The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc.
Guide to Ethics and Journalistic Style
Last updated: Jan. 25, 2026
Introduction
It has long been a guiding principle that any media organization committed to accurately and fairly serving a community — as The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. strives to do — must hold itself accountable. The policies below outline how the DP, Inc. understands journalistic style and ethics amid rapidly evolving expectations in the digital publishing landscape.
Conflicts of Interest
The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. has a mandatory disclosure policy across all departments for potential conflicts of interest. Staffers must disclose potential conflicts of interest to their direct editor or manager, who is then responsible for discerning whether a valid conflict exists or not. This decision shall be informed by the DP’s strict privileged information policy.
Division between Business and Editorial
Staff members in Editorial departments may not simultaneously belong to any Business department or perform any business functions for the DP, Inc. Likewise, staff members in Business departments may not simultaneously belong to any Editorial departments or be involved in the production of editorial content while they are a Business staffer.
Business department operations at the DP have no bearing on editorial decisions or content.
General Editorial Standards
CORRECTIONS: Only a Board of Editors member may append official corrections to stories. If a staffer or other editor becomes aware of an error that necessitates a correction, they should notify their direct editor so that the correction can be formally issued. What constitutes a correction in the DP, 34th Street, or Under the Button is a factual error that significantly biases or disrupts a reader’s understanding of the story, as well as a misquote or mischaracterization of someone’s words.
- Minor errors, such as typos or misspellings, may be fixed by any editor and do not rise to the level of an official correction.
- Factual errors should be corrected as soon as possible, and a reporter is obligated to alert their editor immediately upon realizing that a correction is necessary.
- Written corrections should end with: “The DP regrets the error.”
TAKEDOWNS: Decisions to remove published articles are made at the discretion of the Board of Editors members of the relevant publication.
Requests for takedowns or questions regarding this policy should be directed to Executive Editor Jasmine Ni.
RETRACTIONS: The DP’s Executive Board is responsible for deciding whether a piece of content from the DP, 34th Street, or Under the Button should be formally retracted. A formal retraction occurs in the case of a gross factual inaccuracy for which a correction or Editor’s Note is not sufficient.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE USAGE: The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. does not allow written content generated by artificial intelligence to be published under its masthead — regardless of platform. In an evolving technological landscape, the Board of Editors is committed to constantly reevaluating how generative AI tools can be used to further our institutional mission.
PAYMENT: Reporters should not accept any payment or gifts of any kind whatsoever from sources while pursuing a story. For example, if interviewing a professor while having lunch, the reporter should pay for their own lunch and not accept an offer for the source to pay. Staffers who wish to get any meals comped as part of work done for the DP, 34th Street, or Under the Button must get permission from either the Street Editor-in-Chief, UTB Editor-in-Chief, or Executive Editor.
