Operating Guidelines

The CalMatters Network is designed to promote collaboration and content sharing among California news organizations. 

Please follow these guidelines:

  • News organizations are invited and encouraged to share content, but are not required to do so in order to use content from other organizations. 
  • Please credit the producers of any content you use by including the author name(s) and the name of the contributing news organization.   
  • If you’re republishing online, please link to the contributing news organization.
  • If you make changes that are more significant than style tweaks — such as adding a comment from a local official — please include a note indicating: “Additional reporting by (Your Organization).”
  • Not all news organizations have the rights to share all of the photos they use. If you’re contributing a story that includes photos that may not be shared, add a tag stating PHOTO REUSE PROHIBITED. This will activate a category marker above the headline in the article page indicating that the photos are not to be republished.  
  • All content shared via the CalMatters Network is available to California news organizations at no cost.
  • If you make a significant change or correction to a story that was posted more than 48 hours earlier, please contact us so we can make sure it’s properly updated. 
  • To ensure that Google Search can identify the original source of the content, please do one or all of these things when republishing:
    • Include a link to the original story in the version you post.
    • Set your publishing system to recognize the original URL as the canonical URL
    • Add a line at the top of the story saying “This story was originally published by” that acknowledges the original author and links to its version
  • Stories obtained using the “Republish This Story” button include a tracking pixel at the bottom. Please include that code to enable tracking of which content is being republished. Let us know of any technical issues.

For questions, feedback or other administrative matters, send an email to partners@calmatters.org.