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. Back to Advertising Section