Editorial Policy
SYV Today produces two types of content: aggregated headlines from third-party publishers, and Staff Reports — original articles written from primary source documents. This policy covers how each is handled.
Aggregated headlines
Aggregated items link directly to the original publisher. SYV Today displays only the headline, source name, and a brief factual description. We do not reproduce the full text of third-party articles. Images, if shown, are referenced from the publisher’s servers and not re-hosted.
Sources are selected for relevance to the Santa Ynez Valley and editorial reliability. Aggregated items are not reviewed individually before appearing in the feed — they are filtered automatically by relevance and recency.
Staff Reports
Staff Reports are SYV Today’s original reporting. They are written from primary source documents — government press releases, public meeting agendas, official announcements, and similar materials — and are not derived from other news articles.
How they are produced
- Source ingestion. A primary source document is retrieved from an official government or institutional website.
- AI extraction. An AI system extracts verifiable facts from the document: dates, names, figures, procedural status, and direct quotes.
- AI drafting. The AI generates a news article strictly from the extracted facts. It does not add interpretation, background not in the source, or information from other articles.
- AI verification. A second AI pass checks the draft against the extracted facts, flagging any unsupported claims, overstated language, missing attribution, or number discrepancies.
- Human review. An editor reviews the draft, the verification report, and the original source before approving publication. Staff Reports are never auto-published.
What Staff Reports are not
- They are not investigative reporting or original shoe-leather journalism.
- They do not include on-the-record interviews unless sourced from official transcripts.
- They do not include editorial opinion or commentary.
Source transparency
Every Staff Report displays the primary source document it was based on, with a direct link to the original. The AI model used and the editorial standard version are logged internally for audit purposes.
Corrections
If a Staff Report contains an error, we will correct it promptly and note the correction at the bottom of the article. To report an error, use our contact page.
Independence
Editorial decisions are not influenced by commercial relationships. Sponsored placements are clearly labeled “Presented by” and are visually distinct from editorial content. Advertisers have no input into what SYV Today covers or how it is covered.
Questions
Questions about our editorial process can be directed to our contact page. For more background on SYV Today, see the About page.