When we get a number wrong
A publication built on figures has to be specific about what happens when one of them is off.
Tell us
Email [email protected] with the page and what you believe is wrong. If you have the source, include it — it makes the check faster. We read every one.
What we do
- Factual error in a figure or a date. We correct it and add a dated correction note at the foot of the story saying what it said before. We do not quietly edit a number and leave the page looking untouched.
- A projection that has since been confirmed. That is not a correction, it is an update. The figure is replaced, the tag changes from projected to confirmed, and the review date is stamped.
- Something unclear rather than wrong. We rewrite for clarity without a correction note, because nothing factual changed.
- An error in a headline. Corrected in the headline itself, with the note at the foot. Leaving a wrong number in a headline and fixing it in paragraph six is not a correction.
What we do not do
We do not delete a story to make an error disappear, and we do not remove a correction note once it has been posted. The record of having been wrong stays on the page.
Where the risk actually is
Most of what we publish involves figures that are official on a known future date — a COLA confirmed in October, a premium confirmed in November. The error we work hardest to prevent is not a typo. It is a stale number that was right when published and quietly stopped being right.
That is why every story carries a review date, and why stories tied to a value that changes are flagged automatically when that value moves. Seeeditorial standards for how that works.