READERS AND NEWSHAWKS NOTE! WEB: ONLY ITEMS

After approval by the MAP Board of Directors and some testing, we are
pleased to announce a change in the criteria policies for the news service
which will allow some items, clearly identified in the title/subject line
as Web: that come from selected websites.

THE AGREED UPON GUIDELINES ARE:

(1) That the sources be only popular, respected general news type online
magazines/websites.

(2) That the sources either either allow LTEs or have a discussion forum.

(3) That items that have been well covered by the print media not be used
unless they add something significant.

Both newshawks and editors are asked to follow the guidelines for these web
only items strictly.

As the guidelines above state, we are looking for the stories that cover
new ground. The Dan Forbes stories about the ONDCP payola flap which broke
on Salon.com are a good example.

Examples of items that may not be appropriate are the ones from the BBC
website which simply rehash the current news and editorials from the
British press, without adding anything new.

This policy is similar to how we handle wire service items. If they have
been already well covered in the press, we do not post them. If it is the
first time the story has been covered when we receive it, we post it as it
serves as a 'heads up' not only for our readers, but also for newshawks who
we hope will find the story in print for us.

At this point we have validated the following web based sources:

Source: BBC News (UK Web)

Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Source: CNN.com (US Web)

Website: http://www.cnn.com/

Source: MoJo Wire (US Web)

Website: http://mojones.com/

Source: MSNBC.com (US Web)

Website: http://msnbc.com/news/

Source: NewsWatch (US Web)

Website: http://www.newswatch.org/

Source: Salon.com (US Web)

Website: http://www.salon.com/

Source: Slate (US Web)

Website: http://slate.msn.com/

Source: Wired News (US Web)

Website: http://www.wired.com

Source: WorldNetDaily (US Web)

Website: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/

The point of contact for this post and the policy is Richard
Lake rlake@mapinc.org