Editorial standards

These are the rules our editor, Loretta Vance, holds every story to.

Sourcing. Every fact needs a source we can name: a record, a published account, a document or a person who was there. Historical and biographical pieces lean on published references and archives. If we cannot confirm something, it stays out.

Quotes. Quotes are exact. We do not invent them, combine them or tidy them into something the speaker did not say.

Older stories. Articles first published between 2009 and 2016 keep their original dates. Where we have rewritten an older story from public sources, the new text is written from scratch.

Corrections. Errors are fixed in place with a short note explaining the change. Write to fixes@winfieldcourier.com.

Photos. Most photos come from Wikimedia Commons under licences that allow reuse, and each one carries a credit. When no photo honestly fits a story, we run it without one rather than use a picture of something else.

Independence. Advertisers and sources do not see stories before they run and cannot buy coverage.