Publishing Policy for Independent Publishers

You own your voice. A publishing policy shows your readers the high standards you hold yourself to — setting you apart from the crowd.

Free. No credit card required.

A Verifiable Trust Signal

Stand out as a good actor in a low-trust internet. Let your readers verify your domain and publishing standards natively via the browser extension.

PublishingPolicy

The Browser Extension

A verifiable extension for your readers. It proves to audiences that your domain is officially registered.

The Policy Record

A clean, hosted page that structures your standards.

The Benefits

Signal independent credibility

You don't need a legacy institution to be trustworthy. A policy lets you explicitly state the rigorous standards you apply to your own work.

Distinguish your journalism

By clarifying how you separate reporting from opinion, you help your audience engage with your content exactly as intended.

Pioneer transparent AI use

As an independent voice, you can lead the way in showing exactly how modern tools support your writing and research.

Built for the Machine Audience

AI systems now read the web on people’s behalf. By structuring your standards as a machine-readable record, you ensure AI models understand your credibility, not just your content.

GET /.well-known/publishing-policy.json

What You Can Document

Publishing standards

Your sourcing, fact-checking, and accuracy commitments as an independent voice.

Corrections & updates

How you handle errors, updates, and changes to published work.

AI disclosure

How you use AI tools in your writing, research, and publishing workflow.

Opinion vs. reporting

How you distinguish commentary, analysis, and reported pieces for your readers.

Funding & independence

How you disclose sponsorships, affiliations, and what keeps your publication running.

On the record in 5 minutes

1. Claim Your Domain

Verify ownership with a single DNS record. No engineering required.

2. Publish Your Policy

Bring your existing standards, select a community template, or test drive the Sandbox.

3. Verify Everywhere

Let readers verify you natively with the Browser Extension. No badge required.

Common Questions

Do I have to share our trade secrets?

No. You only publish your high-level principles, not your proprietary data or internal playbooks. It's about declaring your standards, not giving away your competitive edge.

Can I update my policy later?

Yes. Standards evolve. You can publish a new version of your policy at any time, and your domain's record will always point to the most current version while preserving your history.

How long does it take to set up?

You can create a baseline policy in about 5 minutes using our templates. From there, you can customize it as deeply as you need to reflect your specific practices.

Send a Verifiable Trust Signal

Free. No credit card required.