Editorial Guidelines for Potential Conflicts of Interest
Editorial integrity is at the center of The Block’s newsroom. Gaining the trust of our readers is paramount to being the authoritative source for digital asset news.
As an information services company, The Block provides customers with data, research and news. This gives our journalists a wealth of resources and context when crafting their stories. It also necessitates a boundary between the editorial and the sales/research teams. Further, it’s critically important to understand when potential conflicts of interest may arise.
Internal Conflicts
The Block’s editorial team operates separately and independently from its sales and research teams. In the course of doing business, The Block’s sales and research divisions may obtain proprietary or financial information from its customers. The Block’s journalists are not privy to this information, nor do they gain any additional knowledge about customers because of a relationship with sales or research.
To facilitate this separation:
Additionally, The Block’s reporters may not:
The sales and research teams should not:
What collaboration may occur:
In the event a customer complaint about news coverage is relayed to the sales or research teams, those complaints should be directed to the appropriate editorial managing editor or above.
Sponsored Content
From time to time the editorial department may assist in the development of sponsored content commissioned or sold by The Block’s sales or revenue teams. For the purposes of this section, “Sponsored Content” shall be defined as content that is commissioned and paid for by the sponsor. To the extent that The Block’s editorial team participates in Sponsored Content, the work product shall not be explicitly or implicitly influenced by the sponsor. Further, The Block’s editorial team shall not produce custom content when a sponsor has influence over resulting work product.
For webinars that have an editorial component, the sponsor may work with The Block’s sales team to frame a topic, but the resulting webinar must be independent and without interference from the sponsor.
Sponsored webinars shall:
It’s understood that: