Editorial Standards

1. Real events only

Every Hooray News story is about something that actually happened. Our starting point is reporting from established news organizations, science journals, research institutions and official sources. We don’t publish rumors, viral posts we can’t confirm, or stories without a reliable original source.

2. What counts as good news

We publish stories whose main point is positive or hopeful: a discovery, a recovery, a rescue, a comeback, an act of kindness, a problem solved. Each candidate is scored on our 0–100 Hooray meter for how much genuine good it carries, how many people or creatures it helps, and how solid the reporting is. Only stories that clear our bar are considered, and the editor makes the final call.

We leave out partisan politics, crime, celebrity gossip, and tragedies with a happy footnote. A story about a rescue is fine. A story about a disaster that mentions a rescue is not.

3. Sourcing

• Each story is researched against more than one source wherever possible, with primary sources (the study, the agency, the organization) preferred over secondhand reports.
• Every source we rely on is cited with the story.
• Quotes are used only when they appear in published reporting or official statements, and they are attributed to where we found them. We never invent or paraphrase quotes inside quotation marks.
• Numbers, dates and names are checked against the sources before a story is approved.

4. Original stories

We don’t copy other outlets’ articles. Hooray News stories bring together what several sources reported and explain why it matters, in plain language. When we rely on another outlet’s reporting, we credit it.

5. A human editor approves everything

We use AI tools to help with research and drafting. A human editor reads every story, checks it against the sources, edits it, and decides whether it runs. Nothing is published automatically. More on how we use AI.

6. Images

We use photos only when we have the right to: our own, public-domain images, or images whose license allows it, with credit given. Many stories carry an illustration made with AI tools. Those are always labeled as illustrations, and we never create images that pretend to be photos of real events or real people.

7. Independence

Stories are chosen on their merits. No one can pay to be covered, and we don’t accept gifts in exchange for coverage. Any advertising on the site is clearly separated from our stories and has no say over what we publish.

8. Corrections

When we get something wrong, we fix it quickly and say so at the bottom of the story. Read our corrections policy.

Questions about these standards? Contact the editor.