Standards & Financials

We’re a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to improving lives in the San Diego region and beyond.

We do this through impactful, data-based investigative and accountability journalism. Learn more about the ethics and standards that guide our work, including our membership in the internationally recognized Trust Project.

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• On this page
• Our Vision & Values
• Ethics Policy
• Diversity
• Ownership Structure, Funding and Grants
• Financial Documents
• Fact-checking and Verification Standards
• Unnamed Sources
• Corrections and Clarifications
• Actionable Feedback and Newsroom Contacts
• Masthead
• Byline Policy
• The Trust Project
• Privacy Policy

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Our Vision

Betrayals of the public trust are revealed and rectified, wrongdoing is deterred, and inequities are illuminated thanks to inewsource’s deep, dogged, fact-based reporting.

Our Values

Truth: Above all else, we value the importance of a free and credible press. Truth is the cornerstone of democracy and the core value for inewsource.

Transparency: We build trust with our readers by adhering to the highest standards and ethics, and to reporting with facts, precision and context.

Collaboration: Our newsroom prioritizes collaboration over competition. We regularly partner with media outlets on reporting projects and to share content.

Community: Our reporting serves the San Diego region, and we strive to build relationships with our audience by getting out into the community to listen and engage.

Ethics Policy

inewsource will conduct its business with the highest standards of decency, fairness and accuracy. These standards shall apply equally to inewsource employees, freelancers and all others engaged in gathering information on behalf of inewsource. All receive a copy of these ethical standards.

In the course of our reporting, we will consistently:

● Identify our organization and ourselves fully and avoid false representations of any kind to any source.

● Obtain consent from all parties before electronically recording any interview or conversation except in extraordinary cases authorized by the Managing Editor and Editor. If a source refuses to be taped, that must be honored; no recordings are to be made without consent.

● Respect the individual’s right to privacy. inewsource will never manipulate or barter private, personal, health, financial or other extraneous information in the course of preparing its reports.

● Any source we describe or write about in any significant manner must be contacted. The employee should document all efforts to contact the source, and if unsuccessful, should summarize these efforts at contact in the body of his/her writing.

In addition, inewsource follows the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists. The latest version, revised in 2014, can be found here.

Editorial Independence Policy

We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) as follows:

Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We will maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.

We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support. Our organization also may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.

Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $1,000 or more. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.

Diversity

Diverse Voices

Inclusiveness is at the heart of thinking and acting as journalists, and it supports the educational mandate of inewsource. Race, class, generation, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and geography all affect point of view.  inewsource believes that reflecting societal differences in reporting leads to better, more nuanced stories and a better-informed community.

inewsource is committed to employment equity and diversity.

Diverse Staffing Report

Below is a breakdown of staffing data at inewsource. We determine the composition of our staff by asking them to self-identify. It is based on a newsroom of 14 and a total staff of 20 as of December 2021. Percentages are based on 20 total survey responses. The numbers include full-time and part-time staff, full-time fellows and full-time and part-time interns. 

All Staff Percentages are based on 20 total survey responses. The numbers include full-time and part-time staff, full-time fellows and full-time and part-time interns.		Newsroom Percentages are based on 14 completed survey responses to this question.		Business Percentages are based on 6 completed survey responses to this question.
Gender Identity		Gender Identity		Gender Identity
Women	60%	Women	64%	Women	50%
Men	30%	Men	21%	Men	50%
Not specified	10%	Not specified	14%	Not specified	0%
Sexual Orientation		Sexual Orientation		Sexual Orientation
Straight	80%	Straight	82%	Straight	100%
LGBTQ-identifying	5%	LGBTQ-identifying	7%	LGBTQ-identifying	0%
Not specified	15%	Not specified	21%	Not specified	0%
Speak a language beyond English at home	25%	Speak a language beyond English at home	14%	Speak a language beyond English at home	50%
Race/Ethnicity		Race/Ethnicity		Race/Ethnicity
White	50%	White	57%	White	33%
Hispanic/Latinx	20%	Hispanic/Latinx	7%	Hispanic/Latinx	50%
Black/African American	10%	Black/African American	7%	Black/African American	16%
Two or more races	10%	Two or more races	14%	Two or more races	0%
Not specified	10%	Not specified	14%	Not specified	0%
Age		Age		Age
20-29	30%	20-29	35%	20-29	16%
30-39	30%	30-39	28%	30-39	33%
40-49	10%	40-49	7%	40-49	16%
50-59	10%	50-59	7%	50-59	16%
60 or older	5%	60 or older	0%	60 or older	16%
Not specified	15%	Not specified	21%	Not specified	0%

* The percentages in the charts have been rounded and may not add up to 100.

Ownership Structure, Funding and Grants

inewsource is a nonprofit organization, whose legal name is Investigative Newsource. It does business as inewsource. The business was incorporated on Aug. 4, 2009 in the state of California. Tax-exempt status as a 501(c)3 was granted by the IRS on Sept. 15, 2010. inewsource is funded primarily by individual contributions and foundation grants. We are guided by a board of directors.

Editorial independence: Journalists employed by inewsource take no editorial direction from donors whose contributions may support the organization. inewsource will not hesitate to report on its donors when events warrant. Our Editorial Independence Policy details the firewall between journalism and revenue. 

To be transparent with the public, inewsource lists its donors on its website. In cases where a donor is the subject of an inewsource story, additional disclosure will be made.

Finances and Annual Report

We do our due diligence to earn your trust in our reporting, as well as in our governance and financial sustainability. All of our financial documents are made available to view so that our supporters can trust we are sound stewards of your philanthropy. Review our IRS Form 990s and audited financial statements:

Annual Impact Reports

• 2023 Annual Impact Report
• 2022 Annual Impact Report

Fact-checking and Verification Standards

Transparency is one of our core values. Today, there is a need to build trust with our audience because new media and ways of communicating spread lies and slanted news faster than “real” news. At the same time, this era of new technologies makes it easier than ever for news organizations to be transparent. People don’t just have to believe us, they can investigate our investigations with our source materials.

Transparency is key to building credibility.

inewsource reporters have primary responsibility for reporting, writing, and fact-checking their stories. But before a story is published, the reporter reviews all facts and sources with an editor or another reporter. Facts must be traced to a primary source.

In addition, we “transparify” certain investigative stories. This process involves publishing a version of the web story with hyperlinks to all the story’s facts. This is proof that all facts have been documented with primary evidence. We do this to build trust with our readers and to be as transparent as we hope the public figures and institutions that we hold accountable will be.

Unnamed Sources

Not all sources are created equal. Some sources cannot speak authoritatively, provide proper analysis or speak specifically to every inquiry placed before them. To maintain the integrity of our reporting, inewsource reporters must select sources who can speak with validity to the topic at hand, and avoid presenting unqualified or underqualified sources as experts.

If an interviewed source has a conflict of interest, or whose qualifications may be tangential or limited, reporters will note that within the context of the story. 

It is incumbent upon reporters to fully background their sources to uncover conflicts of interest or slant prior to using them in a story.

Unless discussed prior to an interview, all subjects talking to inewsource journalists are on the record. Specifically, the source is identified by name and title, and their exact or paraphrased words are attributed to them for publication. If journalists speak with sources who are not politicians, public figures or those not commonly interviewed by journalists, staff should explain clearly that information discussed will be on the record and for publication.

There are times, however, when information may be critical for a story but cannot be found or verified by other means. For example, a source may be able to confirm specific information about a series of events they may have witnessed, but have legitimate concerns about using their name or title. The repercussions to the source could be legal, job-related retribution or personal safety. The source and journalist must discuss these potential dangers and terms of use should be agreed upon by both parties.

If inewsource publishes information from an anonymous source, inewsource will explain to readers, in as much detail as possible, why we agreed to anonymity.

Corrections and Clarifications

inewsource strives for accuracy in everything we do, which is why we are committed to fact checking our content. But sometimes we make errors. When that happens, we correct them. We also clarify stories when something we’ve written is confusing or could be misinterpreted.

We endeavor to always be transparent about our commitment to correcting errors and clarifying misperceptions. When staffers see, hear or read about a possible issue with the accuracy of any inewsource content, they are expected to bring it to the attention of an editor and the web producer so it can be evaluated to determine how to proceed. 

Including the web producer is key because inewsource is a multimedia news organization and shares its content with multiple partners on multiple platforms. The web producer must alert these partners about corrections and clarifications.

Corrections and clarifications should be included at the bottom of stories and dated. 

Actionable Feedback and Newsroom Contacts

Our audiences know the region we cover and have a stake in maintaining and improving the quality of life in San Diego and Imperial counties. We know your knowledge and insights can help shape what we cover and how we cover it. We invite your comments and complaints on news stories, suggestions for issues to cover or sources to consult. We rely on you to tell us when we get it right and when we need to keep pushing.

Your comments, questions and suggestions can be sent to the team as a whole at contact@inewsource.org or you can contact a specific member of our staff.

Masthead

CEO, Editor and Founder: Lorie Hearn, loriehearn@inewsource.org

Lorie Hearn is the chief executive officer, editor and founder of inewsource. She founded inewsource in the summer of 2009, following a successful reporting and editing career in newspapers. She retired from The San Diego Union-Tribune, where she had been a reporter, Metro Editor and finally the senior editor for Metro and Watchdog Journalism. In addition to department oversight, Hearn personally managed a four-person watchdog team, composed of two data specialists and two investigative reporters. Hearn was a Nieman Foundation fellow at Harvard University in 1994-95. She focused on juvenile justice and drug control policy, a natural course to follow her years as a courts and legal affairs reporter at the San Diego Union and then the Union-Tribune.

Hearn became Metro Editor in 1999 and oversaw regional and city news coverage, which included the city of San Diego’s financial debacle and near bankruptcy. Reporters and editors on Metro during her tenure were part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning stories that exposed Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham and led to his imprisonment.

Hearn began her journalism career as a reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times, a small daily outside of Philadelphia, shortly after graduating from the University of Delaware. During the decades following, she moved through countless beats at five newspapers on both coasts.

High-profile coverage included the historic state Supreme Court election in 1986, when three sitting justices were ousted from the bench, and the 1992 execution of Robert Alton Harris. That gas chamber execution was the first time the death penalty was carried out in California in 25 years.

In her nine years as Metro Editor at the Union-Tribune, Hearn made watchdog reporting a priority. Her reporters produced award-winning investigations covering large and small local governments. The depth and breadth of their public service work was most evident in coverage of the wildfires of 2003 and then 2007, when more than half a million people were evacuated from their homes.

Managing Editor: Jamie Self, jamieself@inewsource.org

Jamie Self is inewsource‘s managing editor. She joined the team in June 2021 as deputy managing editor, coming from South Carolina, where for a decade she has produced accountability reporting on government and politics at many levels. Most recently she was the senior editor for politics and state government at The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C. In that role, she oversaw investigations that revealed a secret system lawmakers use to funnel millions of dollars to pet projects of their choice and exposed the death of a state hospital psychiatric patient at the hands of untrained healthcare workers who piled on top of him in violation of policy.

She previously was an investigative reporter on The State’s high-impact projects team. She wrote about the factors driving the state’s worsening teacher shortage, highlighting the systemic problems causing teachers to quit their jobs, and her reporting exposed what were likely preventable deaths of infants in poorly regulated home daycares.

As a state government and politics reporter for more than five years, she wrote at length about public corruption, education, child welfare and the influence of money and politics on public policy. During that time, she also covered some of South Carolina’s most important stories, including a historic corruption probe that led to several legislators pleading guilty and leaving office, and the murder of nine Black churchgoers in Charleston followed by the battle to remove the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds. She’s won first place awards for government and education beat reporting and helped The State to first place wins for public service and politics and election coverage. 

Before starting a career in journalism, she traveled the United States and part of Canada and Mexico meeting people and writing. Before that, she taught freshman writing and research classes at Boston University. She has a master’s degree in American literature from the University of South Carolina and a bachelor’s degree from the College of Charleston Honors College, where she studied English and music composition.

Byline Policy

Most of our articles carry a byline to identify the author. In some cases, inewsource will use a brand byline such as “Staff” or “inewsource” for internal or editorial information about the newsroom. In these instances, inewsource‘s Editor and Managing Editor are responsible for content that uses a brand byline.

The Trust Project

inewsource is proud to be a member of The Trust Project and support efforts to increase transparency in journalism by displaying the 8 Trust Indicators on our stories. We launched the Trust Indicators on Sep. 16, 2020.

Privacy Policy

Last modified: Oct. 18, 2023

Introduction

Investigative Newsource (“inewsource” or “We“) respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy. This policy describes: 

• The types of information we may collect or that you may provide when you interact with us, including attending events, visiting our website where this Policy is posted, including www.inewsource.org and any subdomains (the “Website”), and any other application or software (“App”) you may download, install, register with, access, or use (collectively referred to as our “Services”).
• Our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information.

This policy applies only to information we collect through our Services and in email, text, and other electronic communications with us. 

This policy DOES NOT apply to information that:

• You provide to or is collected by any third party (see Third-Party Information Collection).

These other third parties may have their own privacy policies, which we encourage you to read before providing information on or through them.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, do not engage with our Services, including to download, register with, or use our Website. By engaging with our Services, including downloading, registering with, or using our Website, you agree to this privacy policy. This policy may change from time to time (see Changes to Our Privacy Policy). Your continued use of our Services after we revise this policy means you accept those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates. 

Children Under the Age of 13

Our Services are not intended for children under 13 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at contact@inewsource.org.

Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It

We collect several types of information from and about interactions with Services, including information:

•  By which you may be personally identified, such as name, postal address, email address, telephone number, social media accounts (“personal information“);
•  That is about you, but individually does not identify you, such as age, gender; and/or
• About your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Services, and usage details.

We collect this information:

•  Directly from you when you provide it to us.
• Automatically as you navigate through the site. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies and other tracking technologies.

Information You Provide to Us 

The information we collect on or through our Services may include:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Services or at our events. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Services, posting material, leaving feedback or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you enter a contest or promotion sponsored by us, and when you report a problem with our Services.
• Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us.
• Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.
• Details of transactions you carry out through our Services such as donations. You may be required to provide financial information before placing an order through our Services.

You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “posted“) on public areas of the Services, or transmitted to other users of the Services, our Services, or third parties (collectively, “User Contributions“). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Although we limit access of certain features to logged in users, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Services with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies 

As you navigate through and interact with our Services, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:

• Details of your visits to our Services, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Services.
• Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

The information we collect automatically is only statistical data and does not include personal information, but we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Services and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

• Estimate our audience size and usage patterns
• Know where you are a donor or not.
• Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Services according to your individual interests.
• Speed up your searches.
•  Recognize you when you return to our Services.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

• Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your device. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Services. Unless you have adjusted your browser or device setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.
• Web Beacons. Pages of our Website and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

How We Use Your Information

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

• To present our Services and contents to you.
• To interact with you as a donor or supporter of inewsource.
• To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us.
•  To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
• To provide you with notices about your account, including verification notices.
• To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection regarding donations.
•  To notify you about changes to our Services.
• To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Services.
• To improve the user experience with which you engage.
• In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
• For any other purpose with your consent.

Disclosure of Your Information

We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:

• To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business.
• To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of inewsource’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by inewsource is among the assets transferred.
• To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
• For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
•  With your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information:

• To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
• To enforce or apply agreements or contracts, including for billing and collection purposes.
• If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of inewsource, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

• Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
• Donation solicitations from inewsource. If you do not wish to have your email address/contact information used by inewsource to promote our own or third parties’ products or services, including philanthropic initiatives, you can opt-out by sending us an email stating your request to contact@inewsource.org . If we have sent you a promotional or campaign email, you may send us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions. This opt out does not apply to information provided to inewsource as a result of a donation or other transaction.

Accessing and Correcting Your Information

You may send us an email at contact@inewsource.org  to request access to, correct or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. We may not accommodate a request to change or delete information if we believe the change or deletion would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

Refunds

If you encounter errors when donating on the website, please contact us at members@inewsource.org. For example, if you submit a donation for an incorrect amount or make a duplicate transaction please email us immediately so we can reverse the charges.

Cancellation of Recurring Donations

You can cancel your monthly recurring donations free of charge by notifying us at members@inewsource.org.

Links to Other Websites

Our site may contain links to documents, resources or other websites that we think may be of interest to you. We have no control over these other sites or their content. You should be aware when you leave our site for another, and remember that other sites are governed by their own user agreements and privacy policies, which should be available to you to read.

Data Security

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Services, like comment sections. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Services.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to us via electronic means. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Services.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you through a notice. The date the privacy policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting this privacy policy to check for any changes.

Contact Information

To ask questions or comment about this privacy policy and our privacy practices, contact us at:

PO Box 34546

San Diego, CA 92163

(619) 594-5100

contact@inewsource.org