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Writers Guidelines:
Who We Are:
City Light News is an inter-denominational, evangelical Christian for-profit
newspaper produced in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. CLN is designed to be a
one-stop source of updatable information on Christian events and resources
serving the body of believers in the Southern and Central Alberta area. CLN
has been published since 1987. Our ministry news-oriented publication has a
monthly readership of over 36,000.
Our Mission:
We exist to report on newsworthy activities, ministries and issues from a
Christian perspective, to provide thought-provoking commentary, to provide
an opportunity for Christians to fellowship with one another while
encouraging spiritual growth through the Calendar of Events, to provide an
effective advertising vehicle for Christian ministries, organizations and
businesses aiming to reach the Christian marketplace and to advance the
Kingdom of God by uniting and strengthening the Body of Christ through
encouraging and informative stories, events and testimonies.
Our Readers:
Christian newspapers reach a specific audience, the church audience. Our
readers are Christians of all ages (youth to seniors) from all walks of
life. We believe that we are in partnership with our readers, who determine
our success. We will solicit, hear, respect and act on their ideas. We will
maintain standards of excellence and strive to delight customers with
innovative content. Our paper is geared to the believer but our prayer is
that everyone who reads CLN will discover the truth of God’s love in their
own personal lives.
Our Commitment: Code of Ethics and Standards :
Our integrity is our future. We believe that the cornerstone of our
enterprise is journalistic integrity. We insist on honesty and accuracy in
all our reporting. We will report progress and achievements as well as
challenges and injustices, offering our readers context and perspective. We
will entertain as well as enlighten. Professional journalists and
responsible newspapers have a special obligation to help ensure the public
is well informed. We have written these commitments out so that readers can
be aware of the standards this newspaper sets for itself, and can call it to
account if those standards are not met. Any questions regarding the
editorial code of ethics can be directed to CLN’s editor,
Peter McManus.
Editorial Integrity:
CLN will live up to quality publishing standards and journalistic integrity.
We will ensure that the editorial is original, the focus is personal to the
readers, the physical quality is high and the circulation is verifiable. The
role of our writers is to provide readers with reliable, relevant
information. To ensure the greatest benefit to readers, editorial policies
and procedures have been designed to support this goal.
Ad to
editorial ratios:
Advertising content must not exceed 70% in any issue of our newspaper.
Editorial content:
At least 50% of the editorial content of each issue must be produced by
members of CLN’s Writer’s Team. At least 50% of the editorial content of
each issue must pertain to CLN’s circulation area. We will strive for
balanced and comprehensive coverage of the news and events affecting the
local Christian communities we serve. We are committed to serving the
Christian community locally, nationally and internationally and will not
cover one geographic region only. CLN will not accept content that
inappropriately or forcefully pushes an agenda. Information sharing
will remain one of our main objectives.
Editorials:
Editorials may only be placed in the commentary section unless a
continuation of the text into another area of the commentary section is
deemed necessary. The calendar page is considered editorial. We encourage the submission of
Letters to the Editor.
Letters to the Editor:
Space will be provided for Letters to the Editor. Letters will be printed as
submitted unless the editors choose to delete words or portions that are in
poor taste, libelous or unnecessary to convey essential meaning. Letters
should be no longer than 300 words (typed and double-spaced). The editors
may condense longer letters. Letters must include the author’s name,
signature and telephone number. Unsigned letters will not be accepted. All
letters received over Email will be verified, and must include the author’s
name and telephone number. The author’s name will appear with the letter
unless circumstances warrant its absence. This decision will lie with the
editor. Statement of fact and opinion in letters to the editor, editorials
and commentaries are the responsibility of the author(s) alone and do not
necessarily reflect the opinion of CLN.
Editor’s Rights:
CLN reserves the right to edit all articles on the basis of fairness,
information value, taste, accuracy, grammar, clarity, style, length and
other editorial considerations. Editorial commission is not a guarantee of
publication - editors retain the right to request a rewrite, or to reject a
piece at any stage. The editor’s decision is final. The editor has the right
to set policy on any situation not listed in these editorial standards.
Writer’s Team:
We believe that our Writer’s
Team is the heart of our journalistic mission. We will therefore: Work to
provide an environment that stimulates and values their creativity and
rewards them fairly; Seek to foster an atmosphere of mutual respect that
empowers; Aim to help them learn, as individuals and as team members,
enhancing their productivity in the face of constant change.
Columnists:
The content of the columns is presumed to be the opinions of the columnists
and not necessarily that of the editors. While the editors respect the
rights of the columnists to express their opinions, the editors will apply
to the columnists the same editorial standards applied to other parts of the
newspaper. Letters to the editor are the proper vehicles for occasional
expressions of opinion; a regular column is a privileged forum available to
those willing to commit themselves.
By-lines:
All articles and photographs will carry a by-line unless the entire article
was taken from a published press release.
Profanity:
CLN will not print profanity. The editor reserves the right to edit or
reject anything deemed to be profane.
Alcohol and Tobacco:
CLN will not unreasonably restrict the mention of alcohol or tobacco in
newspaper content, such as references in commentaries. Sensitive to the fact
that many of our readers are under the legal drinking and smoking age and
coupled with a desire to promote healthy, responsible lifestyles, CLN will
restrict the inclusion of alcohol and tobacco references in advertising. CLN
will not accept advertising that promotes alcohol or tobacco use or abuse.
The final decision of the intent of an advertisement’s content belongs to
the editor.
Conflict of Interest Situations:
Readers should be confident that stories are printed in CLN because
journalists have judged them to be of value to readers, not because special
interests are promoting the stories. We will strive for objectivity in our
reporting, but understand the potential for conflict of interest. Writers
with a special interest in a particular organization should, if possible,
avoid writing articles relating to that organization. All actual or apparent
conflicts of interest involving writers of articles or columns will be
disclosed to readers. For example, a member of a political party who writes
political analysis will be identified as a party member.
Criticism:
Constructive criticism can help us learn from our mistakes, while ridicule
is of little value. We know that criticism is fundamental to improvement. We
encourage continual input from our readers, writers and advertisers.
Accuracy:
Accurate, timely news reports and other informative articles are the
foundation of the newspaper. Every effort will be made to provide readers
with the latest news and to verify questionable information. Articles will
not be shown to sources prior to publication. However, reasonable efforts
will be made to ensure information from the sources is factual and in
context.
Quotes and Sources:
As far as possible, all sources of information will be disclosed to readers.
Comments published within quotation marks must be exactly as written or
spoken, except for occasional minor grammatical editing that does not change
the sense or tone of the quotation. Similarly, photographs must not be
electronically or otherwise altered to distort the actual scene. Statements
quoted in articles will be fully attributed to sources whenever possible.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. If any staff or outside writer is found to
have deliberately copied someone else’s work without attribution, the
infraction will be publicly noted. Guarantees of confidentiality to sources
will be respected, within limits set by Canadian law.
Errors:
Complaints will be given full and prompt consideration. All factual errors
brought to the attention of CLN staff will be corrected in the following
issue. All corrections for any particular section will be printed within the
first 4 pages of the newspaper.
Advertising:
Please consult our Rate Card for prices and guidelines. Total
advertising volume influences the total pages available for editorial copy,
therefore the existence or non-existence of individual advertising orders
will have some bearing on placement or editing of specific news stories and
photographs. Advertising features (Advertorials) will be clearly identified
as such.
Editorial Deadline:
All articles and photographs must be submitted to the editor no later than
the 15th
of the month prior to publication date.
Freedom of the Press:
CLN supports the principle of a free press as one of the foundations of
democracy and individual liberty.
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