About Riverdale Standard
What this site is
Riverdale Standard is a general news site with a local desk on the south side of metro Atlanta. The local desk covers the city of Riverdale, the rest of Clayton County, and the stretch of the south metro that shares our roads, our airport and our commute: Jonesboro, Forest Park, Morrow, Lake City, Lovejoy, the unincorporated county, and the edges of Fayette, Henry and south Fulton where a story does not stop at the county line. Around that local core we publish national and world coverage in business, technology, sports, science, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, auto and gaming.
The Georgia in our masthead is the American state. Our readers live along Tara Boulevard, Highway 85 and Interstate 75, work shifts at the airport, and drive Interstate 285 in both directions at hours the rest of the region is asleep. That is the place this site was built for.
Why the south side needed its own desk
Metro Atlanta has plenty of news, and very little of it is about the south side unless something has gone wrong. A county commission vote that changes what a Riverdale homeowner pays, a school board agenda that moves attendance lines, a water authority rate change, a MARTA route adjustment in Clayton County, a zoning case on Highway 138: these get a paragraph in regional coverage if they get anything, and the paragraph usually arrives after the vote. The people it affects find out from a neighbor or a mailer.
We started this site to close that gap. The test for the local desk is simple. If a reader in Riverdale could have done something about a story, or needed to know it to plan their week, we should have told them before it was decided, not after. When the commission takes up a millage rate, we say what the rate is, what it was, what it means on a house assessed at a typical Clayton County value, and when and where the hearing is.
How the local desk works
Local reporting here begins with documents rather than statements. Meeting agendas and minutes for the county commission, the Riverdale City Council and the neighboring councils, school board packets, court calendars, permit filings, state Department of Transportation project lists, and the National Weather Service products that cover the south metro are the raw material. Georgia’s Open Records Act gives us access to much of the rest, and we use it. A press release from an agency is a starting point for questions, not a finished story.
We name the road, the intersection, the precinct and the school. We name the agenda item number so you can find it yourself. We say which body made a decision and when it takes effect. When a public official is quoted, we say in what setting they said it: a public meeting, a written statement, or a conversation with us. Vague attribution to “officials” is treated as a defect in the copy.
How the national and world desks work
We do not have reporters in every state capital or on every trading floor, and we will not pretend otherwise. National and world coverage here is built from primary material: regulatory filings, earnings releases and the calls that accompany them, court dockets, published research papers with their data, box scores and official league statements, manufacturer specifications and recall notices, studio and publisher announcements, and on-the-record statements from the people involved. Where we rely on a document, we describe it so you can find it. Where we cannot verify a claim, we say so in the story rather than repeating it with a shrug.
The verticals are chosen because they are what our readers ask about. A business story about airline capacity is a local story here; so is a story about logistics wages, an automotive recall, a game release, or a change to airport screening rules. The desks share one standard even where they use different material.
What we will not do
We will not manufacture a local angle where none exists, and we will not stretch a south metro reference into a story that is really about somewhere else. We will not publish a press release as news. We will not run a headline the story does not support. We will not publish anonymous accusations against private people. We will not let anyone who pays us see a story before it runs, or steer what we cover. The rules that govern these choices are written out on our editorial standards, fact-checking and corrections pages, and they apply to every desk equally.
Corrections are part of the work
We get things wrong. Street names, vote counts, the spelling of a subdivision, the date a rule takes effect. When we do, the fix is made in the story, a note explains what changed, and the correction is logged. A reader who spots an error and writes in has done us a favor, and we treat it that way. The corrections page explains the process in detail.
Who pays for it
Riverdale Standard is independently owned and funded by advertising. We take no money from any government, party, campaign or candidate, and no advertiser has any say over coverage. The ownership and funding page spells this out, including what we would disclose if it ever changed.
How to reach us
Everything comes to one address: support@riverdalestandard.com. Tips about Clayton County and the south metro are the most valuable mail we receive. Corrections come next. The contact page explains how to send each kind so it reaches the right editor quickly, and how to send something you need kept confidential.
