The desk does not take affiliate commission
No affiliate links, no per-signup fees, no revenue share from any operator. Where a piece references a platform or a format, the reference is editorial, not commercial.
Disclosure
The commercial picture, in writing.
The disclosure page is the desk's standing statement on its commercial relationships. The desk takes no affiliate commission, accepts no payment for placement, runs no sponsored content, and hosts no contests.
A short list.
The desk's working rule is that the editorial product is sharper when the commercial picture is short. The list below is the desk's standing statement.
The desk does not run display advertising
No display ads, no sponsored content, no native advertising, no sponsored newsletter inserts. The desk is independently funded.
The desk does not host paid contests
No fantasy contests, no leaderboards for cash, no entry-fee tournaments. The desk is editorial reading only.
The desk does not sell picks or predictions
No tip sheets, no prediction subscriptions, no paid fantasy-team recommendations. The reading gives the reader a method, not a team to copy.
A short note.
The desk is independently funded. The funding source is not named publicly — partly because the desk prefers the editorial product to be read on its own terms, and partly because the desk does not think the funding source is relevant to the reader's decision about whether to trust the writing.
The desk's funding does not depend on the editorial product's commercial performance. The desk does not need more readers to keep publishing; the desk needs more readers to keep publishing well.
The desk's view is that editorial independence is easier to maintain when the funding is independent of traffic. The desk's funding is fixed, the desk's pace is fixed, and the desk's editorial decisions are made on their own terms.
If the funding picture ever changes, the disclosure will be updated before any other piece on the desk. The reader is entitled to know.
If the commercial picture changes, the disclosure is updated first.
The reader is entitled to know what the desk is funded by, what it does not take, and what the relationship between editorial and commercial decisions looks like in practice. The desk's standing rule is that any change to the commercial picture is reflected here before any other piece on the desk.
The desk's standing rule is that the disclosure page is updated before any other page on the desk when the commercial picture changes. The reader is entitled to know what is happening before the change, not after.
The disclosure page is not a marketing document. It is a piece of editorial record — a piece of writing the desk stands behind. If the desk's commercial picture ever changes, the disclosure page will say so, in plain English, with the date of the change visible at the foot of the page.
What the desk has decided not to do
The desk has decided not to take affiliate commission, not to run display advertising, not to host paid contests, and not to sell picks. Each of these decisions is reversible in principle, but the desk's view is that they are easier to defend as standing rules than as case-by-case decisions. The reader who visits the desk should be able to assume that the editorial product is not commercially entangled — and the disclosure page is the document the reader is entitled to read in order to check that assumption.
If the reader has a question
The editorial inbox is the best route in. The desk reads every note that comes in, and the editor's reply will be a personal one, not a form letter. The desk's view is that the disclosure page is part of the editorial product — the reader's trust in the desk depends on the disclosure being honest, complete, and current.
What editorial independence means at this desk.
Editorial independence is a working concept, not a slogan. The desk's view is that independence is easier to maintain when the funding does not depend on the editorial product's commercial performance.
Editorial independence is a working concept, not a slogan. The desk's view is that independence is easier to maintain when the funding does not depend on the editorial product's commercial performance.
The desk's funding is independent of traffic. The desk's editorial decisions are made on their own terms. The desk's pace is set by the data, not by the calendar. The reader who visits the desk should be able to assume that the editorial product is not commercially entangled — and the disclosure page is the document the reader is entitled to read in order to check that assumption.
What independence does not mean
Independence does not mean the desk is not accountable. The desk is accountable to the reader — to the editorial standards, to the three-pass routine, to the last-reviewed stamp. Independence means the desk can make a call the reader disagrees with, without the call being commercially motivated. Independence is the precondition for the call being worth disagreeing with.
How the desk exercises independence
The desk exercises independence by writing the same way, in the same voice, on the same schedule, regardless of traffic. The desk's view is that the editorial product is sharper when the pace is fixed and the voice is fixed. The reader who notices a piece that has slipped into prediction, hard sell, or jargon is encouraged to write to the editorial inbox — the slip is treated as a small editorial accident, and the footnoted correction is added at the bottom of the page with the date.
What the desk has decided not to do
The desk has decided not to take affiliate commission, not to run display advertising, not to host paid contests, and not to sell picks. Each of these decisions is reversible in principle, but the desk's view is that they are easier to defend as standing rules than as case-by-case decisions. The reader who visits the desk should be able to assume that the editorial product is not commercially entangled — and the disclosure page is the document the reader is entitled to read in order to check that assumption.
Editor's invitation
The commercial picture is part of the editorial product.
The disclosure page is the desk's standing statement. The next room is the privacy policy, which sets out what data the desk collects and what it does with it.