Time Out Editorial Guidelines

Everything you need to know about our editorial standards and our ethical guidelines for creating content

OWNERSHIP & ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

Time Out Group is a leading independent global media and entertainment business that inspires and enables people to discover the best of the city.

Time Out’s digital and physical presence comprises websites, mobile, social media, magazines, live events and Time Out Market.

Time Out curates the best of the city for a large, engaged and active audience. Its content is created, updated and fact-checked by professional journalists and distributed freely in 331 cities and 59 countries. Its international network of local experts recommend the best things to eat, drink, see and do and the coolest places to go.

Time Out monetises its global reach via digital and print advertising, branded content, e-commerce and live events.

Time Out Markets are food and cultural markets bringing the best of the city under one roof. This includes the best chefs, drinks and cultural experiences, curated by Time Out.

Time Out is headquartered in London (United Kingdom) and listed on London's AIM stock exchange, trading under the ticker symbol 'TMO'.

Find out more about Time Out’s leadership team and history.


ETHICS POLICY

Time Out maintains a high ethical standard. 

If you see anything on our site that you think is incorrect or wrong, let us know at hello@timeout.com.

Feedback from our readers is welcome and appreciated. We will immediately remove anything which is factually inaccurate, offensive or unethical. Any substantive corrections will be clearly flagged. However, independent journalism is essential to our mission: We do not alter star ratings or opinions on request.

Time Out does not endorse any particular political party, candidate or agenda. It primarily documents the city, which can include the hedonistic and sexy side of going out. However, Time Out does not recommend or endorse illegal, cruel, hateful or exploitative activities. It has a no-tolerance policy for such activities, including game hunting, conflict products (ivory, tortoise shell, etc.) or any organization that uses exploitative tactics toward children, animals, indigenous people, marginalized communities and so on.


EDITORIAL MISSION

Time Out’s mission is to help you go out. It publishes recommendations, reviews, features and news. Time Out’s recommendations are local and expert. Its content is positive, actionable, honest and fair. It is created by professional journalists and based on first-hand experience: We know because we go!


REVIEWS

Events or venues which carry a red star-rating have been independently reviewed by a professional Time Out journalist who has experienced that venue or event in similar circumstances to a regular patron. Find out more about how about how we review restaurants here and bars here.


TIME OUT MARKET

Each market is based on the same principles of local, expert curation as the Group’s digital and print content. Every venue, restaurateur or chef which is selected to be part of a Time Out Market is selected because it is one of the best in the city, based on our editorial curation. Time Out is proud of its market chefs, restaurateurs and venues, and transparent about the commercial relationship which follows from this selection. Restaurateurs, venues and chefs which are part of a Time Out Market are badged clearly on our site and in our digital and print products.


DIVERSITY

Time Out strives for a diversity of voices and experiences both in what and who we cover, and who we hire.


TRANSPARENCY & INTEGRITY

Time Out primarily creates independent editorial content. We are always transparent if our content is anything other than our own expert opinion (see Paid Content, below).


OPPOSITION TO EDITORIAL CORRUPTION

We do not accept payment or receive gifts in exchange for our editorial content. Our journalists do attend press events and occasionally arrange for complimentary tickets and experiences with PR representatives depending on the local and industry conventions. However we always ensure our coverage of these experiences is independent, that complimentary access to venues or events never influences our reviews, and that no conflict of interest occurs. If you think a conflict of interest has occurred, please email hello@timeout.com and we will investigate promptly.


ATTRIBUTION & SOURCES

The content on our site comes from expert writers, and is attributed as such in our bylines. If there is content on our site that comes from another outside source, we will always attribute that information to whatever publisher or source it comes from.


GENERATIVE AI POLICY

The content on our site and other editorial channels is written and edited by humans. We remain committed to working with expert, local writers and editors to make sure that our curation is up-to-date and reflects the best of the city, and that our writing is original, accurate and engaging.

With that in mind, Time Out is currently exploring the potential of generative AI technology to assist in carrying out various editorial tasks, while remaining cognizant of its shortcomings.

We are currently trialling generative AI tools including OpenAI’s ChatGPT to see whether they can play a useful role in our editorial processes. This may involve using AI to transcribe, summarise, translate, edit or analyse text. We may also use AI to suggest headlines and other short text optimised for search engines and social media. We may use AI as a starting point to generate ideas or research stories and as an analytical tool to guide editorial decision-making. And we may use generative AI tools to assist in the production of images and videos.

However, Time Out does not write recommendations, stories, features or guides using AI. We do not publish text, images or videos generated or edited by AI without a human editor having the final say. We do not use AI for curation, eg. to select which venues or events should feature in a ‘best of’ guide.

We are committed to being transparent about any experiments with – and adoption of – AI tools, and we will continue to update our policy here.


COMMERCIAL CONTENT

Time Out’s editorial recommendations are independent. Its journalism is never influenced by advertisers; commercial content is clearly labelled. Commercial content is funded by advertisers. It is compliant with local and platform-specific regulations, and with our own ethical policy. Our funded content falls into three categories:


Sponsored content:
This is independent editorial content which a sponsor has paid to be associated with, often via their logo being integrated within the piece. It is controlled editorially and the client does not have sign-off on it.


Branded/advertorial content:
This is content which Time Out’s editorial team makes, acting as a creative studio for a commercial partner. It is controlled by our commercial editorial team which ensures it upholds our values and editorial standards. Both Time Out and the client have sign-off.


Advertising:
This is space on our digital or print platforms which is sold to a client. The client uses this space to convey their own message. This is controlled by our sales team and Time Out has no input into it – the only instances where we’d intervene is if we think it’s inappropriate for our readers. Ads are not labelled but they are easy to recognise – they don’t look like Time Out content.


Affiliates:
Time Out adds links that enable our users to book the things that we independently recommend. Sometimes these links direct users to the venue or event; sometimes they direct users to affiliate booking site partners via an ‘affiliate link’.

An affiliate link is a standard website address that also has a unique tracking ID tacked to the end. This unique tracking ID tells the website the user has come from Time Out. We receive a small amount of revenue every time something is booked or purchased following one of these referrals. Not all of our booking buttons generate revenue – their primary purpose of these is to help our users go out.


PLAGIARISM

At Time Out we define plagiarism as any content not created originally by our editors or expert writers specifically for Time Out’s use. We have a no-tolerance policy for plagiarised content, and always attribute as necessary (see Attribution & Sources, above).


SYNDICATION & LICENSING

If you wish to syndicate or reproduce Time Out’s content (including photography, videography, text or archived magazines) then contact us at hello@timeout.com.


FACTUAL ACCURACY

Time Out editorial content is fact-checked to make sure that all the information is up-to-date and correct; all of our content has a time-stamp to indicate the last time each piece of content was checked. This is done by our writers, editors, and eagle-eyed production staff.


HOW TO MAKE A COMPLAINT

If you’d like to make a complaint about something Time Out has published, please let us know by sending an email to hello@timeout.com or by filling out this complaints form. Be sure to tell us what content you are complaining about by providing a URL, a description of the issue and the date and time you saw it. If you would prefer to remain anonymous, please use the form.

We aim to respond to all complaints as quickly and efficiently as possible, and will contact you regardless of the outcome (unless you have chosen to remain anonymous). We may also need to contact you if we require further information about your complaint.

Should a breach of our editorial guidelines be identified as a result of your complaint, we will amend or rectify the content in question as quickly as possible.