The Tampa Journal
The Tampa Journal

Editorial Standards

The Tampa Journal

This page explains how the Journal picks its stories, builds its numbers, checks its work and owns its mistakes. Read it, then hold us to it.

Picking the story

Two things have to be true before a report goes on the schedule. It has to be timely, prompted by a turn in the news, newly released public data or a date that’s coming up, like an election or the opening of hurricane season. And it has to matter in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco or Hernando County.

The data underneath

The desk pulls each dataset directly from whoever puts it out and saves a copy. Each figure you read is worked out from that saved copy. Sources include:

  • weather and storm records from NOAA, and disaster and flood-risk data from FEMA;
  • home-price and rent listings from Zillow and Realtor.com, and housing figures from HUD;
  • the Census Bureau’s yearly American Community Survey, on how people here live, earn and commute;
  • Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers on jobs, wages and prices;
  • crime totals that police departments and sheriff’s offices submit to the FBI, and NHTSA’s national file of deadly crashes;
  • CDC estimates of local health, and CMS information on hospitals;
  • EPA air-quality readings, U.S. Department of Education school data and campaign reports filed with the Federal Election Commission;
  • the open-data sites run by Florida and by city and county governments around the bay.

Local numbers, side by side

A Pasco number says more with context, so the desk lines it up against the statewide figure, the national one and counties that resemble it in other metros. Much of the data comes from surveys, which are estimates with a margin of error attached. A gap smaller than that margin is treated as a tie, not a difference.

Checked, rechecked and read

First, a separate check recomputes the figures from the saved data. Next come several review passes, each its own look at the citations, the arithmetic, the charts or the language. A report that fails one of them doesn’t run. Only then does an editor read it and set a publication date.

When a fact comes from someone else

Not everything in a report comes out of a dataset. A new state law, a county decision or an agency’s announcement may explain a trend. A fact like that is cited to where it came from, and the passage it relies on is held up against that source. What can’t be confirmed gets cut.

The box at the bottom

Each data report ends with a section labeled “About the data.” It lists the source and the stretch of time the figures cover, spells out how key terms are defined and states the limits of what the numbers can show. Skeptical readers, start there.

What the art is, and isn’t

Journal charts use nothing but the story’s own data. Report art is illustration, and the credit under it says “Illustration designed by The Tampa Journal.” When one is redrawn from an openly licensed photograph, that photographer and that license get credited as well. The images depict a subject; they aren’t news photos of an event.

The county voting guides

The Special Reports Desk builds each county’s guide from the records its supervisor of elections publishes: early-voting sites, drop-off spots for mail ballots and where to vote on Election Day. Every entry is checked against those primary records. The guides are refreshed while early voting is underway, and in counties that post wait times live, the guide shows them. A “Report an error” form sits on every guide.

Who stands behind a story

Journal stories are signed by a desk rather than a person. Data reports carry the Data Desk byline; the voting guides and other special projects carry the Special Reports Desk’s. Whichever desk is named takes responsibility for what runs under it. The newsroom leans on modern tools of the trade, automation included, and everything it does is subject to editorial oversight by the publisher, Vector Press.

Mistakes and fixes

We fix factual errors and say so. When a story gets a fact wrong, the Journal corrects it and adds a note explaining what changed. Write to contactus@thetampajournal.com with the details; a text to (813) 212-9600 works too. Readers using a voting guide can also flag a problem through the guide’s own form.

Money and independence

Readers and advertisers fund the Journal. Neither edits it. The money comes from advertising and reader memberships, and advertisers have no hand in deciding which stories run or how they’re told. Ads are set apart so they read as ads. Vector Press, the Journal’s owner, stands on its own. No chain or hedge fund has a piece of it, and neither a political party nor an advocacy group steers it.