Our Policies
Editorial Independence Policy
We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News:
Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.
Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN's Membership Standards.
Donor Transparency
We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization.
Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics and special projects. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that operates as a public trust, we do not pay certain taxes. We may receive funds from standard government programs offered to nonprofits or similar businesses.
Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors or any revenue source. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.
We make public all revenue sources and donors who give $5,000 or more per year. As a news nonprofit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.
Corrections Policy
OINJ is committed to our integrity, the reputation of our team members and our reputation as a trusted media entity in Omaha. We recognize that mistakes may happen — or that new information can emerge after a story is published. We are committed to making editorial corrections related to factual errors in our reporting and editing, as well as inaccuracies related to misspellings, miscalculations or grammatical errors.
We will address any concerns about accuracy and fairness quickly, justly and transparently. If a correction or clarification is warranted, we will address it at the bottom of the story. We will also correct the information in that story or headline.
In exceptional circumstances, OINJ reserves the right to remove a story from our online platforms — temporarily or permanently — when the integrity of the published work is substantially undermined owing to errors in the conduct, analysis and/or reporting of the story. A statement explaining why the content has been removed will be published.
If anything you see in OINJ’s coverage that is inaccurate, please contact our Director, Abbie Kretz, at abbie@omahadocumenters.org.
Conflict of Interest Policy
Check out our full policy here.
