Ethics policy
The rules we hold ourselves to — on independence, money, conflicts, and the honest use of automation.
Independence
Our coverage decisions are made on news value alone. No company, investor, vendor, or source decides what we cover, how we cover it, or whether a story runs. We do not accept payment, equity, gifts, or favors in exchange for coverage — positive, negative, or otherwise — and coverage cannot be bought off, either: no one can pay us to soften or kill a story.
No ads, no advertiser influence
The Ledger Signal carries no advertising. That is not just a reading-experience choice; it is an ethics one. With no advertisers there is no advertiser pressure — no category we soft-pedal because a sponsor operates in it, and no incentive to inflate traffic at the expense of accuracy. The site is free to read, with no paywall, so our only obligation is to readers.
Conflicts of interest
When a potential conflict of interest touches a story — a financial interest, a relationship with a covered company, or anything else that could reasonably color judgment — the person or process affected is recused from that coverage, or the conflict is disclosed in the piece. Where a conflict cannot be cleanly managed, we pass on the story rather than compromise it.
AI assistance, human accountability
We are a publication about AI in finance that uses AI in its own newsroom, and we believe the only honest posture is to say so plainly. Automated research and monitoring systems help gather, track, and draft our coverage at machine scale. Every published story operates under editorial oversight, and a human is accountable for it — the automation never gets the final word, and “the system did it” is never an excuse. The verification signals on each article — source tiers, attribution, claim-verification ratios — exist so you can audit the output yourself; the mechanics are described in our editorial standards.
Opinion is not reporting
Opinion and analysis are clearly labeled and visually distinct from news. Reporting tells you what happened and what the evidence supports; Opinion argues a view. We never blur the two, and we never run advocacy dressed as a news story.
Mistakes
When we get something wrong, we correct it promptly and visibly, under our corrections policy. If you believe our coverage has fallen short of anything on this page, we want to hear about it — reach us through the contact page.