How the Herald is written

The Haddenham Herald is a satirical paper for Haddenham and the villages around it. Most of what we print is invented. This page sets out the rules we write to, so you can hold us to them.

The editor reads everything. No story, advert, letter or comment appears until the editor has read it and decided to publish it.

Private people. Most people in our stories are made up, and we change any detail that would let a neighbour work out who a character is. When a real person is named, it is usually because they run a shop, a pub or an event worth knowing about, usually with their say-so, and the joke is with them rather than at them.

Businesses and places can be named. A real shop, pub, venue or place can appear in a story. We do not suggest a real business is unsafe, unhygienic or dishonest with money.

People in public life are fair game. Politicians, celebrities and public bodies can be named and pictured when the story is about their public role. Their private lives, health and families are off limits like everyone else’s.

What we never joke about. A real person’s death or injury. Real crimes and court cases. Children. Anyone’s health. Anyone’s race, religion, sexuality, disability or age. Real legal disputes. And nobody who has less power than we do, which in fairness is most people.

True stories are labelled. A piece we mean as fact carries the label “Straight report, not satire” everywhere it appears and names its source. Where a satirical story ends with a real event, the date, time and place in its last paragraph are checked before it runs.

Pictures. The pictures on satirical stories show scenes that never happened. Straight reports only ever use real photographs.

Getting it wrong. If we have made a mistake about a real fact, or a story has landed on a real person in a way it should not have, tell us at corrections@haddenham.news. Our corrections page says what happens next and how quickly.

How we use AI

AI is one of the tools we use to make the paper, alongside a camera, a dictionary and a great deal of tea. A person decides everything that is published, and the editor reads and approves every piece before it appears.

Anything readers send us is checked for anything abusive or harmful before the editor reads it. Our privacy notice explains how.

How it is paid for

Readers’ donations and adverts pay for the paper. Every advert is marked “Advertisement”. An advertiser can ask not to be the subject of a joke while their advert runs, and has no other say over what we print.

Donations pay for running the paper: the website, its email, the tools that help write it, and printing whenever there is a print edition. The Herald is not a charity, so Gift Aid does not apply.

To stop a monthly donation, email editor@haddenham.news and we will cancel it the same day.

If you gave by mistake, tell us within 7 days and we will refund it in full.

You can also stop or change a monthly donation yourself at haddenham.news/donate/manage/.