Editorial standards

Prompt the Market reports on marketing, media, advertising and the money behind them. These are the rules every article is held to. They apply to every desk, every byline and every format, including People & moves and The Index.

Sourcing

• Every factual claim is attributed to a named source, and every article lists its sources at the foot of the page.
• We prefer primary sources: company statements, filings, regulator decisions, court documents and the original research report. Where we rely on another outlet's reporting, we say so and link to it in the sources list.
• Figures are reported exactly as the source gives them, with the period and the sample. Forecasts are labelled as forecasts and estimates as estimates.
• Vendor-commissioned research is identified as such, with the sponsor and sample size stated.
• Unconfirmed reports are labelled as unconfirmed. We do not state a disputed claim as fact to make a headline shorter.

Quotes

• Direct quotes are used only when they appear on the record in a named source: an interview, a statement, a filing or published coverage.
• We attribute quotes with "said" or "told", not with verbs that characterise the speaker.
• We do not invent, composite or paraphrase-then-quote. If we cannot verify the exact words, we report them as indirect speech with attribution.

Headlines

Headlines report who did what, to whom, and how much. They are 70 characters or fewer, in active voice, and contain no hype verbs (ship, drop, unveil, slam, soar and similar) and no questions, curiosity gaps or second-person constructions. Claims in headlines carry the same attribution as the body.

Language

We write in Australian English. Acronyms are spelled out on first use. We avoid jargon and a published list of banned words, and every article passes an automated language check before publication. A single banned word fails the check.

Independence

Prompt the Market is owned by Bushnote. Editorial decisions are made by the editor, not by Bushnote's commercial staff or clients. Where a story involves Bushnote, a Bushnote client or a company Bushnote competes with, the article says so. Ownership and funding are set out on our About page.

Artificial intelligence

AI tools are used in research, drafting, checking and illustration. How, and where they are not used, is set out in Our approach to AI.

Corrections

We correct errors promptly and visibly. See our corrections policy and the corrections log. To report an error, email contact@bushnote.com.

What we will not publish

• Paid content presented as editorial.
• Claims we cannot attribute.
• Illustrations depicting real, identifiable people.
• Material that misrepresents what AI tools contributed to an article.