Our policies at a glance

Local News Matters is an independently owned and operated local news outlet, part of the nonprofit Bay City News Foundation, a 501(c)3 charity, established in 2018. You can read more about us here.

ETHICS POLICY: We insist on original, verified, well-sourced reporting from journalists who are committed to doing trustworthy and fact-based reporting about their own communities. We do not allow anonymous sources or attribution to other media except with permission in exceptional circumstances. Nor do we allow generative AI for news writing (see below); we insist on human verification and original writing even if technological tools are used to research topics and background. We follow the SPJ Code of Ethics. We use AP style. We require writers to avoid conflicts of interest on the topics they cover so that our sources, clients and readers have confidence in our commitment to being fair and accurate. We correct our mistakes and welcome feedback at newsroom@baycitynews.com. With the exception of some contributed columns published in the public interest, we pay our writers, editors and other staff.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS: Our outlet follows the highest ethical and professional standards outlined by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics and the editorial independence policy developed by the Institute for Nonprofit News. We are also proud members of the Local Independent Online News Publishers, and our staff belong to the Society of Professional Journalists and other professional associations. 

CORRECTIONS POLICY:  Our outlet responds to all requests for corrections and clarifications in a timely manner. We investigate all requests with independent fact-finding to be sure that our information is correct. Please note that we generally do not issue corrections for differences of opinion or disagreements with editorial judgment. We prominently display any corrected text so readers can see what was updated, and we also do internal corrections audits to prevent similar errors from being repeated. To alert us to any concerns, contact our 24/7 news desk at (510) 251-8100 or newsroom@baycitynews.com.

INDEPENDENCE: 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.

TRANSPARENCY: Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.

BCNF PARTNERS & INSTITUTIONAL FUNDERS: Bay City News Foundation is grateful to our partners and institutional funders who have helped us grow and do impactful work. We adhere to the guiding principles outlined by the American Press Institute in our funding partnerships. These partners include:

TERMS OF USE FOR THE LNM WEBSITE: All content published on localnewsmatters.org — including articles, photographs, illustrations, graphics, videos, audio, interactives, and any other materials — is the property of Bay City News Foundation or its licensors and is protected by U.S. and international copyright law. All rights are reserved. You may not reproduce, republish, distribute, transmit, display, broadcast, adapt, translate, or otherwise use any Local News Matters content, in whole or in part, without the prior express written permission of Bay City News Foundation, with a few exceptions for personal use and fair use. Our full Terms of Use, including our Privacy Policy that affirms we do not sell your information to any third party, can be found here.

USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: You can find our organization’s full statement and policy on the use of AI here. This applies to our parent nonprofit, Bay City News Foundation, the affiliated Bay City News Service, the Local News Matters public website, The Mendocino Voice, and other products such as newsletters and social media platforms. The purpose of this policy is to ensure the responsible, ethical, and legal use of AI in our efforts to provide meaningful, impactful news coverage for the communities we serve in the greater Bay Area and Northern California, and to ensure that the use of AI in our newsroom adheres to our values as an organization. This policy applies to all employees, freelancers and contributors who work with our organization. 

We commit to using AI technologies only in manners which uphold our high standard of integrity, accuracy, fairness and transparency.  The use of AI tools will never be used to mislead readers, manipulate facts or misrepresent information.  We rigorously apply ethical standards of journalism to all our work and adhere to the standards of the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics. We do not use generative AI to write stories; reporters and editors are responsible for creating the work we publish.

We do use AI search tools for researching documents, finding sources and uncovering information that, once independently verified, may become part of our reports. We use AI tools to analyze our performance as a news website, including tools to predict audience behavior, provide insights into reader patterns and understand how to better serve community information needs. We use AI for some commonly accepted uses such as spell check, photo sizing, A/B testing of headlines and the timing and limited wording of social media postings based on original content. Any content published with the use of AI must be approved by our top editors and managers and labeled transparently for readers.