1. What Newsroom Horizon is
Newsroom Horizon is an independent editorial knowledge base about digital journalism, published from Dublin and operated by Newsroom Horizon Ltd. It exists to explain how news is now produced, ranked, funded and disclosed, in enough detail that a reader can evaluate the next development without waiting for someone to interpret it for them.
It consists of thirty pages: four long analyses, ten theme pages, a lexicon, a method statement, a set of policies and the ordinary navigation a reference site needs. Everything is free, nothing requires an account, and there is no wall of any kind. The material is written for adults in Ireland and elsewhere who encounter these mechanisms at work or as readers, and it assumes no technical background.
2. What it is not
It is not a school. There is no course, no programme, no cohort, no enrolment, no assessment, no certificate and no accreditation of any kind. Reading the site confers no status and no qualification, and nobody here can say that a reader has completed anything.
It is not a recruitment service, an agency or an intermediary. This desk has no relationship with any employer or commissioning editor, cannot introduce anyone to one, and makes no claim about the effect of reading these pages on anyone’s prospects. It is not a press regulator or a complaints body: complaints about other publications should go to the relevant body, not here. And it is not a law firm or a data-protection consultancy — nothing on the site is legal advice, and legal questions should go to a qualified professional.
3. Why it exists
Coverage of media technology tends to divide into two unhelpful genres. Product journalism describes what a tool claims to do, usually shortly after a launch and usually without a way to check. Commentary describes what the technology means, usually without describing the mechanism it is interpreting. Neither helps someone who has to decide whether to adopt a transcription service, how to word a disclosure line, or whether a clip in front of them is what it appears to be.
This site tries to occupy the space between them: mechanism first, then the public rules that apply, then the practical decisions that follow, with the uncertainty stated where it exists. That is an unglamorous position and it dates less quickly than either alternative.
4. Editorial roles
Work is organised by role rather than by named individual, and this site does not publish staff names or photographs. That is a deliberate choice for a small operation: role descriptions state what was done and who is accountable for it, without inviting readers to evaluate material by personality. Accountability rests with the operator company named on this page and on the contact page.
| Role | Responsibility | Sign-off |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial desk | Scope notes, commissioning, section outlines, final read | Publication of any page |
| Verification editor | Claim-level extraction and source location | Every checkable claim on a page |
| Standards editor | Policy pages, disclosure threshold, correction wording | Corrections and policy revisions |
| Accessibility reviewer | Structure, focus order, alternatives, captions, contrast | Template changes and new components |
| Technical maintainer | Static build, link integrity, storage keys, no external requests | Any change to the build or scripts |
5. Independence and funding
The site is funded by the people who operate it. It takes no sponsorship, sells no advertising, runs no affiliate arrangements, accepts no payment for coverage, placement or links, and has no commercial relationship with any tool provider, platform, publisher or institution mentioned in the text. There is no paid content of any kind on the site, and there is nothing for sale.
The practical consequence is scope: a self-funded desk publishes fewer pages and maintains them for longer. That constraint is visible in the design of the site — thirty pages, a finite landscape and a fixed review cycle rather than a growing archive nobody re-reads. If the funding position ever changes, the change will be stated on this page with a date, before any affected material is published.
6. How editorial decisions are made
Subjects are chosen on two criteria: whether the mechanism is durable enough to justify a maintained page, and whether an interested reader is currently able to find a clear explanation elsewhere. Subjects that are moving too quickly to describe accurately are left alone until they settle, and subjects already covered well by public bodies are linked in text rather than duplicated.
Nothing is published to a schedule. There is no publication pressure, no traffic target and no growth objective attached to any page, which removes the most common reason for publishing something before it is ready. Where a page cannot be written to the standard on the method page, it is not written.
7. Relationships with institutions
Public bodies are named throughout the site because they are the relevant sources: Coimisiún na Meán for the Irish statutory framework, the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman for the voluntary complaints system, the Central Statistics Office for official figures, the Data Protection Commission for data-protection guidance, and the European instruments that apply across all of them.
Naming is not affiliation. Newsroom Horizon is not a member of any of these bodies, and holds no recognition, accreditation, endorsement, funding or supervision from them, or from any university, publisher or representative organisation. No such relationship exists or is claimed anywhere on this site, and institution names appear as plain text rather than links so that no impression of association is created.
8. The operator
The site is operated by Newsroom Horizon Ltd, CRO 712845, registered in Ireland, with its registered address at 12 Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 XY45, Ireland. The publication contact address is [email protected] and the telephone number is +353 1 526 4180. Full details, response expectations and the specific routes for corrections, privacy requests and accessibility feedback are on the contact page.
The operator is responsible for everything published here, including material identified as a description of general practice. Correspondence is welcome, by email, by telephone or through the short form on the contact page, which asks for no more than an enquiry requires.
Standing commitments
- Everything on this site is free to read, with no account and no wall.
- No advertising, sponsorship, affiliate arrangement or paid placement.
- No external requests: no hosted fonts, no widgets, no measurement tag.
- No claim of accreditation, recognition or supervision by any body.
- No named individuals presented as authors, sources or case studies.
- No monetary figures in any worked example.
- Corrections made in place, with the superseded wording retained.
- A stated review cycle with a maximum interval of twelve months.
- A funding statement that is updated before any change takes effect.
Questions about the project
Who writes this material?
The editorial desk of the operator company. The site does not publish individual staff names or photographs; accountability rests with the operator named on this page.
Can I contribute or pitch an article?
The site does not commission external contributions. Suggestions for missing topics or corrections to existing pages are genuinely welcome through the contact page.
Is Newsroom Horizon a member of the Press Council of Ireland?
No. The Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman are named on this site only as public reference points. No membership, recognition or supervision is claimed or exists.
Will the site grow beyond thirty pages?
Only if the additional pages can be maintained to the same standard. A small maintained reference is more useful than a large stale one, and the fixed size is a deliberate constraint.