Editorial standards
How we source, check and correct what we publish.
Where our reporting comes from
We build stories from primary sources: meeting agendas and minutes, official notices and public records, and data from the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center.
Where we learn of something from a press release or another publication, we treat it as a lead and go back to the original source before we write. We do not republish press releases or wire copy as articles, and we do not rewrite other publications' reporting.
Where a story rests on a document or a dataset, we link to it so you can check our work.
AI assistance and human review
Some of our reporting is produced with the assistance of AI tools. Every story is reviewed by a human editor against its original sources before it is published. Nothing publishes automatically.
We publish under the name of the publication rather than under individual bylines. We would rather show you a publication that stands behind its work than a name that tells you nothing.
Automated data pages
A small number of pages - our tide tables and our weather outlook - are generated automatically, directly from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service data. They are not written or edited by a person.
Those pages carry a notice saying so at the top, and they list the data source at the foot. We treat them as published data rather than as reporting. Everything else on this site goes through a human editor.
What we do not cover
We do not report on crime. We do not publish arrest stories, name suspects, run booking photographs, or cover criminal court proceedings. An arrest is not a conviction, and a news page naming someone who is never convicted can follow them for years.
Images
We use photographs and graphics that genuinely relate to the story, and we say where they came from. We do not use stock or illustrative imagery on reporting about a specific event, place or person, because a picture that merely looks right implies something untrue.
Corrections
We will correct anything we get wrong, and say that we have. Corrections are noted on the article itself with the date, rather than made silently. Send them to editor@cedarkeybeacon.com.
Independence
Advertising has no influence on what we cover. Sponsored material, if we ever carry any, will be labelled as such and will not be presented as reporting.
Florida & Cedar Key News is an independent publication and is not connected with, endorsed by, or a successor to the Cedar Key Beacon newspaper or any other news organization.