Editorial Standards
These are the standards we hold Marengo Weekly to. They're public on purpose: a local newsletter is only worth reading if you can trust how it was put together. When a situation isn't covered here, we err toward fairness and accuracy.
What Marengo Weekly is
A free, weekly community newsletter for Marengo, Illinois. It exists to keep residents informed about local government, schools, business, and community life. We are a community resource, not an opinion outlet. We report what happened and help people take part, and we stay out of the fights.
The newsletter is published without personal bylines and speaks with one neutral community voice. That keeps the focus on the town rather than on any individual, and it's part of how we stay fair to everyone. It raises our bar rather than lowering it: the reporting has to stand on accuracy alone.
Accuracy and sourcing
- Get it right before you get it fast. A wrong fact costs more than a late item.
- Go to the primary source. We prefer the actual record, the ordinance, the minutes, the agenda packet, the state database, over anyone's summary of it. We read the document, then report it.
- Attribute, and name the specific record. We say where a fact came from, like "the March 23 council minutes" or "state liquor-license records," so a reader can check us.
- Characterizations belong to the source, not to us. We report that an official body concluded something rather than asserting a contested claim in our own voice.
- Two sources for anything contested or damaging. The more serious the claim, the higher the bar before it runs.
- We don't speculate. If we don't know why something happened, we say so. We don't guess at motives.
- We don't infer gender. A first name is not a source for gender. If it isn't established by a source, we write around the pronoun and confirm before using "he" or "she."
Fairness and naming people
This is the most sensitive area for a small-town publication, so we default to fairness and proportion.
- Routine recaps report the count, not the individual. We say "six of seven members present," not who was absent. Singling out one official in a routine recap reads as a hit piece.
- We praise individuals freely, including volunteers, business owners, students, and staff. Recognition is part of the mission.
- Criticism of named individuals is not our lane. We hold institutions and outcomes accountable, not people by name.
- Right of reply. If an item could reasonably be read as critical of a named person or business, we give them a chance to respond before it runs.
Political neutrality and conflicts of interest
- No endorsements, no campaigning. We don't endorse candidates, ballot measures, or parties, and the newsletter is never used to advantage or disadvantage anyone's campaign.
- Election coverage stays inclusive. If we cover a race, we cover all the candidates in it on the same terms.
- We disclose any relationship a reasonable reader would want to know about, and anyone who helps produce the newsletter steps back from coverage of a race or board they have a stake in.
- Advertising never buys coverage. Ad and sponsor relationships don't earn, shape, or suppress editorial content, and paid placements are visually distinct from reporting.
Corrections
We fix errors promptly and in the open. We don't quietly delete them. On a published web article we append a dated note at the bottom ("Correction (date): ...") rather than editing the facts away. If a material error went out by email, we note the correction in the next issue. Typos and formatting can be fixed silently; factual changes get a note.
Spotted something we got wrong? Email contact@marengoweekly.com and we'll look into it.
Photos and images
We use images we have the right to use: our own photos, submitted photos with permission, or properly licensed and public-domain images. We caption and add alt text to images, we credit sources where expected, and we don't alter a photo so it misrepresents what happened.
How this is enforced
Stories move through draft, review, and publish. A contributor submits work for review, and an editor approves it or sends it back with a note. Nothing reaches readers without that approval, and the weekly issue is previewed and test-read before it's sent.