Last Updated: February 17, 1999
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York (Pa.) Daily Record
Guide to your workplace
What you do on a computer can be awfully hard to take back.
-- Internet accounts are for our business and professional activities,
the same as for portable computers and cellular phones. Private business
should be conducted through private accounts. The company is paying
for a limited number of simultaneous accesses to the Internet through its
service provider. If you are on line for personal use, you might
be blocking someone from important work.
-- Represent yourself on line as if you were appearing at a public meeting
representing the Daily Record. Every message you send is stamped
"ydr.com." What you write, even in private e-mail, can easily be posted
to lists and newsgroups available to millions of people. No doubt
it will be saved by somebody.
The same ethical standards we practice off line apply on line.
Don't participate in political activities or take sides on matters of public
debate electronically. Don't express opinions about products, companies
or individuals when you may be perceived by the public as a representative
of the Daily Record.
If you do participate in an on-line discussion group, please clarify
that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of the organization.
-- Act as though the laws of libel apply to electronic communications.
Remember that laws of other jurisdictions might be more restrictive than
the laws in our state. You must apply the same journalistic standards
of fair reporting, good sourcing and verification that you would if interviewing
face to face or gathering material in some other media.
Again, please see your supervisor, the editor, or managing editor if
you have questions about issues that arise in this increasingly important
area.
GIFTS, VOLUNTEERISM, OUTSIDE EMPLOYMENT
A newspaper is in a special position of public trust and responsibility.
We write stories and editorials that raise issues of not only conflict
of interest but appearance of conflict of interest. All employees
of the York Daily Record should hold themselves up to the same standards
that we expect of other community leaders.
One implication of this is that we need to have standards on areas such
as acceptance of gifts, community service and outside employment.
The ethics section of the "POLICY94" file in the Atex system also discusses
these issues. "POLICY94" can also be found in the newsroom policy
section of the red binder given to you at orientation.
Gifts: Basically, we should not accept anything of significant value
from subjects or potential subjects of news coverage. If we cannot
decline or return gifts, they should be donated for our internal auctions
that raise money for causes such as the Christmas Emergency Fund.
Volunteerism: For many years, newspapers discouraged community involvement
by journalists so they could remain distanced from any potential conflicts.
There was a big price paid by this. Journalists became aloof from
the communities they covered, and missed out on life experiences that could
enrich them both personally and professionally. The York Daily Record
encourages you to be active in the community, whether it's coach a baseball
team or making a meal at the soup kitchen. However, this requires
more situational judgment calls. Use common sense. Don't handle
publicity for an organization. You should stay away from public-policy
advocacy groups and political campaigns. Journalists active in an
organization that is a subject of coverage must disclose that involvement
should any conflict or likely potential conflict arise. Failure to
disclose such involvement could result in disciplinary action. If
you are in doubt about appropriate involvement, please discuss this with
your supervisor.
Outside Employment and Free-lancing: We’re in a highly competitive,
growing media market. The unique material we produce is the most
important thing we have to sell, and it's in everyone's interest to protect
this. The company must approve any work YDR employees may wish to
perform for the following organizations: the York Dispatch, York Sunday
News, the Harrisburg Patriot News, Sunday Patriot, Capital News Service
or its successor, the Baltimore Sun, The Hanover Evening Sun, the Lancaster
New Era, Intelligencer Journal, Sunday News, Community Courier, This Week,
WGAL-TV, WPMT-TV, WHP-TV, WHTM-TV, WSBA Radio, the Merchandiser, USA Today,
and Central Penn Business Journal. Work for other organizations also
can be problematic, particularly if it appears the work could put us at
a competitive disadvantage or affect our credibility. Free-lance
or outside employment relationships also can create conflict-of-interest
situations in your work for the paper. On the other hand, it may
be perfectly fine to take a story written for the paper, add material collected
on your own time, and do a rewrite to prepare a new article for free-lance
sale to a magazine.
The York Daily Record owns the rights to the material it publishes.
This includes the stories, photos and negatives, artwork or graphics to
which you contribute as an employee of the Daily Record. You are
not entitled to sell on your own or give permission to anyone to re-use
any material produced for the Daily Record or its related ventures.
Requests to reproduce published material, or other questions about free-lance
and outside employment situations should be referred to the editor or managing
editor.
RESIGNATION/EXIT INTERVIEW
Most employees enjoy their work experience with us. The atmosphere
here is pleasant, professional and rewarding for your career. Most
who leave the York Daily Record move on to bigger and better papers and
continue to advance their careers. Should you choose to leave us,
we ask that you give us at least a two weeks' notice in writing, which
will allow us to adjust work schedules and minimize the extra workload
on your friends you will be leaving behind.
We like to conduct exit interviews, designed to provide feedback to
us to make our workplace better today and in the future. You will
be asked to answer a few brief questions.
York Daily Record Ethics Policies
ATTRIBUTION
Be wary of going "off the record." Newsmakers who go "off the record"
can maneuver you into the position of not being able to report or pursue
what they have told you. In the vast majority of cases, a hard-nosed
attitude against going off the record prods the newsmaker to go ahead and
say what he wanted to say anyway, or it at least leaves you free to seek
the information without restriction elsewhere.
If there are conditions on attribution, or any possibility of misunderstanding
about what will or will not be used for publication, be sure the source
understands them. This is particularly true when sources are not
public officials or do not generally talk to the media. These are
the generally accepted definitions of the conditions of attribution:
On the record: All statements and opinions can be quoted and paraphrased
at will, and are attributed directly to the source. This is the preferred
manner.
For background: All statements and opinions can be quoted and paraphrased
at will, without direct attribution to the source. However, the newspaper
has strict guidelines on the use of unnamed sources, so this may be of
little actual value.
Off the record: Anything said off the record cannot be quoted or paraphrased
at all. The reporter should make it clear to the source that he or
she will attempt to learn the information from other sources without implicating
the original source. Never agree to go off the record if the understanding
is that you can not try to get the information from another source.
At that point, you have ceased to be a reporter.
ETHICAL STANDARDS
A. Newsroom personnel must not use their association with the newspaper
for personal gain or influence.
People will sometimes offer a journalist gifts in hopes of getting favorable
coverage for the organizations they represent. To prevent such a
situation from developing and to prevent even the appearance of conflict
of interest in our coverage, the following is a Daily Record policy:
a. Personal gifts to newsroom employees generally are not permitted.
An employee may accept such modest gifts as a cup of coffee or a soft drink
if acceptance of such a gift is reasonably relevant to the course of the
employee's duties. Material gifts such as cash, clothing, a bottle
of liquor, etc., are not permitted. If you should be mailed such
a gift, tell a supervising editor immediately and that will be put into
the company auction, benefits from which are given to the Christmas Emergency
Fund.
b. Employees are urged to use the utmost caution in accepting a gift
of a meal from a source. In this area you may face a quick, unexpected
decision and you are expected to use good judgment and put personal desires
aside.
If a source offers to buy you lunch, the best policy is for you to buy
the meal or to go Dutch treat. If the source insists on paying, offer
to buy the next lunch, set a date and follow through. If the meal
is going to be expensive, take a second to question the source's motives.
Avoid anything that may compromise - or may allow the source to compromise
- your integrity. A cheese sandwich is one thing. A five-course
meal with drinks at the Accomac Inn is another. If a source insists
on treating you to a big-tab dinner, try to delay him/her until you can
talk it over with a supervisor.
Remember, employees will be reimbursed for reasonable costs - such as
lunch or dinner - with a source when unavoidably incurred during the course
of the employee's duties. Receipts are necessary for reimbursement.
c. Employees who review or use for reference any books or records,
tapes and discs that publishers and recording companies provide to the
newspaper turn them in for auctioning to benefit the Christmas Emergency
Fund.
Items that arrive unsolicited in the mail are auctioned off periodically
in our news office, and the proceeds donated to charity.
d. Junkets, free trips and reduced rate or subsidized travel may not
be accepted. An exception may be made, however, when free or reduced-rate
transportation is the only means available to cover an event (such as a
military flight or a trip arranged by a foundation or a government agency).
Staff must consult with their supervising editor before accepting such
arrangements.
Staff members may travel on charter plans (such as with a sports team
or political candidate) and take advantage of charter rates, hotel bookings
or other services offered by a news source. Again, all such trips
must be approved by your editor. In every instance, the news value
of the trip will be the determining factor in approving or disapproving
participation. The company also will consider reimbursement in such
instances.
e. Staff members may not accept the free use or reduced-rate purchase
of merchandise or products for personal pleasure when such an offer involved
the employee's newspaper position. The only exception is the use
of a product for a short time to be evaluated for news stories or if purchased
for the company. The extended or regular use of products for evaluation
purposes is not allowed.
f. A reporter must never guarantee positioning of an article or photo.
Also, a reporter must never guarantee when an article will be published.
The determination in both instances is at the discretion of the editors.
g. No employee is permitted to hold another job or office or duty that
may represent a conflict of interest with his/her duties. An employee
must inform his or her supervisor of any other employment or membership
in any organization that would represent such a conflict.
h. An employee must make his or her supervisor aware of any involvement
in any employee or personal friend of the employee may have in a story
to which the employee is assigned or which the employee suggests be run
by the newspaper. Generally, such employees should not be assigned
to such stories, but there may be exceptions, such as first-person stories
or stories that the employee may be more knowledgeable about than others
on the staff.
i. When relatives of employees of the York Daily Record are prominently
involved in stories or pictures, a supervising editor should determine
whether the relationship should be mentioned in a parenthetical paragraph.
If in doubt, err on the side of identifying the relationship.
B. For the past few years, sports staffers have been following APSE
Ethics Guidelines, which generally support guidelines stated above.
APSE guidelines follow:
1. The newspaper pays its staffer's way for travel, accommodations,
food and drink.
If a staffer travels on a chartered team plane, the newspaper should
insist on being billed. If the team cannot issue a bill, the amount
can be calculated by estimating the cost of a similar flight on a commercial
airline.
When services are provided to a newspaper by a pro or college team,
those teams should be reimbursed by the newspaper. This includes
providing telephone, typewriter or fax service.
Editors and reporters should avoid taking part in outside activities
or employment that might create conflict of interest or even appearance
of a conflict.
(a) They should not serve as an official scorer at baseball games.
(b) They should not write for team or league media guides or other team
or league publications. This has the potential of compromising a
reporter's disinterested observations.
(c) Staffers who appear on radio or television should understand that
their fire loyalty is to the paper.
3. Writers and writers' groups should adhere to APME and APSE standards:
No deals, discounts or gifts except those of insignificant value or those
available to the public.
(a) If a gift is impossible or impractical to return, donate the gift
to a charity.
(b) Do not accept free memberships or reduced fees for membership.
Do not accept gratis use of facilities, such as golf courses or tennis
courts unless it used as part of doing a story for the newspaper.
(c) Sports editors should be aware of standards of conduct of groups
and professional associations to which their writers belong and the ethical
standards to which those groups adhere, including areas such as corporate
sponsorship from news sources it covers.
4. A newspaper should not accept free tickets, although press credentials
needed for coverage and coordination are acceptable.
5. A newspaper should carefully consider the implications of voting
for all awards and all-star teams and decide if such voting creates a conflict
of interests
6. A newspaper's own ethical guidelines should be followed, and editors
and reporters should be aware of standards acceptable for use of unnamed
sources and verification of information obtained other than from primary
news sources.
(a) Sharing and pooling of notes and quotes should be discouraged.
If a reporter uses quotes gained secondhand, that should be made known
to the readers. A quote could be attributed to a newspaper or to
another reporter.
7. Assignments should be made on merit, without regard for race or gender.
Guidelines can't cover everything. Use common sense and good judgement
in applying these guidelines in adopting local codes.
NEWS JUDGMENT
Our bias is to do stories and publish photos as opposed to not doing
so. That seems self-evident but often newsrooms spend considerable
time thinking of reasons why something needn't be published. Informing
the public in a timely manner is key to our mission. Still, it's
often the case we can't or shouldn't use some material, and we're always
assessing how to best use the material we want to publish. That's
what news judgment is all about.
While no guidelines can be exhaustive, the following criteria is a good
place to start when evaluating newsworthiness. Much of this comes
from the textbook, "The Art of Editing."
a. Questions
Should:
A story/photo be used at all?
A story be used in full or in part?
A story/photo run on IA, section front or inside?
b. Criteria
(Does a story/photo reflect one or more of these values?)
1. Audience: No two audiences are alike, so it is reasonable to assume
that readers' tastes differ from city to city. Audiences may differ
even within a city. Readers of The New York Times, for example,
may have tastes that differ significantly from those of readers of the
New York Daily News. Good editors have a feel for the interests of
their audiences, and in many cases readership research has helped to clarify
those interests. In other words, tone.
2. Impact: The number of people affected by an event is often critical
in determining how extensively an account of it will be read. If garbage
rates are to increase throughout the city, the story has more impact than
if the garbage rates of only 15 families were affected.
3. Proximity: If the event happened nearby, it may be more interesting
to a newspaper's readers than it would be if it happened in another country.
4. Timeliness: News is important when it happens, and old news is of
little value to readers.
5. Prominence: Prominent people are of more interest than those who
are not. If the president changes his hairstyle, that may be news.
If the local butcher does, chances are that few people care.
6. Oddity: A 30-pound tomato may be interesting, and therefore newsworthy,
because such a tomato is unusual. Events that are firsts or lasts,
and therefore historical, also may be unusual enough to merit attention
in the news.
7. Conflict: Sport events, crime, political races and disputes often
are newsworthy because conflict plays such an important role in modern
society.
8. Visual impact: Photos that have strong and/or interesting graphic
elements will help draw a reader into a page.
Altering or faking photos
1. The content of a photograph may never be changed or manipulated in
any way.
2. Only the established norms of standard photo printing methods, such
as burning, dodging, black-and-white toning and cropping, are acceptable.
Retouching is limited to removal of normal scratches and dust spots.
3. Color may be corrected only to ensure honest reproduction of the
original. Color adjustments always should be minimal.
4. Any deceptive presentation of information in a news photograph (e.g.,
arranging debris at an accident scene) is prohibited.
5. Posed situations or the use of models for illustrative purposes should
be specifically identified to the reader when there is the possibility
that someone will believe the picture portrays a spontaneous event.
