How the desk writes and reviews.
The editorial standards are the desk's standing rules for sourcing, voice, the three-pass routine, the last-reviewed stamp, and the correction log. The standards are public so the reader can hold the desk to them.
Primary sources first.
Every claim that can be traced to a primary source is traced. The desk's working definition of a primary source is a tournament document, a governing-body release, an on-record interview, or a publicly available dataset whose methodology the desk can defend.
Tournament documents
Playing conditions, points systems, fixture lists, official rule changes. The desk cross-checks these against the relevant governing body's website and dates the citation.
On-record interviews
Press conferences, post-match interviews, written Q&A. The desk cites the publication, the date, and the publication's link where the article is public.
Public datasets
Where a piece depends on a public dataset, the desk names the dataset and the version date. The desk does not rely on aggregators whose methodology is opaque.
Every piece goes through three passes.
The routine is the desk's main guarantee of editorial consistency. The same three passes are applied to every piece, in the same order, every time.
The first pass reads the piece for source. Every claim that can be traced to a primary source is traced; anything that cannot is either footnoted with a clear "as reported by" or removed.
The source pass is the most time-consuming of the three. It is also the one that the desk rarely publishes without re-doing — when the underlying data changes, the source pass is re-run.
The second pass reads the piece for voice. The desk's voice is calm, plain English, and free of hype. Sentences that have slipped into prediction, hard sell, or jargon are rewritten.
The voice pass is also where the desk checks for the things it does not write about — affiliate links, prediction claims, unverified statistics, and un-sourced player projections.
The third pass writes the last-reviewed stamp. The stamp is the date the piece was last passed through the three-pass routine, and it sits at the foot of every published page.
When the underlying data changes, the piece is reopened and the stamp pass is re-run. The previous stamp is left visible where possible, so the reader can see exactly when the move happened.
Why the standards are public, and how the desk holds itself to them.
The editorial standards are public so the reader can hold the desk to them. The standards are not a marketing document — they are a piece of editorial record the desk stands behind.
The standards are public so the reader can hold the desk to them. The desk's view is that an editorial standard is only useful if the reader can see it and check the desk against it. Standards kept private are not standards — they are habits, and habits are easier to break than rules.
The standards are not a marketing document. They are a piece of editorial record the desk stands behind. The same standards apply to every piece the desk publishes, in the same order, every time. The reader who notices a piece that does not follow the standards is encouraged to write to the editorial inbox.
How the desk holds itself to the standards
The three-pass routine is the desk's main guarantee. Every piece is read three times — once for source, once for voice, once for the last-reviewed stamp. The routine is not a formality; it is the mechanism by which the standards are applied. A piece that has not been through the three-pass routine is not published.
If the standards are not met
If a piece slips through the three-pass routine without meeting the standards — for example, if a claim turns out to be unsourced, or if a sentence has slipped into prediction, or if the last-reviewed stamp is missing — the desk treats the slip as a small editorial accident. The piece is reopened, the slip is fixed, and the footnoted correction is added at the bottom of the page with the date. The standards are not aspirational; they are the working contract between the desk and the reader.
How a piece moves through the desk's review cycle.
Every published piece moves through the same review cycle. The cycle is the desk's working contract with the reader — a piece that has not been through the cycle is not published.
Every published piece moves through the same review cycle. The cycle is the desk's working contract with the reader — a piece that has not been through the cycle is not published.
The cycle starts when a piece is drafted. The draft moves to the source pass — the editor reads the piece for source, traces every claim that can be traced, and either footnotes or removes anything that cannot. The piece then moves to the voice pass — the editor reads the piece for voice, rewrites any sentence that has slipped into prediction, hard sell, or jargon, and applies the desk's standing voice rules. The piece then moves to the stamp pass — the editor writes the last-reviewed stamp at the foot of the page, and the piece is published.
What the cycle does not include
The cycle does not include a step for adding commercial content. The desk does not have a step for inserting affiliate links, sponsored inserts, or call-to-action banners. The cycle is editorial; commercial decisions are made on a separate track, and the disclosure page is where the commercial picture is set out.
How the cycle is reset when the data changes
When the underlying data changes — a points-rule revision, a playing-condition update, a roster reshuffle — the piece is reopened and the cycle is re-run. The previous stamp is left visible where possible, so the reader can see exactly when the move happened. The cycle is the same every time: source pass, voice pass, stamp pass.
What the cycle catches
The cycle catches the small editorial accidents — an unsourced claim, a sentence that has slipped into prediction, a missing last-reviewed stamp. The cycle does not catch the bigger editorial questions — those are answered at the editor-in-chief level, before the cycle starts. The cycle is the routine that keeps the desk's writing honest; the bigger editorial questions are the desk's strategy.
The standards apply to every strand.
The editorial standards are the desk's main guarantee of consistency. The next room is the disclosure page, where the commercial picture is set out in writing.