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Corrections Policy
One of the most serious and most harmful blanket complaints levelled against online publications is that they are inaccurate—or, worse, that they are unconcerned with accuracy.
We make no pretensions that we at Torontoist are now or can ever be flawless: while we have an editor, deputy editor, and several copy-editors we have no full-time fact checker, and no money in our budget for one in the foreseeable future. (It’s one of the ways we’re just like the big papers!) Despite our modest size, we do take what we do seriously enough to think we should get it right, and as our readership grows so does our obligation to always present correct information. We, the Torontoist staff, currently make every effort possible to make sure that everything we write is accurate. (All posts are vetted by a copyeditor, and most by a more senior editor, before they are published; the responsibility for accuracy rests most in the hands of a post’s author.)
When we do make mistakes, though, it’s important that we acknowledge them prominently. As Jeff Jarvis concluded in the introduction to Regret the Error, Craig Silverman’s book about media errors: “We all make mistakes. That’s not the question. The question is what we do next.”
In May of 2008 we created and began consistently implementing a standard format for all corrections to posts. Any significant corrections or clarifications will be made as quickly as possible, and a note acknowledging them will be written by the editor-in-chief or deputy editor and will appear as follows at the bottom of a post:
In the box will be a full explanation of the error made (citing the article’s original words as appropriate), and a full explanation of the correction.
The tag “corrections” will also be added to the post—and a link to that tag is in our left-hand sidebar. (You can also subscribe to the tag, as you can with any other tag, using RSS.) If the error was pointed out or discussed in the comments, an editor or assistant editor will also post a comment as soon as possible, linking to the correction, so that the comment thread stays up to date and in context, too.
The help of our readers is invaluable in spotting mistakes and fixing them, and we’d love it if you could help report a mistake if you spot one by emailing [email protected]. We’d advise against leaving a comment if you catch a mistake: private e-mail allows for more quick back-and-forth than our comments do, and also ensures an editor follows up quickly.
With the new system, we are trying to be transparent; to admit to, highlight, explain, and ultimately own up to our mistakes when we make them and take steps to prevent them from happening again. Our goal is that that process, in addition to making our errors and their corrections more prominent, will also make them more and more rare—and we’ll all be better for it.
Last Updated: January 1, 2011.