Close Menu
    Thursday, November 21
    Subscribe

    Policies

    Table of Contents

    Privacy Policy

    Please see our dedicated Privacy Policy page

    Advertising Acceptability Policy

    The Eden Prairie Local News reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement or sponsorship it is offered.

    Eden Prairie Local News will decline to accept advertising that it knows or believes to be misleading, inaccurate, fraudulent or illegal, or that fails to comply, in Eden Prairie Local News’ sole discretion, with its standards of decency, taste or dignity.

    Eden Prairie Local News, like all quality publishers of original journalism, maintains a clear separation between news and advertising content. Advertising that attempts to blur this distinction in a manner that, in Eden Prairie Local News’ sole judgment, confuses readers will be rejected.

    Donor & Financial Transparency Policy

    The Eden Prairie Local News, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is committed to transparency in every aspect of funding for its organization. Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.

    We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics and special projects. We may receive funds from standard government programs offered to nonprofits or similar businesses.

    Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors or any revenue source. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.

    We make public all revenue sources and donors who give $5,000 or more per year. As a news nonprofit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.

    Editorial Independence Policy

    The Eden Prairie Local News subscribes to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN):

    Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We 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 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 $5,000 or more per year. 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.

    Corrections Policy

    Eden Prairie Local News is committed to being accurate and will respond in a timely fashion to any claim that its publication presents an inaccurate fact. If a reader or subject of a story believes that some statement is inaccurate, they can request a correction by sending a request to Eden Prairie Local News at editor@eplocalnews.org or via our contact form. Our editorial team will carefully review any potential inaccuracies before making changes to a published piece. In the event of a minor factual error, the story will be amended, and the change will be noted at the bottom. Significant corrections will be noted in the headline or at the top of the story. If new details or clarifications are added to a story after its publication, our practice is to include a note describing the update at the end of the piece.

    Equity and Inclusion Policy

    The Eden Prairie Local News aims to reflect the diversity of the communities it serves in its staff and contributors, its editorial choices and priorities.

    Letters to the Editor

    Non-Political Letters

    Letters to the editor are welcome. Please send letters, which have not been published elsewhere, to editor@eplocalnews.org. Letters may be up to 350 words and can also include pictures. Indicate clearly that you would like to share your letter with EPLN readers. If the letter writer makes a reference to a source, that source must be properly linked or cited.

    Please include the writer’s name, home address (which will not be printed) and a daytime and home phone number for verification.

    Political Letters

    We will not endorse candidates or run editorials during the election cycle, but we do encourage letters to the editor. Send letters up to 350 words that have not been published elsewhere to editor@eplocalnews.org. Please include the writer’s name, home address (which will not be printed) and a daytime and home phone number for verification. Writers affiliated with a specific campaign must be clearly identified. To make sure there’s an opportunity for a response, letters about/against candidates raising questions/or challenges that need a counterpoint will not be published after Nov. 1. Letter writers may be asked by the editors, prior to publication of any letter, to provide additional documentation supporting statements made by the writer. If the letter writer makes a reference to a source, that source must be properly linked or cited. We urge that individuals submit only one election-related letter (or commentary) per person per election. If more than one election-related letter is submitted there are no guarantees that it will be published.

    Republication Policy

    We’re happy to make our stories available for republication under an attribution-noncommercial-no-derivatives Creative Commons license, as long as you follow the Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN) republication guidelines. In the event of any conflict between the Creative Commons License and the terms and conditions of these republication guidelines, these republication guidelines will control. The EPLN republication guidelines are as follows:

    Give us appropriate credit:

    Attribute the story to Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN), which includes publishing a note with the story text stating “This story was originally published by Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN),” and link to our original story URL within that text.

    Maintain the EPLN author’s name associated with the story. Credit the story to “Author Name, Eden Prairie Local News.” 

    Proper credit extends to social media. If you choose to share our stories on your social media platforms, credit EPLN and link to our social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, X –  formerly Twitter). 

    Don’t make changes:

    Keep our story as-is, with minimal changes allowed (specified in this policy). 

    You must keep all of the links within our story. 

    You can make small edits that reflect time changes since publication (e.g., changing “today” to “yesterday”) or that reflect a different editorial style (e.g. changing “10 a.m.” to “10:00 A.M.”). 

    Photos: Keep our photos with the republished story, and give our photographers credit. IMPORTANT: this permission extends only to photos taken by EPLN contributors, and only when run with the story you’re republishing.  If you want to republish a story of ours that uses a photo from another source (e.g. contributed photos, stock photo sites), you MUST contact editor@eplocalnews.org first; we may not have permission to distribute such photos, and you may need to find a replacement. 

    Don’t commercialize our content for your own profit:

    Don’t create any commercial products using our content. Don’t syndicate our content (including to sites like Apple News or Google News). Don’t use our content in your house ads, and don’t use our stories to sell ads on your site. (You can republish our content on pages that have your regular ads.) 

    Take-down requests:

    If we ask you to remove our content from your site, you must do so immediately. Your website needs to include an easy way to reach you.