Policies

Terms of Contribution.

1. You agree that works supplied are of your own work.
2. You grant us non-exclusive but transferable rights, for the publishing of your article to sources other than THEGAYUK.com, THEGAYUK Digital Magazine and others which may exist now or in the future.
3. You grant us (https://www.thegayuk.com) exclusivity to the piece for 14 days, with the exception of your own blog or personal website.
4. We will link and credit you on every piece you deliver to THEGAYUK to a website/blog of your choice.
5. You will link to us via your personal website/blog to the article’s unique URL on THEGAYUK website.
6. If the piece is licensed or shared with a competing publication, THEGAYUK must be credited as the first publisher of the piece and hyperlinked.
7. You hereby grant that you have not been paid to produce this content from any 3rd parties or management outside THEGAYUK company.
8. If there are any possible conflicts of interest or any reasons why an article or review may bring THEGAYUK into dispute you will state this before uploading. I.e.
   1. the article is about a personal acquaintance or you have or currently work for the public relations for the product or person you are writing about.
9. Uploading of material to THEGAYUK takes place via this link: https://www.thegayuk.com/account or via your own login on THEGAYUK website.
10. Before making contact with a 3rd party company for review or demonstration products, please inform the editorial team of your intentions, to ensure that we’re not doubling up on requests and to ensure that products and services provided by 3rd parties are suited to our editorial stance.
11. As a rule, we do not remove content from the site. However, in exceptional circumstances, we will make articles “private” and then trash them after 30 days. If there are any issues which might bring THEGAYUK into dispute we may need to keep the piece for longer.
12. All communications with 3rd parties should be done via THEGAYUK email address provided to you.
    1. If no email has been provided please cc in editorial@thegayuk.com.
13. Recorded materials i.e. Interview recordings are the property of THEGAYUK and must be logged with editorial.
14. You will make every effort to promote your article amongst your own social networks.
15. You have made every effort to ensure that all content you upload to THEGAYUK is your own material and any other materials such as images or written content have been granted the correct permission. You accept liability for all material uploaded. For more information on images please see the image subforum.
16. No person acting on behalf of THEGAYUK is permitted to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) from a 3rd Party. Consent forms or releases from 3rd party organisations must be ratified by a member of editorial.
17. THEGAYUK reserves the right to use images, title and pull quotes it deems most suitable for your article.
18. You grant us rights to grant permissions for external companies to quote directly from any article or review, this may be limited to a sentence or short paragraph and not an entire article.
19. Any materials sent by THEGAYUK, its affiliates or related 3rd parties for the purposes of review, demonstration or identification remains the property of THEGAYUK and may if necessary be recalled at any time.
20. You also grant us permission to store, publish, use and share electronically your article on our own systems in perpetuity.
    1. You also grant us permission that we may republish, the same, or a version that is slightly modified to fit in the current climate in the future.
21. When sending us an article you will be required to click the T&Cs button – these 20 points are the said T&CS. We reserve the right to change these Terms and Conditions and will notify you if they do change.

Analytics

We don’t publish analytics as a rule.

Assignments

If you have an idea for a story, you should reach out to editorial just to make sure if fits with the editorial direction and to make sure something else isn’t already in the works. Assignments are offered on our writers’ group and through email, as well as on our editorial board at Trello. If you’ve not yet recieved a log in please ask editorial for an account.

Comment and Opinion

Conflicts Of Interest

Conflict of Interests, it is important that any writer declares an interest or significant connection to anything that is being reviewed.
If a writer is connected with or to a story, assignment or review item the connection must be made clear to editorial before undertaking the assignment.

If the decision to go ahead with the assignment the connection must be made clear to the reader somewhere in the copy.

Writers for THEGAYUK should not endorse products and services.

They should not be involved in any discussions surrounding commercial considerations such as advertising. These should be passed to Brand Partnerships.

They should not be involved in the making of any adverts or promotional copy unless greenlit by editorial.

If a writer a financial interest attached to a lead or story it should be made known to the editorial team.

Copyright

Unless stated all works delivered to THEGAYUK remains the copyright of the author and upon delivery of that content to THEGAYUK the author:
Agrees that THEGAYUK may reproduce, store, change, alter, edit, redact, reformat that content in ways that will fit with the publication’s editorial policy and publicise the content and THEGAYUK.

Agrees that no financial gain from that content will be sought unless agreed in writing before that content is uploaded to THEGAYUK systems.

THEGAYUK should be the first publication to publish the content, unless otherwise agreed.

Agrees that the content delivered may be published again via a different publisher but not before three days of being published on THEGAYUK and must include an H/T to THEGAYUK.

The exception to this is:

The writer may reproduce the content on his or her own personal blogs or web pages.

Agrees that content may be published on platforms that are not limited to THEGAYUK – these platforms may include:
Facebook
Twitter
Our own app
An RSS tool
Other social media

Copy Approval

THEGAYUK does not grant copy approval for interview or review purposes. Only in exceptional circumstances. Copy approval should not be used as a bargaining tool to secure an interview or exclusive.

Reviews never get copy approval.

Interviews must be written as said and not be altered to change their context or meaning.

Cost Rating System

When you visit a restaurant we need you to gauge how expensive it is. Use the guide below to give your review and cost rating.

In our restaurant reviews a place’s expense rating is determined in such a way:

£ Where a main costs less than £5, a starter and a dessert is £3 or less.

££ Where a main costs less than £8, a starter and a dessert is £4 or less.

£££ Where a main costs less than £15, a starter and a dessert is £6 or less.

££££ Where a main costs less than £18, a starter and a dessert is £7 or less.

£££££ Where a main costs more than £20, a starter and a dessert is £10 or more.

A main is determined by a mid-range item – not the most expensive item, not the least.

Deleting posts or other content

Deleting posts isn’t standard practice unless there’s a legal or editorial reason to do so. However, in exceptional circumstances, we will remove a post from the public view and trash it in 30 days. Please email editorial with your request.

Please ensure that you are absolutely happy and certain before you add a new post. Make sure you check our editorial policy if you’re unsure about what to write or how to write it.

Duplicate content

Duplicate content is defined as large chunks of content that has been found on other sites.

Content that is uploaded to our site must be fresh and distinct and in line with our editorial policy and branding. It should not have been uploaded to another site (with exception to your own personal website or blog) prior to publishing on THEGAYUK.

Duplicated content can lead to a poor user experience and doesn’t allow for THEGAYUK’s voice to be distinct when there’s so much competition on the web.

This is because some search engines have been known to penalise sites that publish word for word articles.

Embargos

Sometimes news or reviews will be subject to an Embargo date. This means that the copy cannot appear before a certain time and date.

Quite often a PR company may request that a review be embargoed or a particular news story be held until a particular time. We should look to respect that embargo. However, if another publication breaks the embargo please refer to editorial as to whether we should also break the embargo.

Make sure that you check all correspondent with your PR contact for embargo dates and times. If you’re unsure, ask.

Errors

Reported errors will be fixed by THEGAYUK editorial within 24 hours of being notified.

Writers have a duty to notify to report errors as soon as possible.

Errors will be noted and rectified in the original article and if warranted a new article will be issued with a full correction.

Press events

All events must be listed on TRELLO. Content that has come through without being submitted on TRELLO first will not be accepted.

You must call a screening/press event via Trello. If it’s not listed on Trello please email Editorial@thegayuk.com requesting that it be added. Once the event has been added you must assign yourself to it.

Please remember that you are representing THEGAYUK when you attend a press event.

Please be polite and professional.

Please drink responsibly.

We’ve worked so hard to be respected by the organisations we work with and it doesn’t take much to sour any of these relationships.

If you are unable to attend an event please us know within 24 hours of the start time of the event.

Please email us before emailing the event organisers.

If you are unable to attend within 24 hours please email your contact

You must also call the event organiser to let them know that you won’t be able to attend.

Travel to and from the event is the sole responsibility of the Contributor.

Never promise anything to promoters or press relations.

All reviews must be submitted within 24 hours of the conclusion of the event.

Failure to adhere to this policy will result in the removal of press event access and potential suspension of THEGAYUK email/TRELLO access.

Behaviour

When travelling on behalf of THEGAYUK you are an ambassador for it. You are also an ambassador for yourself.

Manners don’t cost anything.

Please drink responsibly and make sure that you keep your behaviour professional.

If you are unable to make an agreed press trip you must make Editorial aware immediately.

Write Up

Please check our review deadlines and our word count policy Theatre and film reviews must be submitted within 24 hours – unless there is an embargo that must be observed.

Health And Insurance for Press Trips

You must ensure that you have appropriate travel insurance before engaging a press trip. The Company does not take responsibility for your insurance or healthcare.

If you are travelling inside the EU you must have an EHIC card. This is free to apply for.

On your trip please report anything suspicious or untoward to the editorial team as soon as possible. If you are involved in an incident or accident please inform Editorial as soon as possible.

Paid submissions

THEGAYUK is contributed to by volunteers and at this time we cannot pay for content.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as taking the work or ideas of someone else and passing it off as your own. This is not the same as citing someone’s work and crediting it to them.
Uploading content and copy that is not yours is morally and legally wrong. Plagiarism is a breach of our mission statement and our responsibility to our readers. Users who are found to upload copyrighted or plagiarised material may be asked to leave the organisation or have future works declined. It is unfair to the rest of our team to have and accept copyrighted materials or plagiarised works published therefore we must have strict guidelines on dealing with plagiarised or copied content for the protection of
a) our journalist integrity,
b) the legal safety of THEGAYUK and its partners,
c) the fairness of our writers and content creators,
d) the respect of readers and audience. All writers are asked to read the terms of submission, as stated above, before they upload their content to the site to prove that they own the works submitted and that they are liable for any legal procedures to come to light from their work(s). Writers who are found to repeatedly break the plagiarism policy will have their access, emails and any other services removed, cancelled or sanctioned.
What is not considered plagiarism?
Where you copy and paste a quote. In this instance, you must fully cite where the quote came from and who gave the quote. Please include full URL of where the quote can be found.
Where you copy and paste a piece of creative commons material. Again proper citation must be included and a full credit.

Usually creative commons material and content will tell you how the author wants to be attributed. A URL to the original would also be helpful.What happens if I upload copied content or plagiarised content?

1) In the first instance, all copy and content found to be plagiarised will be removed from THEGAYUK.

2 ) A decline email will be sent via Submittable to you, explaining that we believe that you have submitted plagiarised or copied content and asking for your explanation as to why such content was uploaded. The writer will be reminded of their legal obligations and will be pointed towards documentation about plagiarism and copied content to help orientate them with the terms and process.

3) The editorial team will review the situation and whether to keep the work, if editorially justified, or if the work is suitable for editing and re-uploading. If this is the case the writer will be asked to re-submit a fully cited version of the article.

4) If any disciplinary action is needed, it will be given at this stage.

5) You have the right to appeal.

Pictures

Pictures delivered to THEGAYUK to use should be text free, except for a credit which should be placed in white writing in a small black box in the bottom right-hand side of the picture. Any text that must be superimposed should be done using THEGAYUK’s font palette and must be agreed with editorial before publishing. THEGAYUK’s logo should also be visible.

If there is to be an inset of the contributor within a featured picture, their picture will be no bigger than one-fourth of the layout. The interviewee must be the biggest portion of the picture. Photo assets must be handed to editorial who will assemble the composite. If the picture is a staged picture of the two parties than proportionality does not matter, however, the subject should always be featured more prominently as and when possible.

Post declines

Reasons include, but are not limited to:

1) Content was deemed to be plagiarised or copied.
2) Content may be a direct copy of a press release.
3) Content did not meet our editorial guidelines.
4) Content did not meet our style guidelines.
5) Content may be slanderous or have a legal issue attached to it.
6) Content may not be appropriate for our core audience.
7) Content may not have enough words or content.
8) Content might be harmful to our editorial integrity.
9) Content may have appeared on another news source before.

If you feel that your content was decline unfairly please contact editorial with your concern.

Review deadlines

If you are undertaking a review for THEGAYUK please make sure that you deliver it to editorial within these time frames

Theatre: within 24 hours
Film: within 24 hours or at the embargo date.
Restaurants: Within 7 days
Motoring: Within one month of vehicle drop off
Tech: Within one month of receipt of goods
Travel: Within two months of completion of travels

Swear words

It may seem annoying but we’ve taken the editorial decision to not allow swear words – and any that do appear will be gutted with ** replacing two of the letters.

The reason for this is that many advertising networks and media buyers have listed THEGAYUK as an ‘adult site’, purely based on the fact that we’re a “gay publication”.

This really damages our brand as a viable place to advertise. As we’re no more “adult” than say Cosmo, Men’s Fitness, FHM or any publication that talks about sex, we have to ensure that nothing on site is overly adult – or no more “adult” than you’d find on say The Guardian or DM websites.

We want to prove that we’re a sure bet for advertisers who want to reach the LGBT community in the UK, so we hope you understand if some of your text is edited to reflect this.

Word Counts

News: Up to 400 words
Review: Up to 500 words
Comment Up to 1000 words
Interview Up to 4000 words
Listicles 50 words per item