Publishers answer for everything under their name, from this week's features to articles posted years ago. Winston AI helps you set a content standard, check new submissions against it and audit your archive for machine-written text. Here is how to roll that out across desks and contributors without bringing publishing to a halt.
What a site-wide standard should cover
A standard turns a vague worry into decisions people can make on deadline. It should fit on one page and answer four questions.
- Which uses of AI are allowed (research help, headline ideas, translation drafts, full articles) and which are not.
- When readers should see a disclosure.
- Who reviews flagged work and who makes the final call.
- What contributors must provide on request: notes, sources, drafts.
Keep it short enough that freelancers will actually read it, and revisit it every few months as tools and habits change. Our publishers page has more on how Winston AI fits an editorial operation.
Running an archive audit
An audit is less about catching anyone and more about knowing what you publish. Pick a scope (a section, a date range, a contributor program), scan it, and sort pages into three piles: reads as human, a few flagged passages, mostly red. The last pile gets an editor's read first. Some of those pages will be fine, such as heavily templated listings or older pieces cleaned up with a grammar tool. Others may need a rewrite, a label or removal.
Shareable PDF reports help when a decision involves a contributor, a syndication partner or your legal team. Everyone looks at the same highlights instead of arguing from memory. Keep a simple log of each audit decision (page, outcome, editor) so you can answer questions about a page months later.