The EDIT27 Standard
A reader may reserve a table, choose a hotel or make a journey on the strength of an article. We owe that reader an account that makes clear what has been established, what is a matter of judgment and where our knowledge ends.
Editorial coverage and favourable assessments are not available for purchase. The standards below govern our published work, including how subjects are selected, how claims are checked and how relevant commercial relationships are disclosed.
EDIT27
How we choose our stories
A story begins with something worth examining. It may be a restaurant with a distinct approach to hospitality, a designer whose work changes how clothes are worn, or an established institution whose reputation deserves a fresh look. We ask what a reader will understand after the piece that they could not have learned from an announcement.
An opening, an anniversary or a widely circulated image may bring a subject to our attention. None determines whether we publish. There must be enough substance to sustain the reporting and a reason for the reader to care.
In hospitality, we consider the relationship between the idea and its execution: the food, the service, the room and the practical experience of being a guest. In fashion and cultural work, we examine authorship, craft, context and influence. These are areas of inquiry rather than a universal scoring formula.
Reputation, price, awards and difficulty of access may form part of a story. They do not settle our assessment. A small independent address is eligible for the same attention as a major hotel; neither is entitled to a favourable conclusion.
Reporting and first-hand experience
A reported feature, a critical essay and a first-hand review do different kinds of work. The reader should be able to tell which they are reading.When an article makes an assessment based on a visit, stay, meal or interview, that experience must have taken place.
We do not write as though a contributor has entered a room, spoken to a chef or tasted a dish when they have not. Research-based features must identify their basis and must not imply a visit that did not occur.
Factual claims are checked against appropriate sources before publication. Official information is useful for confirming booking arrangements, opening dates and stated policies.
Claims about quality, history, authorship or cultural significance may require independent evidence. An operator’s description can establish what it promises; it cannot establish how well that promise is kept.
We credit reporting, interviews, archives and specialist knowledge where we rely on them. Quotations must be accurate and attributable. Translation should preserve meaning and register, with uncertainty made clear where it matters. Testimony must not be invented, people combined into undisclosed characters, or assumptions presented as reported facts.
Details that affect a visit, including prices, last orders, access rules and reservation requirements, are checked near publication. Where a material point cannot be verified, it is qualified or omitted.
Recommendations and criticism
A restaurant may be discussed because it is influential, a hotel because it raises a useful question, or a brand because its claims warrant scrutiny. Inclusion is not an endorsement of everything a subject does.
A recommendation must explain what is being recommended, for whom and on what basis. One meal does not establish years of consistency, and access arranged for the press may not reflect an ordinary booking. The scope of a judgment must match the evidence behind it.
We distinguish observation from interpretation and personal preference. Criticism should be specific enough to be understood and fair enough to be answered. Where reporting raises a significant adverse factual allegation, the subject should have a reasonable opportunity to respond before publication. Relevant responses are represented fairly.
Editorial coverage is not certification, a formal inspection or a permanent guarantee of quality
Editorial independence
EDIT27 decides which subjects to pursue, what questions to ask, how to present the work and whether to publish. These decisions are not included in an advertising agreement, a sponsorship, an advisory contract or an invitation.
Editorial features, recommendations and positions in editorial selections are not sold. We do not exchange favourable coverage for gifts, services, reciprocal publicity or links.
Sources may be asked to confirm a quotation or a technical detail. That does not grant approval of the article, its headline, its conclusions or its publication date. Requests to correct errors are welcome. Commercial pressure is not a reason to remove substantiated criticism.
Any advertising or paid brand content must be identified clearly as commercial material, separate from independent editorial work. A vague partnership credit is not an adequate substitute for a disclosure a reader can understand. Any affiliate arrangement that may earn EDIT27 a commission must also be disclosed near the relevant content.
Invitations, hospitality and gifts
Press invitations, access arrangements and review samples can affect the conditions in which a piece is produced. Where a meal, stay, journey, product or other material benefit has been provided free or at a preferential rate, the relationship must be disclosed with the article.
The disclosure should say what was provided and by whom. A hosted visit must not be presented as an independently paid booking. Nor should a visit be described as anonymous unless it was.
Accepting access does not commit EDIT27 to a story or to praise. Invitations conditional on favourable treatment or prior approval of independent coverage are declined. Cash and personal benefits offered to influence editorial judgment are refused.
Where the arrangements materially limit what can be assessed, those limits belong in the piece.
Advisory work and other interests
Any paid hospitality consultancy offered through EDIT27 Advisory must remain separate from editorial selection. An advisory commission cannot buy coverage, a recommendation or protection from criticism.
Businesses currently retained as advisory clients, and businesses owned or operated by those responsible for EDIT27, are not eligible for independent reviews or ranked recommendations. Where one is materially relevant to a wider reported story, the relationship must be disclosed beside the reference.
Contributors must disclose relevant ownership, employment, investments, close personal connections and recent commercial work before taking on a subject. Where a relationship would compromise the assessment, the assignment is declined or reassigned.
A confidential consultancy agreement cannot be used to conceal a relationship relevant to editorial coverage. Where that relationship cannot be disclosed, the subject cannot be presented as an independent editorial recommendation.
Images, authorship and AI
Photography and imagery form part of the account a reader receives. Captions should identify what is shown, the relevant place or date where needed, and the source. Supplied images must be credited as supplied; renderings and staged visual work must not be passed off as documentary photographs. Publication requires the appropriate rights or permission.
Image treatment must not materially misrepresent a place, a product or an event in documentary coverage. A generated image cannot serve as evidence that a venue looks a certain way, that a person attended a gathering or that an event took place. Illustration, including AI-generated or substantially AI-altered imagery, must be labelled where it appears.
AI-assisted writing, research and translation remain subject to verification and human editorial review. Generated text is not a source. Where AI materially contributes to published prose or imagery, its role must be explained in an accompanying note. Routine spelling or formatting assistance does not require the same treatment.
Authorship and credentials must be accurate. A fictional expert identity must never be used to give an article authority. Responsibility for the published work remains with EDIT27.
People, places and cultural context
International coverage requires more than familiar comparisons. Names, terminology and customs should be checked in their own context, with local and original-language sources where possible. We do not treat a place as valuable merely because it is unfamiliar to an outside reader.
Privacy, restricted access and cultural significance need careful reporting. We do not publish private information merely to make a story feel exclusive, encourage readers to enter places closed to them, or present a restricted door as proof of quality. Ordinary guests and staff deserve consideration in the reporting and imagery around them.
Corrections and updates
Readers and subjects can request a correction through the contact details published on this website. A useful request identifies the article, the disputed passage and evidence that helps establish what is wrong.
Verified factual errors are corrected. When an error materially affects the meaning, assessment or a reader’s decisions, the article carries a dated correction explaining the change. Minor typographical corrections do not require the same notice.
An operational update is different from a correction: a restaurant may change its hours after publication without the original reporting having been wrong. Significant updates should be dated so the reader can understand the period the account describes.
A dispute about taste does not, by itself, establish a factual error. New evidence may nevertheless justify revisiting a conclusion. Substantial changes to these standards will also be dated.
For consideration
Readers, owners, publicists and people working in culture, food, fashion and hospitality are welcome to bring subjects to our attention. Introductions are considered on their editorial merits. There is no fee to submit a subject and no obligation to publish it.
For Consideration explains how to introduce a place or project. Writers and photographers should use Contributors to propose original work.A submission is the beginning of a possible inquiry. Any decision to publish follows the reporting.
