NYT’s Top 10 Rules for Blogging

21 Mar 2009

1. What should be avoided in all of them is any hint of racist, sexist or religious bias, or any suggestion of nasty, snide, sarcastic, or condescending tone — “snark.”

2. If something could easily fit in a satirical Web site for young adults, it probably shouldn’t go into the news pages of nytimes.com.

3. Contractions, colloquialisms and even slang are, generally speaking, more allowable in blogs than in print.

4. Obscenity and vulgarity are not.

5. Unverified assertions of fact, blind pejorative quotes, and other lapses in journalistic standards don’t ever belong in blogs.

6. Writers and editors of blogs must also distinguish between personal tone and voice and unqualified personal opinion.

7. A blog or news column has to give readers the arguments and factual information that led to the writer’s conclusion — enough argument and fact on both or all sides of the issue to enable the reader to decide whether to agree or disagree

8. That does not apply to editorials or Op-Ed columns, which “are not intended to give a balanced look at both sides of a debate,” as the Readers’ Guide says.

9. Headlines on analysis should try to capture the debate rather than taking sides in it.

10. If the comments contain vulgarity, obscenity, offensive personal attacks, say that somebody “sucks,” or are incoherent, moderators are advised just to chuck them out.

According to internal memo by New York Times standards editor Craig Whitney, summarized by Nicholas Carlson, Business Insider.