Editorial briefing standard

Why the Black press page needs daily discipline

A serious Black British information platform cannot treat news as decoration. The daily feed has to do a specific job: point readers towards journalism and community reporting that helps them understand what is changing, what is being debated and what needs further evidence. That means the feed should be useful every day, but it should also be honest about what it is. The source cards on this page are not BlackBritish.org.uk articles. They are links into the original publishers. That protects the work of Black newspapers and magazines, keeps attribution clear, and avoids pretending that a short RSS excerpt is the same as a full reported story.

The editorial rule for this site is stricter. When BlackBritish.org.uk publishes its own news story, briefing or analysis, it should carry Mark Smartt as the named editorial author or curator, include a relevant picture, and meet a minimum length of 700 original words. That length is not about padding. It is a quality control measure. A proper story needs enough space to explain the issue, identify the source, separate fact from interpretation, describe the population or community being discussed, and state what is not yet known. Black communities are often harmed by rushed summaries, vague claims and headlines that flatten complex lives into a single angle. The 700-word rule gives each story room to show care.

Every item selected for a full BlackBritish.org.uk story should pass a basic evidence test. What is the claim? Where did it come from? Is it reporting, commentary, research, official data, community testimony or campaign material? What date is attached to it? Does it concern Black people across the UK, Black people in England and Wales, a specific region, a faith community, a cultural sector, a health issue, an education route or a justice system outcome? If a story uses statistics, the source must be named and the year must be visible. If the evidence is still emerging, that uncertainty must be stated. If the story is primarily lived experience or opinion, it should not be dressed up as population evidence.

Pictures also need discipline. A picture should help the reader understand the subject and should not reduce Black life to generic stock imagery. For automated source cards, Feedzy uses the image supplied by the publisher where available and a neutral site fallback where the feed does not expose one. For original BlackBritish.org.uk stories, the picture should be selected deliberately: a report cover for a report story, a community image for community coverage, a chart or map for data coverage, and a respectful portrait or scene when the focus is a person, organisation or lived experience. The image should support credibility, not just fill space.

Daily does not mean careless. The right rhythm is to let Feedzy refresh the source cards automatically, then use editorial judgement to decide which stories deserve a longer BlackBritish.org.uk treatment. A source card may be timely, but a full story should only be written when there is enough evidence, context and usefulness for the reader. Some items will simply link out. Some may become a short note in a weekly digest. Others may deserve a full 700-word explanation connecting the story to population, education, employment, health, housing, justice, faith, culture or lived experience. That distinction keeps the page active without turning the site into an uncritical content scraper.

The point is not to compete with Black newspapers and magazines. The point is to support them while giving readers a clearer evidence pathway. The Voice, Melan Magazine, Pride Magazine, The British Blacklist, Black History Month UK and other Black-focused publishers each serve different audiences and editorial purposes. BlackBritish.org.uk should direct readers to those publishers, respect their work, and then add value where this platform has a specific role: careful context, source quality, data interpretation, intervention thinking and responsible public information. That is how the news page can stay current every day while still protecting the seriousness of the wider project.

The final editorial check is simple. If a proposed story does not have a picture, a named source, a clear public-interest reason and enough original explanation to reach the 700-word threshold, it should remain a source card until it is ready. That discipline keeps the page active, but it also protects the trust that the wider UK Black Demographics project depends on.