Writing & MediaFree
News Correction and Editor's Note Writer
Describe what the story got wrong and get the published note, the corrected wording for every place the error ran, and a log entry.
River writes the correction your readers will see and fixes everything around it. Describe the error and how you know the right fact, and paste the story if you have it. You get the note in the wording newsrooms use, the right label for it, corrected text for every passage that repeats the mistake, and a list of other places it probably ran. A headline, a photo caption and a newsletter blurb can each carry the same wrong number.
Most correction guides stop at a template line. The hard calls come before the wording: whether this is a correction or a clarification, whether the note should repeat a false claim about a person, and where else the error lives. River makes those calls in writing so an editor can disagree with them. It never supplies the correct fact for you. If you have not confirmed it, the note carries a visible placeholder instead of a guess.
This is for editors at small newsrooms without a standards desk, student newspaper editors, freelancers asked to fix a piece after it ran, and newsletter writers who publish their own reporting. Use it as soon as an error is confirmed, while the readers who saw the mistake are still reading. If the error came from two sources telling different stories, the fact reconciliation tool sorts out which account holds up before you correct anything. To catch the next error before it runs, the fact-check comment adder marks every checkable claim in a draft.
How a good correction is built
A correction has three jobs: say what was wrong, say what is right, and say it where the original readers will see it. The SPJ Code of Ethics asks journalists to acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently, and to explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly. Online, that means fixing the text and adding a dated note where your publication always puts them. Quietly changing the text leaves earlier readers holding the wrong fact.
The label matters as much as the wording. A correction admits a factual error. A clarification adds context to something that was accurate but misleading or incomplete. Calling a wrong number a clarification is the most common way a newsroom softens a mistake, and readers notice. An illustrative example: a story said a project would cost $50 million and the adopted budget says $45 million. That is a correction, and it reads plainly: the article misstated the budget, which is $45 million.
Errors about people need extra care. If a story wrongly said a named person was charged with a crime, a note that repeats the charge spreads it again to everyone who reads the correction. Better wording names the error without restating it, for example that an earlier version incorrectly described the person's role in the case. Errors also travel. Check the headline, captions, charts, social posts, the newsletter and partner sites that republished the piece, since one fix leaves the others wrong.
How it works
Describe the error
Say what ran, what is actually true, and how you confirmed the right fact.
Add the story
Paste the published story if you have it, so every repeat of the error gets found.
River writes the fix
The label, the note, corrected passages, and a list of other places to check.
Refine in chat
Ask for a print version, a reply to the reader, or a firmer note for a serious error.
What you get
- The recommended label, correction, clarification, update or editor's note, with the reason it fits
- The published note in standard newsroom wording, active voice, dated and proportionate to the mistake
- Corrected text for every passage that carries the error, including the headline, dek and captions
- A checklist of other places it likely ran: social posts, newsletter, alerts and partner sites
- Wording for errors about people that names the mistake without repeating the false claim
- A one-line corrections log entry, so patterns in your errors are easy to spot later
Common questions
What is the difference between a correction and a clarification?
A correction fixes a fact that was wrong. A clarification adds context to something that was accurate but could mislead, such as a figure that left out a key condition. If a reader who believed the original would now believe something false, it is a correction. Calling an error a clarification to soften it is the move readers notice most.
Should the note repeat the original error?
Usually yes for numbers, dates and spellings, because readers need to know what to stop believing. For false claims about a person, such as an arrest or an accusation, describe the error without restating the claim in full. Repeating it in the correction spreads it again, and the person who was harmed reads the note too.
Where should the correction appear?
On the story itself, in the place your publication consistently uses, not only on a separate corrections page. A written corrections policy settles that once. Many newsrooms put the note at the bottom of the story and serious corrections at the top. Fix the text as well, along with any headline, caption or social post that carried the error, so new readers never see it.
Do we need to apologize?
Not for a routine error like a wrong date or a misspelled name. A plain, prompt correction is the accountable response. An apology fits when the error harmed someone, such as putting words in their mouth or linking them to a crime. River recommends one only when the facts you describe point that way, and it says why.
What if I have not confirmed the right fact yet?
Confirm it before you publish, because a second error inside a correction does more damage than the first. River still drafts the note and the corrected passages, with a visible placeholder where the confirmed fact belongs. That way the correction is ready to publish the moment you have checked, and nothing unverified slips through.
When is a retraction the right call?
When the story's central claim cannot stand, not when a detail was wrong. A retraction withdraws the piece and explains why, for example because a key source turned out to be unreliable. River will say if your description points toward retraction, but that decision belongs to your top editor and, where someone may have been defamed, your lawyer.
Built by
Chandler Supple
Co-founder & CEO, River
Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.
News Correction and Editor's Note Writer
Describe what you need, add any files you have, and your workspace opens with the work already underway.