Contact
One form, read by an editor, with a subject line that decides who picks it up. Corrections get answered first.
Use the form below, or write to editor@inautonews.com. It goes into the editorial queue and is copied to the editor, so it arrives in two places and is answered from one. Choosing the right subject is the only thing that makes a difference to how fast you get a reply.
Corrections
These are the messages we most want. Give us the address of the article and the sentence you are disputing, say what is actually the case, and point at something that shows it if you can. Evidence makes it a fix rather than an investigation, and it is not a condition of being taken seriously.
Corrections are published on the article rather than applied quietly, with a date and a note saying what changed. What we do with your message once it arrives, and the difference between a correction, a clarification and an update, is set out on the corrections page.
Story tips
Tell us what you know and how you know it. A document is worth more than a summary of one, and a document with a date on it is worth more than either.
If you want to speak in confidence, say so in your first message and we will treat it that way. Please do not send us anything you are contractually barred from sharing, and do not send us confidential material from a work machine or a work account.
Press releases and PR
Send them, and expect them to be read rather than published. A release is a source here and never an article, so what is useful to us is the checkable part: the specification sheet, the filing, the actual figures, a named person we can put a question to.
Follow up emails asking whether we intend to cover something are answered when we can and are not a route to coverage. Advertising spend is not either, and the reasoning is on the advertising page.
Rights, images and takedowns
If you believe something here infringes your copyright, or that a photograph is used without a licence permitting it, tell us what and where. Every picture on this site records where it came from and the terms it is used under, so these are usually settled quickly in one direction or the other.
This site is rebuilding an archive that ran from 2008 to 2018. Restored articles are newly written rather than reproduced, and archived images are served from public archives where the original page referenced them. If material of yours appears here and should not, say so at the address above and it will be removed.
Privacy and data requests
Requests to see, correct or delete personal data come here too. We hold very little, so most are answered in full within days rather than the month the law allows. What we keep and why is on the privacy notice.
If your request is about an article that mentions you rather than about data we hold on you as a reader, say so, because the two are handled differently and the privacy notice explains why.
Advertising
Choose advertising as the subject and tell us what you want to run, in what format, and over what period. We will tell you whether we can and what it costs. What we do not sell is listed on the advertising page, and it is a real list rather than a formality.
Former contributors
If you wrote for InAutoNews during its original run, we would like to hear from you. We can record your byline on your own work, keep your name off ours, or simply take your correction about a period none of us covered at the time. You are a better source on it than the archived pages we are working from.
Security
Report anything you find through the form and mark it clearly. Please give us a reasonable chance to fix it before publishing, do not access other people's data while demonstrating that you could, and we will not come after you for having looked.
How quickly we answer
We aim to acknowledge within two working days and to deal with most things inside five. Corrections are prioritised over everything else. Where something needs checking against material we have to obtain, it takes longer and we will say so rather than going quiet on you.
A message that never gets a reply is a fault, not a decision. If you have heard nothing after a week, send it again and say it is a second attempt.
Our automated agents
Two automated agents run from this project and both identify themselves in their
User-Agent string. InAutoNews-Restoration fetches archived copies of
this domain's own pages. InAutoNews-LinkCheck fetches pages that cite
us, to check whether the citation is still there.
Both are rate limited to roughly one request a second and both respect robots.txt. If either is a nuisance on your server, say so at the address above and we will stop it against your domain. You will not need to escalate.