Editorial Policy

Sources

Every ottown story starts from a public source. The sources we use are:

• Local and national news feeds (RSS) from established outlets.
• Community discussions on Reddit about Ottawa.
• Public Instagram posts from Ottawa businesses, organizations and accounts.
• Official announcements from governments, venues and organizations.
• Event listings from ticketing and community event platforms.

Each article credits its source, usually at the end of the story, and links to it where possible. We do not present another outlet's reporting as our own.

Accuracy rules

Every story follows a fixed set of rules:

• Use only facts that appear in the source. No invented names, quotes, figures, prices or dates.
• Never claim that ottown attended, visited, tested or reviewed something first-hand.
• Credit the source and keep an Ottawa angle clear for local stories.
• Skip sponsored or advertorial material, press releases with no news in them, and duplicates of stories already published.

Images are either the source's own where permitted, or stock and licensed photography with credit shown.

Oversight

The ottown Editorial Team sets these rules and the list of sources, reviews and edits published stories, and acts on reader reports. We take reader reports seriously and correct quickly. See corrections.

Best-of lists

Our ranked best-of guides are compiled from public sources such as business websites, published reviews and local coverage. Every business named was found in a real source during research. Each list ends with a note explaining how it was built, whether any entry is a paid placement, and the month it was last reviewed. If a business on a list is connected to ottown or its operator, that entry says so.

Advertising

ottown carries display advertising served by Google AdSense. Advertisers do not choose or approve our stories. Enquiries about promotions go through our collaborate page.

What we cover

Ottawa first: local news, food, events, things to do, arts, real estate, tech, style and sport. We include national and world stories more sparingly, focusing on those that matter to Ottawa readers.

Corrections

When we get something wrong, we fix it. Minor errors such as a misspelled name are corrected in place. Significant errors are corrected and the article is updated. If a story cannot be verified, we remove it. Our corrections page explains how to report an error.