The format is the standard
We write an original piece, 150 to 800 words. We attach one primary source — a named publication, document, or record — and we link it. We do not paste the source. We do not run a gallery of other people’s articles with a sentence on top. If the only honest version of a story is the source itself, we do not publish a take.
What a source is
A source is something a reader can open and check: a newspaper report, a paper, a government notice, a book, a speech transcript, a dataset. We name it. We link it. We do not hide behind “sources say” when a document exists.
One source is a discipline, not a claim that nothing else exists. It is the piece of the record we are answering. If we cannot point to that piece, we do not run the entry.
What a take is
A take is our words: context, argument, or a way of seeing that the source does not already give you. News Digest still follows the rule — we are not a wire. Opinion is labelled as opinion by the pillar, not dressed up as a report. History, people, culture, places, and technology are held to the same length and the same outbound link.
What we will not do
We do not re-post. We do not invent quotes, documents, or scenes. We do not treat a screenshot or a forwarded message as a source. We do not write for hire around a press release. We do not publish work whose only job is to send traffic back to someone else’s page.
Images
When a photograph exists for an entry, we use it. When it does not, we show a placeholder — an abstract texture, never a generated picture of a real person or a specific place. The caption on a placeholder is a note about what belongs there, not a claim that the picture is the thing.