Corrections Policy

Correction, clarification, update

These are three different things, and at AKRON SCORE we say which one we are doing. A correction fixes something we got factually wrong: a wrong number, a misspelled name, a quote attributed to the wrong person. A clarification means the facts were right but the writing still let a reader walk away with something untrue, usually through a missing qualifier or a headline that outran the story. An update adds new information to a story that was accurate when it published, which on a developing event can happen many times in a day.

The labels are not decoration. Calling a correction an update is the oldest trick on a news website, and we do not use it. If the first version was wrong, the note uses that word.

The note goes on the story, and the story stays put

Corrections are made on the original article at the original address. The note is dated, says what was wrong and what the correct fact is, and does not need hunting for: at the top of the story where the error was material, at the foot where it was minor. We do not quietly rewrite a sentence and let the page stand as though it had always read that way.

Two things get fixed without a note: a typing slip that changes no meaning, and formatting or a broken link. Everything above that line carries a note. Where the error was in the headline rather than the body, the note says so, because the headline is the part that travelled furthest.

Developing stories, and what jumps the queue

Breaking news is where errors are most likely and most consequential, so it gets the fastest handling. When a story is still moving, we mark it as developing, timestamp each update, and keep the earlier state visible in the note trail rather than pretending the latest version was always there. A figure that was our best information at one hour and is superseded at the next is labelled as an update; a figure that was simply wrong is labelled as a correction.

Errors that can cause real harm jump the queue ahead of everything else on the desk: a wrong casualty count, a wrong safety instruction, a wrong name attached to an accusation, a market figure off by an order of magnitude. Those are corrected the moment we can confirm the right version, and where a person has been damaged by the error, we make sure they know the note is up rather than leaving them to find it. Ordinary spelling, date and arithmetic slips are handled in the normal run of the day.

Telling us we got it wrong

Write to support@akronscore.org with CORRECTION at the front of the subject line. Give us the link, the exact sentence you are disputing, what you believe the correct fact is, and where that comes from if you have it. You do not need to be polite or to explain who you are. The most useful message is the flattest: this story says X, the official record says Y. That gets acted on quickly.

You will get an answer either way. If we change the story, we tell you what the note says. If we do not, we tell you why, and sometimes the reason is that the dispute is about framing rather than fact. Safety and harm errors are settled in minutes. Everything else we aim to close the same working day and, at the outside, within two.

Chasing the error past our own page

A wrong fact does not stay on the page where it was born. When we correct something that has already travelled, the social post carrying it is corrected or taken down with an explanation rather than left up with the old figure. A newsletter that carried the error runs the correction in the next edition. Where a story has been syndicated, we send the corrected copy and ask for the update, and because we cannot compel a third party, we say what we asked for and what is out of our hands.

Then there is the forwarded screenshot, which is beyond reach entirely. A cropped image of a headline circulates for years, and no correction catches up with it. That is the honest reason this newsroom will not publish an unverified figure just to be first. The correction is ours to make. The forward is nobody’s to recall.

We do not quietly delete stories

Articles get corrected and updated, not disappeared. The address stays live, because deleting a page is a tidy way to lose an error along with the evidence of having made it. Requests to unpublish accurate coverage are refused, including from advertisers, whose standing on this is spelled out on our advertise page. The exceptions are narrow: a binding legal order, a genuine risk to someone’s safety, or material published in error such as a draft. Where a page comes down for one of those reasons, a short note stays at the same address giving the category of reason.

Our senior editors own corrections and decide whether a note is a correction or a clarification, where it sits and how it is worded. The writer of the story does not make that call about their own work. When the same kind of error appears twice, we treat it as a process problem rather than one careless afternoon, and how claims are tested before publication is in our fact-checking policy. If you have found an error, do not wait for someone else to report it. Send the link and the sentence.

Last updated: August 2026