Southern California News Group • SCNG

The Southern California News Group's mission is to connect communities by providing users with local news coverage while providing advertisers with what it says is unprecedented access to audiences.

Fairness and accuracy are among the core values of the Southern California News Group’s ethics policy. The policy is an evolving document meant to guide staffers on ethical questions that arise during their jobs. The policy emphasizes the need for Southern California News Group journalists to maintain and preserve the integrity of their newspapers. Since journalists cannot anticipate every situation, the Southern California News Group says it is prudent for journalists to keep two particular guidelines in mind: 1) They should not act in ways that could damage their newspaper’s credibility; 2) Any situation that raises questions of credibility should be discussed with a ranking editor. Journalists should not decide on any issues alone. 

The Southern California News Group publications are owned by MediaNews Group. MediaNews Group is based in Denver, Colorado, and is a privately owned company that is controlled by their majority shareholder Alden Global Capital, a privately held investment firm in New York City. MediaNews Group says it keeps shareholders in mind when making business decisions, but editorial decisions are independent. Publications under the Southern California News Group are funded by advertising and subscriptions.

The Southern California News Group respects differences in race, class, generation, gender and geography in the reporting of its journalists. It believes diverse viewpoints lead to nuanced stories and a better-informed community. 

The Southern California News Group's corrections policy establishes how and when the editors and reporters at its 11 daily newspapers correct inaccurate information. Under that policy, all significant factual errors brought to the attention of editors should be corrected. Errors should be corrected and noted in the online article as well as in the newspaper, if applicable. The Southern California News Group generally does not “unpublish” content or remove details such as names from its websites and archives. On a case-by-case basis, a committee of editors will review individual requests to remove, redact or de-index published content.

The Southern California News Group permits reporters to attribute information to unnamed sources only when news value warrants and journalists cannot obtain that information in any other way. SCNG stipulates that reporters avoid letting anonymous sources be the sole basis of any story. Journalists should not allow unnamed sources to make personal attacks, and they must describe the anonymous source in as much detail as possible to indicate the source's credibility. Additionally, whenever possible, journalists should tell readers why the source requested or was granted anonymity.