EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE POLICY
Bridge Community Media maintains a firewall between our news coverage decisions and all sources of revenue. This separation ensures that financial support does not present a conflict of interest for our journalism or compromise our editorial independence.
Gifts, grants, and sponsorships from individuals and organizations help to fund our nonprofit journalism, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their positions.
Individual Bridge Community Media journalists do not accept gifts or favors of more than nominal value, nor any special treatment, from any person or entity that is or could be a subject of or source for our coverage, or otherwise have an interest in our reporting. All journalists, editorial staff and Board members are aware of and have agreed to our conflict of interest policy.
Editorial Correction Policy
Mistakes happen. How we deal with errors in our reporting is important to maintaining our integrity and the trust of readers and sources. When The Bridge publishes an error, we will acknowledge it and take appropriate steps to correct it as quickly as possible, both online and in print and, if necessary, on social media and other off-platform applications. Readers who wish to alert the editor to a needed correction can email editor@montpelierbridge.com.
Bridge Community Media Transparency Policy
The Bridge is committed to transparency in every aspect of our funding.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics, and special projects. Our news staff operates independently of that support and retains full control of all editorial decisions.
Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their positions.
We do not allow anyone to assign, review, or edit content prior to publication.
As a nonprofit, The Bridge will not accept donations from political parties, elected officials or candidates actively seeking public office.
We make public all donors who give $1,000 or more per year and accept anonymous donations only when sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our editorial staff and does not present a conflict of interest.
Political Endorsement Policy
The Bridge does not endorse political candidates.
Election-related letters to the editor should include pertinent or timely issues of interest to our readers and not simply show support for a candidate.
Letters should be exclusive to The Bridge. We do not publish open letters or third-party letters.
The Bridge reserves the right to reject any letter at any time and especially to reject letters that contain questionable content such as unfounded allegations, statements of fact that are suspect, or assaults on a candidate’s character or moral standards. Any editing changes necessary to render a letter suitable for publication will be reviewed with the writer prior to publication whenever possible.
All submissions must be signed and include the phone number, email address, and mailing address of the writer. Phone numbers are for questions and verification purposes only and will not be published. All published letters will include the writer’s name and town. Maximum recommended length of letters is 200 words.
The Bridge reserves the right to move any and/or all of the letters to the editor to our webpage given print space restrictions. When letters to the editor are located on the website instead of in the paper, there will be an information box in the physical paper indicating that more letters can be found online.
The Bridge does not charge for letters to the editor. Paid endorsement notices can be purchased via our advertising representative Rick McMahon at adsales@montpelierbridge.com
