treatment in exchange for producing a story. Journalism is not marketing.
• We are independent. That means we produce and aggregate what what our editors believe to be important based on the news value to the public or interest in an issue.
• We tell stories that contain varying viewpoints and with context.
• We seek to be fair.

On sourcing: When primary source research — a scientific study, for example — is available to bolster our stories, we include that. Before using, we further evaluate the sources of that information for potential bias/thoroughness. It will always be clear within our reporting where we obtained the information.

Fact-checking: We fact-check against primary sources. That means if a source offers a statistic to back up an assertion, we find out where the information originated and verify it. That applies across all of our work, including columns submitted by guest writers.

Corrections: If we make an error we will correct it quickly.

If you have a question, ask us!

Contact us at: editorial@postindustrial.com