Readers are entitled to know who is responsible for what they read. This page describes how our newsroom is structured, what each desk is accountable for, and the standards contributors must meet. Individual bylines appear on every article, and section editors can be reached through our contact page.
How the newsroom is organised
ISU News is a small, deliberately specialised operation. Rather than a large general-assignment staff, we work with section editors who have substantive background in their subject area and a network of contributing writers with domain expertise. This structure suits explanatory journalism, where the difficulty is rarely gathering a quote and almost always understanding a system well enough to describe it accurately.
Every article passes through at least two people: the writer, who researches from primary sources, and an editor who did not write it, who checks each factual claim against the cited source before publication. Where a piece covers a technical field, we seek review from a practitioner in that field.
Editorial leadership
Editor-in-Chief. Holds final responsibility for everything published, for the application of our editorial guidelines, and for decisions on corrections, retractions, and requests to unpublish. Also responsible for maintaining the separation between editorial and commercial operations.
Managing Editor. Runs commissioning and the daily production schedule, assigns pieces to writers, and manages the verification workflow that every article passes through before publication.
Standards Editor. Reviews correction reports independently of the writer and editor involved, audits published work against our stated standards, and maintains the correction record described in our corrections policy.
Section desks
U.S. News. Covers the mechanics of American governance, federal and state administration, courts, housing, immigration, and public services. Editors on this desk have background in public administration and law.
World. Covers international institutions, security arrangements, trade and shipping, resource and water politics, and cross-border systems. Contributors include writers with regional language competence and field experience.
Politics. Covers legislative process, electoral mechanics, districting, and procedural rules. This desk deliberately emphasises process over personality and is held to a strict standard of even-handedness on contested questions.
Business. Covers monetary policy, inflation and price measurement, capital markets, corporate finance, and supply chains. Contributors include writers with professional backgrounds in economics and financial analysis.
Technology. Covers computing systems, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, energy demand from digital infrastructure, and the engineering realities behind widely reported claims. Contributors include practising engineers and researchers.
Science and Health. Covers regulatory approval pathways, genetics, climate and ocean systems, and infectious disease. This desk applies our most conservative sourcing rules: peer-reviewed literature preferred, single studies treated cautiously, preprints labelled as such.
Sport. Covers the economics, governance, medicine, and media structures of professional and collegiate sport rather than results and fixtures.
Entertainment. Covers film, television, and music as industries, examining financing, distribution, labour, and rights rather than celebrity.
What we require of contributors
Contributors must research from primary sources and supply citations for every substantive factual claim. They must disclose any financial interest, employment history, or affiliation relevant to their subject; where a conflict is material, the assignment goes elsewhere. They may not accept gifts, paid travel, or hospitality from organisations they write about.
Contributors may use software tools for research, transcription, and data handling, but human authorship, verification, and editorial accountability are required for every published word. Facts and citations are never accepted from a generative tool without independent confirmation against the primary source.
Corrections and accountability
When we get something wrong, the correction identifies what changed and when, and it is not attached quietly. Our Standards Editor reviews correction handling independently. If you believe we have fallen short of the standards on this page, escalate to editorial@isunews.com and a senior editor will review it.
Working with us
We commission from writers with genuine subject expertise, particularly practitioners who can explain a field from the inside. If you would like to contribute, write to editorial@isunews.com with a short note on your background and two or three specific article ideas, each framed as a question a reader might ask. We are more interested in a precise question well answered than in a broad topic proposal.