How The Penny Hoarder ensures credibility in its coverage

Tommy Flaim of TapeACall.com interviewed The Penny Hoarder managing editor John Schlander about how the personal finance news organization ensures credibility in its coverage.

Here is an excerpt:

How do you ensure your sources contribute to the credibility of a story? What tools do you use to record in-person and phone interviews?

Depending on the type of story, journalists should choose credible sources and confirm who they are, such as with online searches and record checks. At The Penny Hoarder, we write a lot about ways to make and save money, so we often are able to try the tips or action steps ourselves to confirm they work well. For interviews, we either take good, detailed notes or we record with our iPhones, TapeACall app or other tools. We sometimes use the Rev platform to transcribe recorded interviews.

Many people question whether supporting facts and evidence are true. How do you present them as trustworthy in your work?

Use credible sources, and if the source isn’t well-known, explain the background. Attribute your information. Present different viewpoints if there’s a controversy. Acknowledge if all facts aren’t clear.

Journalism is not an easy job. With pressure to hit deadlines while producing attention-grabbing stories, how does your process also build trustworthiness into your stories?

Our mission at The Penny Hoarder is a little different than other media organizations, so while we have deadlines, we don’t feel pressured to rush anything. We’re all about helping people put more money in their pockets, not breaking attention-grabbing news. We indeed want to grab attention, but we strive to do that with creative writing that our readers find useful, entertaining and/or compelling in some way.

Read more here.