Terms of Service

Welcome to NewsGrade. The terms "we," "us," and "our" refer to NewsGrade, a service of Editorial Style LLC ("Editorial Style"). NewsGrade provides automated website assessment reports for journalism and news organizations, including scoring, recommendations, and related tools (the "Services").

These Terms of Service ("Terms"), together with our Privacy Policy, describe your rights and responsibilities when you use the Services. By accessing or using the Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you should not use the Services.

You must be at least the age of majority in your jurisdiction to use the Services. To use most features of the Services, you must create an account (email/password or Google sign-in). You represent that all information you provide is accurate and complete, and you are solely responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials and for all activity under your account. You may not transfer, sell, or share your account with any other person.

NewsGrade analyzes publicly accessible web pages of a website URL you submit, using automated tools including AI-based analysis, to generate a score, category breakdown, and recommendations related to journalism best practices (the "Report"). NewsGrade does not access private, password-protected, or non-public areas of any website, and does not require you to provide credentials for the site being analyzed.

You may submit any publicly accessible website URL for analysis, including websites you do not own or operate (for example, to evaluate a competitor or peer publication). You represent that your use of the Services complies with applicable law and does not infringe the rights of the website's owner.

If you are a website owner and object to NewsGrade analyzing your site, you may block our crawler using a standard robots.txt directive (User-agent: NewsGrade / Disallow: /). Full detail on how NewsGrade's crawler identifies itself and how to control its access is available at newsgrade.org/bot-info.

Reports are generated using automated tools, including AI-based analysis, and are provided for informational purposes only. NewsGrade does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or currentness of any score, category assessment, or recommendation. Recommendations are general guidance based on common best practices and are not a substitute for professional legal, technical, accessibility, privacy, or SEO advice specific to your organization. You are solely responsible for evaluating and implementing (or not implementing) any recommendation. Scores may vary between analysis runs due to the nature of automated content sampling and are not intended as a certification or guarantee of any kind.

NewsGrade offers a free tier (limited report) and a paid Full Report ($49, one-time payment, permanent access to that report), processed securely through Stripe. Prices are subject to change without notice; the price in effect at the time of your purchase applies to that purchase.

NewsGrade permits re-scanning the same website within 90 days of your original report, at no additional cost. Retests do not themselves generate a further retest window.

You represent that any payment information you provide is accurate and that you are authorized to use the payment method provided.

Because the Full Report is delivered instantly and in full upon payment, purchases are not eligible for refund once the report has been unlocked, except where the charge resulted from a verified processing error on our part (for example, a duplicate charge, or a payment that succeeded but did not unlock the report). To request a refund for a processing error, contact us within 14 days of purchase.

We may, at our sole discretion, make an exception to this policy on a case-by-case basis. Requesting an exception does not guarantee one will be granted.

The Services, including all NewsGrade scoring methodology, criteria, design, text, and software, are owned by Editorial Style or its licensors and protected by applicable intellectual property laws. Subject to your payment (where applicable) and compliance with these Terms, you may use a Report you've purchased for your own internal business purposes, including sharing it with your organization's staff, board, or leadership. You may not resell, redistribute for commercial purposes, or represent a Report as independently produced by you.

NewsGrade's name, logo, and scoring methodology are trademarks/proprietary material of Editorial Style. You may not use them without prior written permission.

This section applies to any automated tool, bot, or AI agent ("Agent") accessing the Services on your behalf or otherwise. An Agent may not access or interact with the Services unless it identifies itself as an Agent in its request headers/user-agent string, does not mimic human behavior or attempt to bypass measures distinguishing automated from human use, and responds truthfully to any prompt intended to distinguish human from automated interaction. We may limit or block Agent access at our discretion.

In turn, NewsGrade's own automated crawler identifies itself via a public User-Agent string and respects standard robots.txt directives when analyzing third-party websites, as described at newsgrade.org/bot-info.

You may not use the Services to: violate any law; infringe intellectual property or other rights of any party; harass, defame, or harm any person; submit false or misleading information; attempt to circumvent the beta/access cap, payment requirements, or other access controls; use unauthorized scraping, automated data extraction, or bulk-download tools against the Services beyond ordinary use of a Report you've purchased; or interfere with the security or normal operation of the Services.

If you submit feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the Services, you grant us a perpetual, royalty-free license to use them for any purpose, including improving the Services, without obligation to compensate you or keep them confidential.

We may correct errors in scoring, pricing, or Report content, and may update or discontinue features of the Services, at our discretion and without prior notice.

We may suspend or terminate your account or access to the Services at our discretion, without notice, including for violation of these Terms. Upon termination for a violation of these Terms, your right to use the Services will immediately cease. This does not affect your permanent access to any Full Report you have already purchased in compliance with these Terms — that access is a benefit already paid for and will not be revoked except in cases of fraud, chargeback, or violation directly related to that specific purchase. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination (including Intellectual Property, Disclaimer of Warranties, Limitation of Liability, Indemnification, and Governing Law) will continue to apply.

THE SERVICES AND ALL REPORTS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, RELIABILITY, TIMELINESS, OPERABILITY, OR AVAILABILITY OF ANY REPORT OR OTHER INFORMATION DISPLAYED THROUGH THE SERVICES. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THESE DISCLAIMERS, SO THEY MAY NOT FULLY APPLY TO YOU.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, EDITORIAL STYLE AND NEWSGRADE, AND OUR OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS, WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS OR LOST DATA, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES OR ANY REPORT, INCLUDING ANY DECISION MADE OR ACTION TAKEN IN RELIANCE ON A REPORT, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DELAY OR FAILURE IN PERFORMANCE RESULTING FROM CAUSES BEYOND OUR REASONABLE CONTROL, INCLUDING INTERNET OR EQUIPMENT FAILURES, OR THE UNAVAILABILITY OR NON-PERFORMANCE OF THIRD-PARTY SERVICES WE RELY ON TO OPERATE THE SERVICES (INCLUDING OUR HOSTING PLATFORM, AI PROVIDER, PAYMENT PROCESSOR, OR OTHER SUB-PROCESSORS). TO THE EXTENT ANY LIABILITY IS NOT OTHERWISE EXCLUDED, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO A SPECIFIC REPORT WILL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU ACTUALLY PAID US FOR THAT REPORT (OR $0 IF THE REPORT WAS OBTAINED UNDER THE FREE TIER).

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Editorial Style, NewsGrade, and our officers, employees, and service providers from claims arising from your breach of these Terms, your violation of law or third-party rights, or your use of the Services.

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Services. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them without restriction.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and applicable federal law, without regard to conflict of law principles. You consent to venue and jurisdiction in Pennsylvania courts.

We may update these Terms at any time by posting the revised version with an updated "Last updated" date. Continued use of the Services after changes constitutes acceptance.

Questions about these Terms should be sent via our contact form.

NewsGrade, a service of Editorial Style LLC 1880 John F Kennedy Blvd, Ste 104, Philadelphia, PA 19103 (267) 225-8132