At Iredell Free News we are transparent about how we make money and also how we keep our news editorially independent. Here’s an explanation of how we connect with companies through affiliate programs and some of the ways that we try to prevent those connections from influencing what appears in our articles and stories.

Our Affiliate Relationships

Iredell Free News has affiliate links (also called “affiliate marketing” or “referral marketing”) in its content. Some of these links allow us to get paid if you use them. Using our links does not increase your costs: they’re simply another way for us to earn revenue, and we’ve made it clear in our bylines and disclosures that none of our affiliates have any say over our content.

How Affiliate Marketing Supports Us

The revenue we receive from affiliate links enables us to provide free news to our community through an independent local source of information. The affiliate revenue allows us to support these important aspects of our work:

• The compensation of our journalists and contributors
• The cost of the website (infrastructure/hosting)
• The research tools and resources needed by our staff
• The editorial process and fact-checking that ensures accuracy and credibility
• Maintenance of the technical functions which enable readers to access our content

Understanding Affiliate Links

The affiliate links in this publication include a tracking parameter that identifies Iredell Free News as the referring site. We will receive compensation if you take a qualifying action through one of these links. No personal identification information is collected by the use of tracking methods other than for the purpose of attributing referrals. Pricing remains unchanged at all times and there are no changes to your user experience when using a partner site. Please see the Privacy Policy for further details about how data is handled.

Editorial Independence and Integrity

Editorial and business functions are kept completely separate. News worthiness and what would be best for the local community guide how we cover all subjects. The reviews and recommendations that we provide are based on real evaluations; in addition, we report stories whether or not they have an affiliate relationship to us. If we wouldn’t buy a product or use a service personally, we will not promote them.

Our Review Methodology

We use an unbiased evaluation process for all products and services that we evaluate. The four main areas used when evaluating a business include Quality & Reliability Relevance & Value Customer Support Standards Transparency in Pricing & Terms

These evaluations have no affiliation with any businesses we may partner with.

Transparency in Disclosure

We identify affiliate links clearly within each article or at the bottom of designated sections as well. All sponsored/promotional content will be identified as such.

Supporting Independent Local Journalism

Using our affiliate links helps support the local journalism and community news that allows iredellfreenews.com to operate when you click on an affiliate link. This also promotes our independence from commercial entities, which are external to our platform.

Questions and Accountability

Any questions regarding our affiliates or partnerships are welcomed. Being transparent is one of our prime values.

For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Ongoing Commitment

If there is a change made to either our revenue model or affiliate practices we will make the changes to this disclosure immediately so it always reflects our current business practices.

We continue to work toward delivering reliable, unbiased local news for our readers’ community.