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Republish our stories

Heartland Signal exists to get accountability journalism in front of as many readers as possible. That mission doesn’t end at our website. When other newsrooms, newsletters, classrooms, or community sites republish our work, our reporting reaches more of the people it was written for — and that is exactly the point.

So yes, please republish us. Our stories are available to republish for free under the terms below. Credit us, don’t change what we said, and follow a few ground rules.

The short version

  • You can republish any Heartland Signal story, in full or in part, at no cost.
  • Keep the byline and don’t alter the meaning of the piece.
  • Include our credit line and a link back to the original story.
  • Preserve the hyperlinks in the story. Don’t add your own to the body text.
  • Don’t sell our work or resell it as your own.
  • Our photos are licensed from The Associated Press and can’t travel with the story. Our original graphics, illustrations, and videos can — with credit.

If that covers your situation, you’re good to go. The rest of this page spells out the details.

Have questions? Email republish@heartlandsignal.com.

Who this is for

Nonprofit newsrooms, independent journalists, local papers, public broadcasters, newsletter writers, educators, and community organizations are all welcome to republish our work under these terms. If you’re unsure whether your use qualifies, email us and ask. We’d rather answer a question than have you guess.

What you can do

Republish our stories on your website, in your print publication, in a newsletter, or in a classroom setting. You can run the piece in full, publish an excerpt with a link back to the original, or translate it into another language. If you’re translating, please let us know first; we want to help make sure the nuance carries over.

From time to time, we also publish work produced in partnership with other newsrooms, or stories we’ve licensed from partners. Those pieces are not available for republishing and will be clearly marked. If you’re unsure, just ask.

Our ground rules

Every republication needs to follow these rules.

  1. Keep the byline. Credit the Heartland Signal reporter or reporters who wrote the story, in this format: [Reporter Name], Heartland Signal. Don’t add your own staff to the byline unless they contributed substantive reporting or editing (see rule 3).
  1. Don’t change the substance of the story. You can trim for space, correct an obvious typo, or adjust the headline or subheading to fit your house style. You can update references to time or location (“yesterday” becomes “Tuesday”; “Des Moines” becomes “here”). You can’t rewrite the piece, add commentary to the body, or edit in a way that changes the meaning or tone of our reporting.
  1. If you add local reporting, label it. If your staff contributes meaningful local context or new reporting, please check with us first — and add a note like “Additional reporting by [Your Outlet]” so readers can see where our work ends and yours begins.
  1. Include our credit line. Place it at the top or bottom of the story. The credit line should link back to the original story URL and to heartlandsignal.com. Sample language is below.
  1. Use the canonical URL. If you publish online, include the Heartland Signal story URL as the canonical tag in the metadata of your republished page. This prevents duplicate-content penalties for both of us and helps search engines point readers to the original.
  1. Preserve the hyperlinks. Keep the links that appear in our story text — they’re part of the reporting. Don’t add your own links to the body of the piece. Linking to a related story from your own outlet in a clearly labeled editor’s note or sidebar is fine.
  1. Let us know. Email republish@heartlandsignal.com with a link to the republished version. This isn’t required, but it’s the single most helpful thing you can do. It lets us track our reach, report impact to funders, and occasionally amplify your coverage in return.

What’s off-limits

  • Don’t sell our stories, put them behind a paywall, or bundle them into a paid product.
  • Don’t sell advertising specifically against our stories. The existing ads on your site and surrounding pages are completely fine.
  • Don’t use our reporting to train large language models, scrape our site for AI ingestion, or feed our work into any automated content system without a written agreement with us.
  • Don’t use the Heartland Signal name or logo to imply we endorse your publication, opinion pieces, advocacy campaigns, or products.
  • Don’t run our stories next to advertising or content that conflicts with the purpose of the reporting. Use editorial judgment.
  • Don’t edit in a way that misrepresents our work. If you’re not sure where the line is, ask us.

Photos and visuals

Our photos cannot be republished. All of the photographs on Heartland Signal are licensed from The Associated Press, and our license does not extend to republication. Please don’t pull photos from our site, and don’t include our photos with a republished story. Use your own photography, use a stock image, or run the piece without a lead image — any of those work.

Our original graphics, illustrations, data visualizations, and videos can be republished with the story they accompany. These are pieces we produce in-house, and they travel under the same rules as the text:

  • Credit the Heartland Signal artist or video producer alongside our standard credit line.
  • Keep the original caption and any embedded credit.
  • Don’t modify the visual beyond basic resizing for your layout.

If it isn’t obvious from the caption whether a specific visual is original to Heartland Signal or licensed from AP, email republish@heartlandsignal.com and we’ll confirm before you publish.

How to credit us

Use this credit line at the top or bottom of the republished story. HTML first, plain text below.

HTML:

<p><em>This story was originally published by

<a href="https://heartlandsignal.com">Heartland Signal</a>,

an independent newsroom and talk radio station covering state-level politics and policy in the Midwest and beyond.

<a href="https://heartlandsignal.com/donate">Support their work</a>.</em></p>

Plain text (for print or newsletters):

This story was originally published by Heartland Signal, an independent newsroom and talk radio station covering state-level politics and policy in the Midwest and beyond. Read more at heartlandsignal.com.

If your publication’s style guide requires a different credit format, reach out and we’ll work it out.

Share the story

If you post the story on social media, tagging us helps our reporters and the broader republishing community see where the work is landing.

Corrections and removals

If we correct or update a story after you’ve republished it, we’ll do our best to alert you so you can match the change. If you find an error in our reporting before we do, please tell us. Our goal is to correct the record everywhere the story appears, not just on our own site.

On rare occasions, we may need to ask you to take down a story or publish a correction — for example, if a source is retracted, a subject is endangered, or a legal issue arises. When that happens, please honor the request promptly.

Questions

Email republish@heartlandsignal.com. We read everything and aim to respond within one business day. If you’re on deadline, say so in the subject line and we’ll move faster.

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