Start with the event.
Readers should know what happened before we send them through history, procedure, or competing arguments.
How we report
Understanding the story means seeing how it was built.
The World, Clearly separates evidence from claims, explains the systems beneath the headline, and keeps the source trail visible. Young readers are capable of handling complexity when the obstacles are explained instead of hidden.
Add the context that changes the meaning.
History, law, economics, science, institutions, and incentives belong when they help explain the current event—not simply because they are interesting.
Keep claims attached to the people making them.
A statement from a politician, company, government, activist, or expert is not automatically a verified fact. We attribute it and check what evidence supports it.
Show readers where the information came from.
Primary documents, direct reporting, data, and analysis are labeled so readers can inspect the trail instead of being asked to trust a mysterious narrator.
Say what is still unknown.
Uncertainty is information. Developing stories should not become more certain merely because a clean answer sounds better.
Correct mistakes visibly.
Substantive corrections should say what was wrong, what changed, and why. Important errors are not quietly erased.
Language matters
Not every sentence is the same kind of information.
We use these distinctions inside the newsroom so reporting, attribution, and uncertainty do not blur together.
- Verified fact
- Supported by reliable evidence.
- Claim
- Something a person or organization says is true.
- Analysis
- An interpretation or explanation based on evidence.
- Opinion
- A value judgment or conclusion.
- Unknown
- Something reliable evidence does not establish yet.
Source order
Get as close to the evidence as the story allows.
- 01Primary documents and data
Laws, court opinions, official records, datasets, research papers, transcripts.
- 02High-quality direct reporting
Reporting that establishes events, observations, interviews, and documented actions.
- 03Independent corroboration
Multiple reliable sources when a disputed or consequential fact needs confirmation.
- 04Experts and established research
Used to explain systems, evidence, history, and likely effects.
- 05Interested parties and advocacy sources
Useful for understanding their positions; not automatic proof of disputed facts.
Reading depths
We change the reading demand without changing the subject.
Quick Read uses shorter sentences and fewer moving parts. Full Story adds more systems and context. Deep Dive can keep more policy language, history, and ambiguity.
Important terms remain when the term itself is worth learning. We explain cloture, tariff, or collective bargaining instead of replacing the real vocabulary with a vague substitute.
Use the correct word. Remove the obstacle, not the idea.
AI in the newsroom
AI can assist the work. It cannot become the evidence.
AI may help organize sources, compare documents, draft explanations, suggest vocabulary, or adapt reading difficulty.
Published factual claims still need to trace back to reliable sources. Generated text is checked for invented facts, altered numbers, missing context, false equivalence, and inaccurate simplification.
Want to see the method applied to a real story?
Read today's story →