Ethics policy

MedCity News succeeds by providing critical, comprehensive, empowering and trustworthy information to our readers. We believe this kind of information is the key to our editorial and business success: good information draws readers who care about health care, which in turn attracts advertisers and other customers who value our audience and information. If our information is biased, we lose our readers, and MedCity News becomes an editorial and commercial failure.

In order for us to succeed, editorial decisions are made separately from business decisions.

As the co-founders of MedCity News, Chris Seper and Mary Vanac are both journalists and small business owners. But neither is involved in day-to-day business transactions, nor does either have financial interactions with advertisers or clients. Transactional operations are handled exclusively by Amanda Todorovich, the company’s vice president for business development and marketing, and any staff she oversees.

Our advertisers, investors, board members, partners and other entities with which MedCity News has business relationships do not get special treatment nor do they hold special influence over the news.

We do not fabricate information for our stories: we work hard to make sure everything we publish is accurate. We quickly correct inadvertent errors.

Full-time journalists will not hold positions nor have business relationships with organization or industries they cover. Journalists and correspondents will not write about companies they invest in, work for or have family ties to. Writers will not write about companies they worked for in the past, or for those companies’ direct competitors or business partners. (Full-time journalists and correspondents are listed in MedCityNews.com’s About Us section).

These standards are meant for full-time journalists and correspondents at MedCity News, and not readers or contributors who may leave comments, publish opinion pieces or provide other editorial contributions. Contributors who fall outside of the rules of this policy will be clearly labeled as such. But MedCity News will not publish information by anyone that is knowingly defamatory or false, or damages the editorial mission of the company.