ABOUT ANCHORAGE PRESS
VALUES, POLICIES, & ACTIONS
Our work is based on trust. We’ve found that readers, subjects and sources all benefit from a better understanding of our journalistic principles and policies, which we describe below. We’re still in our early days, so expect these standards to evolve and change. Questions, comments or concerns about the policies, or how we apply them? Contact editor Nathaniel Herz, [email protected].
EDITORIAL STANDARDS
The Press is staffed by human beings with opinions, emotions and experiences — all of which influence the way we identify and select stories, perceive the world and describe it back to readers.
That being said, we believe that the role of journalism is, as much as possible, to get out of the way — to let subjects and facts speak for themselves, and when disputes exist, to allow parties on all sides to share their best arguments and information so that readers can make up their own minds about where they stand.
We also take pains to preserve our independence, so that readers, subjects and sources don’t have doubts about whether the news and facts they receive from us are tainted by conflicts of interest.
Donors, advertisers, and investors have no say in story creation, or in our reporting, writing, and editing process.
Generally, we do not accept meals nor even so much as a cup of coffee from our sources, or from people we cover, though we exercise some discretion and flexibility around those rules in specific context where accepting hospitality is unavoidable, such as when reporting in rural Alaska.
We label reporting, analysis, opinion, and sponsored content clearly.
We do not send stories to sources or subjects before publication. We may share quotes and their surrounding context in advance to confirm their accuracy, particularly if a source or subject does not have ample experience working in media or does not hold a position of power.
We will happily speak with you on a background basis, which means that you can share information with us that we will not link to you in a subsequent story. Depending on the seriousness of the subject matter, this can be a sensitive process, so we encourage you to reach out to us with questions about our process. We take confidentiality with the utmost seriousness and will take the steps necessary to protect your confidence, though sometimes this means we may not be able to use information or follow through with tips if it’s clear that the journalistic steps necessary for confirmation risk outing the source.
Our editorial staff does not donate to political candidates, parties or groups, and we do not register with political parties.
CORRECTIONS
If we make an error in one of our stories — and all reporters and editors do make mistakes — we will work promptly to issue a correction and note it at the bottom of the story. If you find an error, email [email protected].
FINANCES & FUNDING MODEL
The Anchorage Press operates under a dual hybrid funding model: nonprofit 501(c)(3) donations fund our public-interest journalism, while direct reader memberships and local advertising power our monthly print issues and cultural reporting.
The Anchorage Press accepts donations to advance our mission of providing independent, public-interest journalism to all Alaskans. Donations help with our general operations. We also accept financial support for coverage of specific issues, but only if it aligns with our ethics policy and our commitment to editorial independence.
As journalists, we value transparency and expect to be held to the same standards as the powerful people, government agencies and businesses that we cover.
To that end, and in alignment with other independent news outlets across the country, we make public all donors who contribute $5,000 or more per year.
Accepting financial support does not imply an endorsement of donors or their products, services nor opinions. We do not accept donations from any individuals or organizations who compromise the independence of our newsroom.
We do not publish or sell donors’ personal data without their permission.
AI POLICY
The Anchorage Press is committed to remaining an outlet of humans, by humans and for humans.
Like other newsrooms and businesses, we find ourselves wrestling with difficult questions about the use of artificial intelligence. Some jobs in our industry are at risk of becoming obsolete, and we’re confronting new dilemmas not only about the nature of humanity and work but also about issues core to journalism: trust, authenticity and accuracy.
After some internal conversations and external research, here’s where we’ve arrived for our initial AI policies.
OUR GUIDING AI PRINCIPLES
- • Our newsroom will use AI sparingly, and only in ways that align with our guiding principles of accuracy, transparency and fairness.
- • Human beings will make all of our editorial decisions. Human beings will write and edit all of our stories. And human beings will take the photos we publish and design the art that appears on our website and in our print issues.
- • AI will not replace our journalists and artists.
We may use AI in specific instances to aid research and reporting, and to promote our work. Such uses might include transcribing interviews, analyzing large datasets, locating documents online, making our content more visible on the internet, and checking our writing for factual errors and copy edits. We will always make the final decisions over any verbiage.
As a general rule, we will not publish content generated by AI — though we reserve the right to do so in special instances where we’d label it clearly, such as if AI is the subject of a story or if we’re prompting it to give dumb answers that we’re publishing to make fun of AI or ourselves.
We will also disclose when we use AI to assist with analysis — say, by helping summarize thousands of public comments.
We will always treat AI-generated content as unvetted, whether we solicit it ourselves or encounter it on the internet. Our reporters and editors will apply the same judgment, sourcing standards and verification process to AI-generated information as we would to any other material.
In short: We may use AI in narrow ways, with strict oversight, to help our very-human staff and contributors produce good journalism. We are actively working on a broader policy on AI use across the whole Anchorage Press business, not just in our newsroom.
Our organization’s work is inextricably tied to Dena’ina Ełnena. We recognize the ongoing Dena’ina stewardship of these lands and the imbalance of narrative and political power that has shaped our present.