OUR STANDARDS AND ETHICS
If you don't trust us or our work, good. You shouldn't trust anyone who hasn't told you exactly how they operate. So here's how we do.
Everything you read and watch here—the newsletters, videos, events—is independent journalism, held to the same standards Joanna Stern and the team have maintained throughout their careers at places like The Wall Street Journal, NBC News, ABC News, The Verge and more.
That means one obligation: to you, the audience. Not to advertisers. Not to sponsors. Not to the platforms we publish on. Yes, we do sponsorships with companies, but the moment a sponsor gets to shape a story is the moment we stop being journalists. And we're not interested in stopping.
Allow us to answer some questions.
FAQs
HOW WILL I KNOW IF SOMETHING IS SPONSORED CONTENT?
Everything sponsored is labeled as such. In newsletters, it’ll say “sponsored” in a big orange block. In videos, we’ll make it very clear—probably with our absurdly elegant, gold-plated Money Mic. See our launch video.
HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE?
All editorial decisions are made by New Things team members (plural) and no one else. Our coverage can often be critical of the companies we cover—we strive to do journalism that makes an impact and even changes the way companies and products work.
New Things pays for its own travel to editorial events (see: Apple events or CES), including transportation, hotels, food and random props we buy along the way. We do not accept junkets or paid trips.
Sponsors have no input on our coverage. They don't suggest topics, preview articles or scripts, or influence the tone, timing or conclusions of our work. New Things Media partners with Smooth Media, a dedicated sales team that is responsible for selling advertising and sponsorships on our properties. The setup is deliberate, and standard practice for news organizations.
HOW DO YOU HANDLE PRODUCT REVIEWS AND TESTING?
No pay-for-play, ever. We may use review units provided by manufacturers for testing, but we don't keep them. We never accept payment to review a product or to guarantee a favorable outcome. Access to products, executives or briefings does not imply endorsement or favorable coverage.
We aim to make our testing as fair and transparent as possible, so you can see how we got to our conclusions and how the product performs in conditions that resemble real life, not some fantasy lab.
HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR INVESTMENTS AND FINANCIAL INTERESTS?
We don't own individual stocks or hold direct investments in the technology companies we cover. Any personal or financial conflict of interest is disclosed to our audience.
WHAT IS YOUR POLICY ON AI AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES?
We use technology to enhance our storytelling but never at the expense of truth and accuracy. AI tools do assist our workflow—using AI is actually a requirement to work here. We use it to do everything from transcriptions to keep track of assignments, etc. but we take pride in human writing, editing, illustration, design, music and more—and we pay real humans for all of those things.
(Fun fact: Our awesome logo, font and branding were hand-illustrated by Jason Snyder and the Brainstorm team.)
All final reporting and creative output is verified and overseen by humans.
WHAT IF YOU GET SOMETHING WRONG?
It happens. When we discover an error—or when our audience does—we correct it promptly. In newsletters and articles, we remove the inaccurate information and add a correction notice explaining what changed and why. In videos, we may take down the original and replace it with a corrected version.
SEEMS LIKE YOUR HAVE THIS ALL FIGURED OUT?
Not at all. After years of working with established standards departments at big media companies, we are going at it a bit differently here. But here’s what we know transparency is key. We want to keep the conversations going with you too. If you have questions, please email us and ask.
