Responding to criticism

How to use the Responses content type to publish editorial replies, right-of-reply pieces, and formal responses to outside criticism — transparently and on the record.

Project Broadsheet's Responses content type is designed for a specific editorial situation: a subject, reader, or outside party disputes, challenges, or replies to something you've published, and you want to put that reply on the record in a structured, findable way.

This is distinct from a correction (factual error) or an editor's note (additional context). A response is a first-person reply from someone outside the publication, published under their name, linked to the original article.

When to use a response

• A public official replies to your coverage of their agency.
• An organization disputes a finding in an investigative piece.
• A subject of a profile writes a rebuttal.
• A reader writes a substantive letter that engages directly with a published article.

Responses are not for comments, social media replies, or general reader feedback. They're for formal, on-the-record replies that you've agreed to publish.

Create a response

Responses live in src/responses/. Create a Markdown file:

src/responses/city-official-reply.md

With front matter:

---
title: A Response to "City Council Approves Rezoning Plan"
respondent: Director Jane Smith, City Planning Department
respondentRole: Director, City Planning Department
relatedArticle: /news/city-council-rezoning-plan/
date: 2026-04-20
summary: Director Smith disputes the characterization of the council vote and clarifies the department's position on the proposed zoning changes.
---

The body of the file is the respondent's reply, written in Markdown.

Front matter fields

Editorial principles

Verify the respondent. Confirm you're publishing a reply from who they claim to be. Don't publish anonymous responses in this format.

Don't edit for substance. Light copy-editing (spelling, punctuation) is acceptable. Removing arguments or changing meaning is not. If you can't publish the response as written, decline it — don't publish a sanitized version without disclosing the changes.

Add an editorial note if needed. You can prepend or append an italicized editor's note below the front matter block:

*Editor's note: This response was submitted by Director Smith on April 18, 2026, in reply to coverage published April 15. It has been lightly edited for spelling and formatted for the web.*

Link from the original article. After publishing the response, edit the original article to link to it. Project Broadsheet doesn't do this automatically — it requires a manual front matter addition.

In the original article's front matter:

relatedResponses:
  - /responses/city-official-reply/

Corrections vs. responses

A correction fixes a factual error made by the publication. A response gives the other side a platform. They're not interchangeable. If a response reveals a factual error, publish both: correct the original article and publish the response.

See Corrections for the correction workflow.

What to do next

• Corrections — for factual errors in published articles.
• Source documents — for primary documents cited in your reporting.
• Argument maps — for structured presentation of contested claims.