Insider employees cannot serve as a director, officer or board member for any for-profit or non-profit organization without the express permission of senior management. Employees are expected to promptly disclose any director, officer or board membership positions that predate their employment and/or to seek consent from Insider prior to serving on the board of any for-profit or non-profit entity. Additionally, employees must promptly disclose information regarding any organization for which any member of the employee’s family, household or other close relation acts as officer or director.
E. Political and Civic Involvement Insider encourages its employees (including its editorial staff) to participate actively in civic, charitable, religious, public, social or residential organizations as long as their participation:
Does not detract from their performance, or the effectiveness of their work;
Does not cause Insider to appear to subsidize or support a particular activity or cause;
Does not throw into question the integrity, independence or fairness of Insider’s editorial judgment; and
Does not otherwise violate this Code.
Employees may attend and observe political rallies and events. Editorial staff, however, must refrain from any activities that could be construed as supporting a candidate or political party.
All employees are encouraged to participate in non-partisan demonstrations or marches concerning human rights issues, social inequities and the defense of non-partisan civil liberties. When attending demonstrations or marches unrelated to their work for Insider, our editorial staff must not identify themselves as attending in their capacity as employees of Insider, and must refrain from endorsing, or appearing to endorse, any particular candidate or political party. Participation in hateful, violent or illegal activities will not be tolerated.
As relates to candidates for elected office and/or ballot initiatives, our editorial staff may not pass out buttons, post partisan comments on social networking sites, display bumper stickers, post signage endorsing partisan candidates or policies, produce partisan blog posts, solicit campaign contributions, sign petitions, participate in letter writing campaigns, or host fundraisers for any partisan candidate. Our journalists may not make any level of financial contribution to a candidate’s campaign for elected office or to any Political Action Committee supporting individual candidates and/or ballot initiatives.
While these restrictions do not explicitly apply to members of an employee’s household, all editorial staff must be careful to maintain their non-partisan reputation and must at all times use their best efforts to avoid political affiliation in both their personal and professional lives.
F. Outside Appearances and Other EmploymentWith the prior written consent of Insider, our employees may appear as representatives of Insider on any unaffiliated television show, radio broadcast, written or live interview, guest column, committee meeting, or equivalent published or live media event. Our employees may not work for or contribute work to any other media entity, and may not use or provide work that is the same, similar to or related to Insider’s coverage in any context, without Insider’s express written permission.
Editorial staff must obtain permission to publicize, or otherwise discuss, work performed on behalf of Insider on any platform or in connection with any other media entity.
Any employee or former employee intending to write a book or produce any other content – whether written or recorded – for another media entity based on information collected, work product created and/or any other opportunity secured as a result of their employment with Insider must notify Insider and obtain written permission in advance of entering into a legally binding commitment, and such commitment will be subject to the employee’s (or former employee’s) copyright, confidentiality, non-compete and other binding obligations to Insider.
Notwithstanding anything otherwise set forth in this Code (including with respect to items valued at less than $100), editorial staff may not accept awards, per diems, stipends, scholarships, certificates, gifts, benefits or prizes for their journalism from corporate or partisan committees or special interest groups. Furthermore, editorial staff may not act as judges in any competitions sponsored by the foregoing entities, nor may they enter themselves as a participant or contestant.
The acceptance of honorary degrees, medals and other awards from educational institutions and/or the publishing industry is permitted so long as such awards are of nominal financial value.
II. Financial DisclosuresAll employees are expected to refrain from any conduct that might create the appearance that:
An employee, or anyone connected to an employee, including members of that employee’s household, used non-public “inside” information obtained through Insider employment to make decisions about their financial investments;
Insider editorial content was influenced by a desire to affect the price of any security; or
Insider endorses or encourages the acquisition of an ownership interest in any particular for-profit entity.
A. Personal InvestmentsIn making personal investments, all employees must avoid speculation or the appearance of speculation on a change in price of any security. No Insider employee, nor any member of their household, may short sell securities.
Editorial and advertising employees, as well as members of senior management with discretion over editorial or advertising content, and any member of their household, may not:
Buy or sell securities in any company that engages in significant activity, or otherwise specializes, in any industry that the employee regularly covers; or
Engage in short-term trading of equity securities or non-investment grade fixed income securities. Such securities must be held for a minimum of six months, unless the holder receives express permission from Insider to sell earlier. This six-month period does not apply to publicly-available diversified open-end and closed-end mutual funds; or
Buy or sell futures or options. However, investments in equity index-related products and publicly available mutual funds or commodity pools that invest in futures or options are permitted.
Any employee who is assigned to cover, or otherwise engage in a business transaction with, a company or industry in which the employee has a pre-existing ownership interest is obliged to disclose that interest to the Managing Editor prior to accepting such assignment, and Insider may make a published disclosure of that information.
III. Social Media Guidelines The guidelines contained in this Code extend with equal force to the personal and professional social media activities of all Insider employees. Employees may not purport to represent the views of Insider on their personal social media accounts but must, nonetheless, conduct themselves in a manner that is in keeping with Insider’s values, and complies with this Code and all applicable law.
A. Content of Posts Our employees may not, under their own names or Insider’s name, create, publish, republish or endorse social media postings that include discriminatory remarks, that harass, threaten violence, contain obscene or misleading content, violate any third-party rights, or act to promote any unaffiliated corporate entity. Furthermore, our employees may not publish public-facing content disparaging Insider, our affiliates, our advertisers or our employees.
Editorial employees must also refrain from sharing partisan content under their social media handles and must be careful to avoid creating the impression of affiliation with individuals or groups that regularly post partisan content.
B. Confidentiality Our employees may not share information that they have reason to believe is confidential or proprietary. Our employees are also not permitted to access social media with the intent of acquiring, without permission, information they have reason to believe is confidential or proprietary.
C. Disclaimers Insider strongly encourages our editorial employees to prominently display a disclaimer on their personal social media accounts clarifying that the posts on the account reflect the employee’s personal opinions and are not the views of Insider. However, the inclusion of that disclaimer will not necessarily inure the employee from discipline by Insider.
IV. Legal Compliance and ConductInsider does not permit its employees to break the law. Ignorance of the law is not exculpatory.
Any employee who cannot guarantee their ability to comply with the Code in all respects must consult with Talent as soon as possible.