Editorial Standards

Sources and citation

Every article we publish names the source it draws on. The citation appears in the body of the piece, attached to the publisher's name (e.g. "according to the Reuters report"), and again as a permanent attribution block at the end of the article. We do not link to a source with anchor text like "click here" — the link sits on a noun phrase that tells you what the source is.

When the original report references additional authoritative documents — a peer-reviewed study, an SEC filing, a government press release — we link to those too. Most articles carry two to three outbound links. We never invent a URL: if we can't supply a real second link, we ship the article with just the source citation.

We avoid anonymous sourcing. If a story relies on an unnamed source, the article explains why anonymity was granted. Phrasings like "industry sources", "experts say", or"officials confirmed" without naming the source or the document do not pass our pre-publication review.

Fact-checking

Every article passes through two layers of verification before it goes live:

• 1.Section-editor review. A human editor reads the draft, checks the angle against the source material, verifies that every named person, organisation, dollar amount, and date in the piece can be traced back to a citation, and signs off before publication. The byline reflects the editor responsible for the piece.
• 2.Automated fact-anchor check. Our publishing pipeline runs an automated check that compares specific data points in the draft (numbers with units, named institutions, years) against the source material. Articles that fail the check are held for editorial review rather than auto-published. This is a backstop, not a substitute, for human review.

AI tools — how we use them

We use AI tools — currently from the Google Gemini family — for research summarisation, first-draft writing, and metadata generation (tags, social descriptions). This is now standard practice across the industry; we disclose it here so readers know.

Three rules govern how those tools are allowed to operate at OwlyTimes:

• •AI does not decide what gets published. Story selection, angle, and final approval sit with a human section editor. AI proposes, the editor disposes.
• •Every published article is reviewed by an editor. The editor's name appears on the byline. Where a draft has been edited substantially, the published version differs from the AI first draft.
• •AI may not invent facts. Our prompts forbid the model from making up names, numbers, dates, or quotes; the fact-anchor check above catches violations and routes them to editorial review.

We do not affix per-article AI labels. The editor reviews and signs off; the responsibility is with the byline.

Independence and conflicts of interest

We do not accept payment to publish, kill, or shape a story. Sponsored content, when it appears, is labelled as such and is kept editorially separate from regular coverage. We do not mix advertorial language into news copy.

Editors disclose financial interests that overlap with their beat. If an editor on the finance desk holds individual stock in a company they cover, they disclose it in-line on the article; if the holding is large enough to compromise judgment, the story is reassigned to another editor.

OwlyTimes is independent of any media holding company. We are not affiliated with the subjects of our coverage.

Diversity, balance, and right of reply

We try to draw on diverse sources — geographically, professionally, and in viewpoint — and to treat contested questions as contested rather than as settled. We believe that a story which takes one side seriously is a better story than one that hedges every paragraph; we also believe that a writer's job is to tell the reader what they actually think the evidence shows, not to bury that judgment under pretend balance.

When a person or organisation is named in an unfavourable light, we make a reasonable effort to contact them for response, and we publish their response (or note that we asked and received none) in the same article.

Updates to this policy

When this policy materially changes, the change is dated at the top of the page and the prior wording is preserved in our internal records. For comments or concerns about anything on this page, write to [email protected].