INN Labs has great news for journalists who are looking for an easy way to add editors’ notes or other kinds of additional information to their articles that provide greater transparency and can build reader trust in their coverage.
Our newly launched disclaimers plugin is available to all WordPress users.
This makes it easier for journalists to add citations, links to resources, partnership notations, disclaimers or other editor notes or information to stories in addition to the story text. This can provide readers with added value and context.
It also provides the ability for journalists to customize these editors notes with added information unique to each post, rather than one static page or a global footer section for the whole website.
Sites have flexibility to determine where readers see the disclaimers.
Previously, this functionality was only available in INN Lab’s Largo theme as a custom widget. Now, we’ve taken that important functionality and extended it into a plugin–making it more widely available to the entire WordPress community.
How INN Members Use the Disclaimers Widget
Every story published by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism includes valuable disclaimer language that is powered by the disclaimer functionality. Sometimes, they will edit their standard language to add information about an author, a special partnership, or a grant they have received. Making per-post updates to the disclaimers is easy to do while editing a post:
Coburn Dukehart, WCIJ’s digital & multimedia director, considers the disclaimers “an important part of our transparency.”
See an example of how Wisconsin Watch uses the widget here.
Largo Sites
For sites using the current version of INN’s Largo theme, there’s no need to install this plugin now. The Largo Disclaimers Widget can be used until the next release of Largo.
At that time, Largo sites will need to install and configure the Disclaimers plugin. Don’t worry—existing disclaimers will be preserved! Reach out to the team at INN Labs with any questions.
WordPress Sites
Managers of WordPress sites that are not on Largo can download the plugin from their WordPress dashboard by searching for “Disclaimers” by “innlabs.” Or, follow the instructions to download and upload to your site’s plugins directory.
Stay Tuned
Stay tuned for more plugin announcements in the coming months!
Questions? Feedback?
Have questions or feedback about our publishing tools? Want to get in touch with the INN Labs team? Email us at labs@inn.org or join us for one of INN Labs’ free and public office hours.