Editorial standards
What we will publish, what we will not, and who pays for it.
Thrive is independently owned and operated. Nobody outside the masthead gets a say in what runs here.
Money
We take no advertising and run no sponsored posts. If that ever changes, anything paid for will be labelled as such at the top of the piece, in the same size type as the headline, and it will never be written by the people who write the criticism.
Review copies, screeners, and press access are normal in this business and we accept them. They buy coverage consideration and nothing else. A record label sending an album does not get to see the review first, and has never been given a score in advance.
Where a writer has a personal stake in what they are covering, the piece says so in the piece rather than in a footnote nobody reads.
Opinion, and being honest that it is opinion
Most of what we publish is argument. We think a take is more useful than a shrug, and we would rather be interestingly wrong than boringly safe. What we owe you in exchange is clarity about which is which: reporting is sourced, criticism is signed, and neither pretends to be the other.
We do not write to a target score, a ranking quota, or an engagement number. If an album everyone loves does nothing for us, that is what the review says.
Sourcing
We link to what we cite. If a claim rests on someone else’s reporting, we say whose and point at it. We do not launder a rumour into a fact by attributing it to the internet.
We do not publish leaked personal information, addresses, or anything that would put a private person at risk, regardless of how newsworthy it would be.
Being wrong
Handled in public, permanently noted, described in full on our corrections page.