All stories, whether paid or unpaid, must adhere to the Towne Post Network Editorial Brand Standards outlined below.

<aside> 💡 Towne Post Network reserves the right to not publish any content that does not meet our Brand Standards.

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Content that does not meet these standards will either be modified to comply with or rejected and replaced at the discretion of the Director of Digital Services.

Our hyper local magazines need to adhere to the 50/50 mix of editorial and advertising with paid stories counting as advertising.

Editorial Responsibilities

Per your franchise agreement with the Towne Post Network, every franchisee is responsible for the “editorial direction” of said territories. Final authority on what goes into each publication, who writes and photographs the stories, editorial pay rates, ad to editorial ratios, and final stories – both paid and unpaid - are the responsibility of the Towne Post Network.

The Director of Digital Services has the responsibility of enforcing our Brand Standards, onboarding and assigning freelance writers and photographers, and establishing the pay rates and fees for all editorial assignments.

Brand Standards

All editorials must meet all of the following criteria in order to be compliant:

• Local – Must have a connection to a person, place or business within the franchised territory.
• Relevant – Needs to have a reason to be published – informative, pertinent, somehow connected to the community at large.
• Time Sensitive – The story is timely and appropriate for the current month/season.

Editorial Workflow

All editorial stories, paid or unpaid, must be vetted and assigned by the Director of Digital Services. Compensation for the editorials will follow the Writer & Photography Pay Rates published on our notion.so site. The Franchisees must submit their story ideas along with contact information and details at least two weeks prior to the Ad Closing date for each issue. Deadline dates will be published on the shared Google Deadline Calendars. Once a story is assigned, the Director of Digital Services will create the editorial tickets in MediaOS, upload the files, and oversee the editing process through to final design.

Paid Advertorial Workflow

Once a paid Business Spotlight is sold, the Contract Owner must notify the Director of Digital Services with the story details discussed with the client. We will no longer allow the client to submit their own stories – the editorial must be written by one of our approved Towne Post Network writers. Photography may be submitted by the client.

Front Cover Spotlights must meet the Brand Standards listed above. A client may purchase the Front Cover Spotlight no more than once every 24 months in the same publication.

Paid advertorials will be assigned to a writer with instructions to proof it to the client and copy the Director of Digital Services. Changes will be made by the writer and then submitted to the Director of Digital Services to forward along for editing and final design. The client will then see a final proof of the laid out story and have an opportunity to make any final edits prior to sending to press.

We will no longer accept client-written stories written in first person - they can provide these stories but we will have them rewritten to confirm with AP style.