Valley Sentinel — Terms of Service & Privacy Policy

Lower Wisconsin River Valley Sentinel, LLC (d/b/a Valley Sentinel) · Spring Green, Wisconsin

Effective Date: July 19, 2026 · Last Updated: July 19, 2026

These Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (together, these “Terms“) govern your access to and use of the Valley Sentinelprint and digital ecosystem, including our newspaper, our website at valleysentinelnews.com, our mobile application, our community calendar, our email communications, and all associated products and services (collectively, the “Services“) provided by Lower Wisconsin River Valley Sentinel, LLC (“Valley Sentinel,” “we,” “us,” or “our”).

By accessing or using any of the Services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Services.

A note on VS Media Group. VS Media Group operates as a division of Lower Wisconsin River Valley Sentinel, LLC and provides marketing, public-relations, and communications services to clients under its own separate written agreements. Those client engagements are governed by their respective agreements, not by these Terms. These Terms apply to VS Media Group only where no separate agreement controls the matter in question.

Editorial Mission / Extended About
Part I — General Provisions & Jurisdiction
Part II — Privacy Policy (Web & Mobile) — see Privacy Policy
Part III — Submissions, User Content & Intellectual Property
Part IV — Editorial Independence & Shield Protections
Part V — Editorial Standards, Ethics & Civic Guidelines
Part VI — Subscriptions, Support, Advertising & Distribution
Part VII — Platform, Security & Liability
Part VIII — Mobile Application & App Store Terms
Part IX — Contact & Legal Notices

Editorial Mission / Extended About

The Lower Wisconsin River Valley Sentinel is the Spring Green area’s local, independent news source covering arts & culture, outdoors & agriculture, local meetings, and our larger community.

Our community deserves a news source that truly cares — cares to reach our readers where they want to be reached; cares to stay ahead of the curve to inform our community; cares to cover important topics that other journalists won’t touch; cares to cover the decisions of our local governments and to hold them accountable; cares to celebrate both our rural Driftless identity and the arts & culture that make our community so extraordinary.

In times like these, our community needs to come together. So, let’s build community together.

We cover Arena, Lone Rock, Plain, Spring Green, and the surrounding areas in Sauk, Iowa, and Richland counties. At times Valley Sentinel covers regional news around the state of Wisconsin, with a special focus on the Lower Wisconsin Riverway and the Driftless Area.

Valley Sentinel is published in Spring Green, Wisconsin, every other Thursday by Lower Wisconsin River Valley Sentinel, LLC.

Lower Wisconsin River Valley Sentinel, LLC is wholly owned by its editors, Nicole G. Aimone and Taylor Q. Scott.

Valley Sentinel is a free, bi-weekly single-copy news publication, available on newsstands in the area. We believe in an accessible model that strives to reach people wherever and however they like their news. We reject the failing, walled-garden subscription model of large, corporate newspapers. We believe that anyone who wants the news should get the news.

We believe it is the duty of any forward-thinking and dynamic community newspaper to assist in keeping its community informed and, to that end, to ensure that the news is available to all who seek it.

We’re a group of passionate people sharing their time in the name of community. Collectively, we have decades of experience in the Lower Wisconsin River Valley area, we believe in its potential, and quite simply — we care more.

We recognize the sometimes antagonistic environment in journalism that exists currently. We understand that ultimately the accuracy of a story is the most important aspect of our journalistic duty to the community we serve. We recognize that big, corporate media and other industries have non-compete clauses that journalists have to consider — clauses we believe are antithetical to good, collaborative journalism. We will not be strong-armed or dissuaded from covering important issues and topics that other journalists or news media are too scared or intimidated to cover. Editorial decisions shall not affect the integrity and impartiality of the reporting, and all stories go through the same rigorous editorial review process.

Part I — General Provisions & Jurisdiction

1. General Audience (COPPA Compliance). Valley Sentinel is a general-audience news publication. Our Services are not designed for, nor do we intentionally or knowingly collect, personal information from children under the age of 13. If we discover that we have inadvertently collected data from a child under 13 without verifiable parental consent, we will delete that information immediately.

While our platform is designed for general audiences 13 and older, if you are under the age of 18, you represent that you have the explicit permission and consent of a parent or legal guardian to agree to these Terms.

2. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wisconsin and applicable U.S. federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. You agree that any legal action, dispute, or proceeding arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the Services shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in or serving Sauk County, Wisconsin, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of those courts. We do not require mandatory binding arbitration and do not impose a class-action waiver.

3. Communications Consent. By subscribing to the Valley Sentinel, advertising with us, or otherwise providing us your email address or mobile phone number, you consent to receive communications from us — including newsletters, transactional and account messages, and promotional or marketing communications — by email and, where you have provided a mobile number, by text message. Message and data rates may apply, and message frequency may vary. You may opt out of promotional email at any time using the unsubscribe link in our emails, and you may opt out of text messages at any time by replying STOP (reply HELP for help). Opting out of promotional messages does not stop essential service or account communications.

4. Modifications to the Terms. We may update, modify, or replace these Terms at any time to reflect changes in our operational practices, new features, or legal requirements. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated “Last Updated” date. Your continued use of the Services following the posting of any modification constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.

5. Severability & Entire Agreement. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and Valley Sentinelregarding your use of the Services and supersede any prior agreements or communications on that subject. If any provision is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision shall be severed or limited to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect. Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.

6. Electronic Communications & Notices. By using our digital Services, you consent to receive agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications electronically — via email or through postings on our website or mobile application — and you agree that all such electronic communications satisfy any legal requirement that they be in writing.

7. Assignment. We may assign our rights and obligations under these Terms to any successor, subsidiary, or affiliated entity, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or transition to a nonprofit structure, without notice to you. You may not assign your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent.

8. Survival. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination of your use of the Services will survive, including provisions regarding Intellectual Property, Submissions, Indemnification, Disclaimers of Warranty, Limitation of Liability, and our Editorial Independence & Shield Protections.

9. Termination and Suspension. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to suspend or terminate your access to all or part of the Services — including the ability to submit events to the Community Calendar — at any time, with or without notice, for any reason, including a violation of these Terms.

Part II — Privacy Policy (Web & Mobile)

We believe privacy is a fundamental right, and we have deliberately built our Services to collect as little as possible. We do not use programmatic or behavioral advertising networks. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. We do not engage in behavioral profiling. We do not sell or share your personal information for targeted advertising or for any other purpose. Any advertising in our publication is direct-sold, static, and non-tracking. The only analytics we use are basic, privacy-respecting visitor-counting tools described below.

1. Mobile Application — Privacy by Default

Our mobile application is built on a privacy-by-default architecture. The app has no user accounts, no login, and no login walls, and it contains no third-party analytics, advertising, crash-reporting, or tracking software (for example, no Sentry, Firebase, or advertising SDKs). It does not access advertising identifiers (such as Apple’s IDFA or the Android Advertising ID).

Location for weather (ephemeral, approximate, foreground only). If you grant the app foreground (“When In Use”) location permission, the app accesses your device’s approximate location solely to retrieve local conditions from the National Weather Service (api.weather.gov). This location data is handled ephemerally, in memory only — it is never written to storage, never logged, and never transmitted to Valley Sentinel‘s servers or to any analytics provider. Once weather data is displayed, the coordinate is discarded. On Apple’s and Google’s data-disclosure forms, we disclose this as location data collected for app functionality, processed ephemerally, and not linked to your identity or used for tracking.
If you decline location. The app simply defaults to our regional home coordinates in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and displays local weather for that area. No feature is lost.
Push notifications (anonymous). If you opt in to notifications, the app registers an anonymous device push token with our notification service (Expo / exp.host) and stores that token, your device platform (iOS or Android), and the topic categories you select (for example, arts & culture, government) on our WordPress server so we can route the news alerts you have chosen. No name, email address, or advertising identifier is attached to this information, and it is not linked to your identity. You may delete this data at any time from within the app’s Settings (“Delete my notification data”), or by uninstalling the app, after which your token is removed from our records.
In-app reader. The app includes a reader that displays content from valleysentinelnews.com. When you read our articles in that reader, our website’s own basic measurement analytics (Google Analytics and Jetpack, described below) operate as they would in any browser. The native app itself performs no advertising or third-party tracking, and it blocks programmatic advertising scripts within the reader as an added privacy safeguard.

2. Website — Privacy & Analytics

When you browse valleysentinelnews.com (including our content displayed within the app’s reader), we collect only basic, non-identifying operational data to maintain and improve our journalism:

Google Analytics. We use standard Google Analytics for basic readership metrics (such as page views and regional traffic). Google Signals and Google Ads linking are disabled, and IP addresses are anonymized. We use this data as first-party audience measurement only; it is not used for cross-site advertising, is not shared for advertising purposes, and is aggregated so as not to identify individual readers.
Jetpack / WordPress statistics. We use Jetpack (Automattic) to count visitors and understand basic traffic patterns.
Cookies. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. If you use our WordPress portal to submit or edit a community-calendar event, we use standard functional login cookies (persisting for two days, or two weeks if you select “Remember Me”); logging out removes these session cookies. You may manage or disable cookies through your browser settings.
Comments. Reader comments are currently disabled across our website and app. If we enable comments in the future, we anticipate using a third-party commenting service (such as Disqus); at that time we will update this Privacy Policy to describe the data that service collects, and any comment data will be governed by that service’s own privacy policy.
Third-party processors. We use trusted third parties for specific, voluntary functions: payment processing for subscriptions and donations is handled by PayPal, and email newsletters are managed by MailChimp. These interactions are governed by the respective providers’ privacy policies. We do not receive or store full payment-card numbers.
Password resets. If you maintain a WordPress portal account for event submissions and request a password reset, your IP address may be included in the reset email for verification.
Embedded content. Articles may include embedded content (such as videos, images, or social-media posts) from other websites. Embedded content behaves as if you had visited the other website, and those websites may collect data about you under their own policies.
Business transfers. If Valley Sentinel undergoes a business transition — such as a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or transition to a nonprofit structure — subscriber and portal information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this Privacy Policy.

3. Data Security

We use commercially reasonable safeguards, such as HTTPS encryption, to protect your information. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is entirely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security against unauthorized intrusion or against breaches occurring at our hosting or service providers.

4. Your Choices, Rights & Retention

Communications. You may opt out of promotional email at any time via the unsubscribe link in our emails, and out of text messages by replying STOP. Essential service and account messages may still be sent.
Access and deletion. Depending on your state of residence (for example, California, Colorado, and other states that grant these rights), you may request access to the personal information we hold about you and request that we delete it. To make a request, contact us using the details in Part IX. We may retain information as needed to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud or abuse, and enforce our agreements, and we will verify your identity before acting on a request.
No sale or sharing; preference signals. We do not sell or share your personal information, and we do not use it for cross-context behavioral advertising. As a matter of precaution, we honor recognized browser opt-out preference signals (such as Global Privacy Control) with respect to any activity that could be construed as a “sale” or “share” under applicable law.
Retention. We retain portal data (such as event submissions and portal profiles) and communications data only for as long as necessary to provide the Services and for legitimate administrative, legal, and security purposes.
Children’s privacy. As stated in Part I, our Services are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

Part III — Submissions, User Content & Intellectual Property

1. Submissions Policy

The following Submissions Policy is reproduced as authored by our legal counsel and controls in full.

Short version: All submissions become property of the Valley Sentinel.

Middle version: All submissions become property of the Valley Sentinel. Because the Valley Sentinel believes strongly in the rights of authors, and is dismayed by publications which “catch and kill” news stories to keep them from the public, the Valley Sentinel grants submission authors extensive rights to use of their works after submission. For more information, see the Valley Sentinel Submissions Policy online.

Long version: By submitting your writing, photography or other works to the Valley Sentinel for publication, you agree that the Valley Sentinel may exercise publication and other rights over the material in accordance with the Valley Sentinel‘s submissions policy. You further warrant that you hold and have the authority to transfer those rights. The Valley Sentinel‘s submissions policy is subject to change without notice, or may be superseded in writing in special cases at the discretion of the Valley Sentineland the consent of the submitting party. In absence of any superseding agreement, the policy is as follows:

Duty to Preserve. Authors may submit an original or copy of any manuscript, but should retain at least one copy for their own records. The Valley Sentinel is not responsible for lost, damaged, or destroyed submissions.
Editorial Control. The Valley Sentinel has the right to edit any submission for length, clarity, or to remove any material which in its view may be defamatory or constitute an invasion of privacy, or which the Valley Sentinel is unable to confirm through fact checking or which may be subject to the copyright of a third party. The Valley Sentinel may edit to correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and to remove epithets or profanity. Edits may include deletions, changes, and small insertions as needed. Edits will generally be made without notice to the author and without special notation and without change to the byline. Material may be also added in the form of an editor’s note set off by brackets from the remainder of the submission. The Valley Sentinel will make reasonable effort when editing to preserve the fundamental points, character, style and tone of the original, and may at its discretion use an editor’s note to acknowledge significant alterations made in editing.
Use by Valley Sentinel. The Valley Sentinel has the right to use of the original and any versions of a submission edited by or for the Valley Sentinel by publication once within four months of submission in both print and electronic versions of the publication, and permanent inclusion in its paper and electronic archives. It may use images of the printed version of a piece, or excerpts not exceeding 100 words, in promotional materials. It may reprint the submission in not more than one full press run every ten years as a historical note.
Other rights of the Valley Sentinel. The Valley Sentinel‘s right to print publication of the submitted material for distribution in its primary geographical area of publication, as determined by the Valley Sentinel, shall be exclusive. Unless authorized by the Valley Sentinel, no other publication may make the submission freely available online for a period of two weeks after publication by the Valley Sentinel, except for a blog maintained by the submitting party.
Rights of Submitting Party, Licensing Fees and Profits. Subject to the rights of the Valley Sentinel as set forth above, the Valley Sentinel grants a permanent license to the submitting party for all other uses of the submission, but may assess a license fee of no more than 10% on any sale of rights or profits from the republication of the submission, or development of the submission into any motion picture, theatrical performance, multi-media presentation, graphic novel, or work in any form that makes more than fair use of the submission. The right to such license fee is durable, and follows the ownership of all other rights, such that it must be paid upon each transfer of ownership or use of the submission, until the Valley Sentinel agrees otherwise.

2. User-Generated Content & Indemnification

If you use our web portals to submit events to the Community Calendar (or to participate in any future community comment feature), you represent and warrant that you own or hold the necessary rights and licenses for any text, images, or media you provide. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Valley Sentinel and its editors from any claims, damages, or expenses arising out of content you submit. We may route community-calendar submissions, portal forms, and any future comments through automated spam-detection to protect the integrity of our platform.

3. Community Calendar — Ownership, Compilation Copyright & Anti-Copying

The underlying factual details of community events (dates, times, locations, and the like) are not owned by the Valley Sentinel and may be freely reported by anyone. Our expression of those facts, however, is protected. As a service to our community, we independently gather event facts and then research, curate, and write our own original event descriptions. Those written descriptions are original works of authorship owned by and © Lower Wisconsin River Valley Sentinel, LLC.

Compilation copyright. In addition to the individual descriptions, our Community Calendar as a whole is a protectable compilation under U.S. copyright law, reflecting original selection, arrangement, and editorial judgment. Among other things, we exercise creative judgment in deciding which events merit inclusion and in organizing them across our distinct, purpose-built calendar sections — our General calendar, our Civics & Services calendar (for governmental, civic, service-organization, and nonprofit events), and our What’s Hanging? calendar (for ongoing arts exhibitions) — together with our categorization, curation, and presentation of entries. This selection and arrangement is itself an original work of authorship separate from any individual description.

Copyright-management information. Our calendar entries and associated data carry copyright-management information identifying the Valley Sentinel as the source and owner. You may not remove, alter, or falsify that information.

Prohibited copying and automated access. You may not scrape, crawl, harvest, bulk-download, republish, or otherwise reproduce our calendar descriptions or our calendar compilation, in whole or in substantial part, whether by automated means or otherwise, without our prior written license. Accessing the Community Calendar, or any associated data feed or application programming interface, constitutes your agreement to these Terms, including this Section.

Remedies. Because the harm to an independent local publisher from misappropriation of its original curatorial work is real but difficult to quantify entry-by-entry, you agree that liquidated damages of $250 per infringing entry — or $2,500 per infringing entry where the copying is willful, systematic, or undertaken for competing or commercial use — represent a reasonable estimate of that harm and are not a penalty. These liquidated damages are in addition to, and not in lieu of, all other available remedies, including statutory damages and attorneys’ fees under the U.S. Copyright Act, damages under 17 U.S.C. § 1202 for removal or alteration of copyright-management information, injunctive relief, and any other liquidated damages, statutory damages, and legal fees as permitted by law. We apply this protection uniformly to any party who copies our original work.

4. AI Scraping, Text/Data Mining & Commercial Extraction

The Valley Sentinel supports the open web and the discoverability of our journalism. We expressly authorize the crawling and indexing of our public content by standard search engines (for example, Googlebot and Bingbot) for the purposes of search-engine optimization, generative-search optimization, and directing human readers to our original pages.

We prohibit, however, the use of automated scripts, bots, spiders, or scrapers to harvest, extract, or mine our text, images, journalism, or Community Calendar data in order to train, develop, or operate any artificial-intelligence model, large language model, or machine-learning system, without our prior written consent and a negotiated license. Generative-AI products are frequently built on content that independent publishers invest in, delivering value to AI developers while the publishers receive nothing; unauthorized commercial extraction of our work harms local journalism. If you or your organization scrape or extract our Services for these prohibited purposes, you agree to pay a retroactive commercial license fee and liquidated damages of $5,000 per unauthorized access event or $100 per article or record extracted, whichever is greater — including liquidated damages and legal fees as permitted by law — together with any costs of enforcement, and in addition to all other available remedies.

5. Publisher Intellectual Property

Except for user submissions governed by the Submissions Policy above, all original content we publish — including reporting, editorials, columns, photography, graphics, logos, and branding — is the exclusive intellectual property of the Valley Sentinel and is protected by U.S. and international copyright, trademark, and other laws. You may not reproduce, distribute, or commercially exploit our original work without our express written permission, except as permitted by law (such as fair use with proper attribution). You may link to our Services, provided the link does not imply our endorsement and does not frame or misrepresent our content.

6. Copyright Infringement — DMCA Notice & Takedown

We respect the intellectual-property rights of others and expect users to do the same. If you believe material on our Services infringes your copyright, please send a written notice to our Copyright Agent (see Part IX) that includes: (a) your physical or electronic signature; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; (c) identification of the material you believe to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to locate it; (d) your contact information; (e) a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (f) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or are authorized to act on the owner’s behalf. We will respond to valid notices consistent with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512), including by removing or disabling access to allegedly infringing material and, in appropriate circumstances, terminating the access of repeat infringers. A counter-notification procedure is available to affected users.

7. Lawful Use & Private-Publisher Status

You agree not to use the Services for any unlawful purpose or for conduct that would constitute a criminal offense or give rise to civil liability. The Valley Sentinel is a private publisher, not a public forum. We exercise full editorial discretion to curate, edit, decline, or remove any submission or user content, and we are under no obligation of “viewpoint neutrality.” We exercise independent editorial judgment and are under no obligation to present opposing claims that we have determined, through our reporting and fact-checking, to be false. (See Part V regarding our editorial standards and commitment to accuracy.)

Part IV — Editorial Independence & Shield Protections

The Valley Sentinel fiercely protects its sources, unpublished materials, and editorial work product, and does not act as an investigative arm for law enforcement or any government authority. It is our strict policy to resist and legally challenge any subpoena, warrant, or demand for unpublished journalistic work product, reporter notes, raw audio or video, or the identity of confidential sources, to the fullest extent of the law, including:

The First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution, and Article I, § 3 of the Wisconsin Constitution, which provides that “no laws shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press.”
The Wisconsin Shield Law, Wis. Stat. § 885.14, which grants a news person an absolute privilege to refuse to disclose the identity of a confidential source and any information obtained or prepared in newsgathering from a confidential source, and a qualified privilege protecting all other newsgathering material — which may be overcome only upon a rigorous showing (in a criminal matter, by clear and convincing evidence, after notice and an opportunity to be heard). The statute also restricts subpoenas directed at non-journalists that are intended to circumvent these protections.
The Privacy Protection Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. § 2000aa), which prohibits government officers from searching for or seizing a journalist’s work product or documentary materials, and which provides civil remedies against government entities that violate it.
The qualified reporter’s privilege long recognized by Wisconsin courts under the First Amendment and the Wisconsin Constitution, independent of and in addition to the statutory shield. See Kurzynski v. Spaeth, 538 N.W.2d 554 (Wis. Ct. App. 1995); Zelenka v. State, 130 Wis. 2d 34 (1986).

Part V — Editorial Standards, Ethics & Civic Guidelines

1. Editorial Mission & Collaborative Journalism

We recognize the sometimes antagonistic environment in modern journalism. We believe that ultimately the accuracy of a story is the most important aspect of our journalistic duty. We view corporate non-compete clauses as antithetical to good, collaborative journalism. We will not be strong-armed or dissuaded from covering important issues that others may be intimidated to cover. All reporting undergoes a rigorous editorial review process — focusing first on big-picture, structural editing; then strict line-by-line copy-editing for grammatical clarity; and culminating in thorough fact-checking. We are data- and information-focused: it is not the job of a news story to reflect bias or take a position, but to find the facts and report them.

2. Editorial Independence & Truth

The Valley Sentinel exercises independent editorial judgment. Objective journalism does not require false balance. We do not manufacture artificial “both-sides” framing where the facts are clear, and we do not elevate fringe or harmful voices for the sake of symmetry. We seek to elevate truth, and to lift up community and often-marginalized voices. Where we can verify the facts, we report them plainly, and we are under no obligation to give equal footing to claims we have determined to be false. On matters of great community interest, our Editorial Board may take clearly labeled positions and make endorsements, which are separate and distinct — in labeling and in substance — from our news reporting and do not affect the integrity or impartiality of that reporting.

3. Satire & Parody

The Valley Sentinel publishes a clearly designated satire and parody section (for example, “Page 8 / The Good Stuff”). Content in this section is satire, parody, and social commentary, and is fully protected under the First Amendment. Individuals named in satirical works may be real public figures, but quotations, statements, and scenarios attributed to them are generally fictitious and should not be understood as literal statements of fact — except where the Valley Sentinel expressly identifies a particular quotation or statement as genuine. Satirical content is structurally isolated from our news reporting: it is not indexed alongside, and does not populate within, our standard news feeds, and it is accessible only within its designated section (and, in our mobile application, only through a dedicated access gesture).

4. Fairness, Accuracy & Corrections

Valley Sentinel strives to operate with fairness, accuracy, and independence. Whenever possible, we seek opposing views and solicit responses from those whose conduct is questioned in news stories. If an opposing side cannot be reached, we say so. Developing stories are marked as continuing to be updated (“More to come” or similar).

All errors are acknowledged promptly and straightforwardly, never disguised or glossed over. When we correct an online error, we indicate that the story has been updated. Only in rare circumstances, and only with Editorial Board approval, should an attempt be made to remove content published in error from the web. In considering requests to remove accurate information from our public archives, we weigh both the requester’s interest and the public’s interest in knowing; such decisions require Editorial Board approval. Our policy is not to remove accurate published content from our archives, but we keep archives accurate, complete, and up to date, correcting them as needed.

Second chances. Valley Sentinel believes in second chances. If published content can be demonstrated to be actively contributing negatively to someone’s livelihood, and the circumstances of that person’s life have verifiably changed (for example, expungement or pardon followed by community service and positive contributions), the Editorial Board will consider un-indexing or un-publishing that content on a case-by-case basis.

Clarifications are made when a story, photograph, video, caption, or editorial creates a false impression of fact. A correction or clarification repeats the original error only where necessary for context. When in doubt about whether a correction, clarification, or removal is necessary, staff bring the matter to an editor.

5. Sourcing, Confidentiality & Attribution

Reporters and photographers should identify themselves as news media to sources; the rare exception requires Editorial Board approval. Journalists must not plagiarize, whether by lifting others’ writing or publishing a press release as news without attribution. Journalists cover breaking news aggressively but must not interfere with civil authorities and must never break the law.

Agreements about anonymity are settled with sources in advance, with clear ground rules about what is on- and off-the-record. In general, we avoid unnamed sources, relying on them only when the news value warrants and the information cannot be obtained otherwise; we do not let unnamed sources be the sole basis for a story or make personal attacks, we describe them as fully as possible to indicate credibility, and we tell readers why anonymity was granted. Under no circumstance does Valley Sentinel pay for information. Quotations should be the exact words spoken, subject only to minor corrections in grammar and syntax; we explain when a quote was obtained other than by interview, and we do not make third-party statements sound like direct statements to a reporter.

6. Use of Names & Descriptions

When law enforcement or officials identify a person who has been arrested, that person may be identified by Valley Sentinel; in some instances a person may not be named until charged. Juveniles are not identified unless they are to be tried as adults or the alleged crime is deemed particularly newsworthy, in consultation with an editor. Once a person is named, we make every effort to report the ultimate adjudication. We generally do not name victims of sexual assault. Physical descriptions of suspects are published only when specific enough to be useful in identification.

As a general rule, Valley Sentinel does not participate in crime reporting and does not publish a police or 911 calls blotter. Exceptions may be made at our editorial discretion — but likely won’t be.

7. Bylines & Credit

All stories, including briefs, carry a byline and contact information so readers know whom to contact about an error. In multiple bylines, the first name is generally the writer or largest contributor; contributor lines are reserved for small slices of reporting. Work from wire services or partner agencies (such as The Badger Project, Wisconsin Watch, and public agencies) is credited accordingly. Editorials by our Editorial Board are unsigned, as they represent the position of our news organization’s management rather than an individual.

8. Visual Integrity

Visual journalists strive to make images that report truthfully, honestly, and objectively, and resist staged photo opportunities. Except for portraits and clearly labeled illustrations, we do not set up or manipulate photographs, videos, or news events, or alter images or sound in any way that could mislead. We treat all subjects with respect and dignity, giving special consideration to vulnerable subjects and to victims of crime or tragedy. All photographs are copyrighted by the person or entity that made them; we do not publish images from the web or social media without permission except in circumstances approved by an editor (exceptions include media-provided images from public agencies). Issues of visual taste are discussed and approved by editors. Valley Sentinel prohibits the use of our news photographs or video by political campaigns, advocacy groups, or outside commercial ventures, except as the Editorial Board may approve for educational or historical purposes.

9. Social Media

Official Valley Sentinel social-media profiles are clearly and prominently branded as representing our news organization. Employees source the information they share and reference originating sources; they do not delete incorrect posts but follow our correction guidelines (marking updates and noting the correction). Journalists may break news via social media, especially in competitive situations, but use it to augment rather than substitute for full stories, and anonymously sourced posts require prior editor involvement. Staff refrain from endorsing entities they cover, and maintain professional decorum, mindful of the public nature of social media.

10. Conflicts of Interest & Outside Activities

Staff should not have a financial connection to anything they cover (including stock, outside employment, or fees for service), and should avoid conflicts involving close family members. Staff avoid advertising or espousing viewpoints on public issues in professional settings representing Valley Sentinel, avoid taking public stands on debates they may cover, and avoid signing petitions or otherwise identifying with causes they are expected to cover. Contributions to political candidates, parties, or activist organizations in the news are avoided; ordinary involvement in religion, hobbies, recreation, and neighborhood or school programs generally poses no conflict. We pay our own way: we generally do not accept complimentary meals, and items of more than token value (over $25) are returned, donated or disclosed in our reporting. Freelancing, outside media appearances, and honoraria are permitted only with a supervisor’s knowledge and approval, using ethics — not economics — as the overriding factor, and speaking fees are generally declined. Staff do not use their positions, or the company’s name or reputation, for personal advantage, and do not report on people with whom they have a close personal relationship unless the relationship is clearly disclosed. Journalists do not provide sponsored content; all sponsored content, in print and online, is clearly labeled as such.

These editorial and ethics standards are adapted in part from policies of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, National Public Radio, the National Press Photographers Association, and the Poynter Institute. They are an evolving guide; when a situation raises questions of credibility, staff consult an editor rather than deciding alone.

Part VI — Subscriptions, Support, Advertising & Distribution

1. Subscriptions

Interested parties located in the United States may subscribe to Valley Sentinel for $30 annually using the electronic options on our subscription page (https://valleysentinelnews.com/subscribe/) or by mailing a check with your name and address to: Valley Sentinel, PO Box 144, Spring Green, WI 53588.

2. Payments, Auto-Renewal & Cancellation

Payments for subscriptions and donations are processed securely by a third-party payment vendor (currently PayPal); we do not receive or store full payment-card numbers. Annual subscriptions purchased electronically automatically renew each year at the then-current rate, using the payment method on file, unless you cancel before the renewal date. The renewal term, billing frequency, and price are disclosed to you at checkout, and your enrollment constitutes your affirmative consent to recurring billing. You may cancel at any time — through your PayPal account, or by contacting us using the details in Part IX — to prevent future charges; where our payment vendor supports it, we will provide renewal reminders. Consistent with our community-support model, past contributions and processed billing cycles, and the remainder of any annual subscription term, are non-refundable.

3. Subscription Fund

We understand everyone’s financial situation is different, but we believe everyone who wants the news should be able to receive it. We offer a Subscription Fund supported by donations and a percentage of advertising sales: $5 of every ad sale goes to our community Subscription Fund. By subscribing through the Fund, you acknowledge that you are accepting an annual, auto-renewing gift subscription from the Fund to become an actual, in-good-faith paid subscriber to have the print publication delivered to your address, and that we will also add you to our weekly email news digest (from which you may unsubscribe at any time). Fund subscriptions are processed and fulfilled on a rolling basis as the Fund allows. Valley Sentinel reserves the right to identify and deny frivolous subscription requests.

4. Advertising

Advertising is governed by the policies on our advertising page (https://valleysentinelnews.com/advertising-businesses/), which are incorporated here by reference. As a rule of thumb, if your event is making money, advertising or marketing should be part of your budget and will require an ad to run; we make exceptions at our discretion for events or subjects of great compelling community interest or artistic value.

Fair Housing. In accordance with the federal Fair Housing Act, we do not accept for publication any real-estate advertisement that indicates a preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, familial status, or national origin. If you believe a real-estate advertisement on our Services indicates such a preference, please contact us. For more information, see the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at hud.gov.

5. Community Calendar — Cost

Events that are open to the public may be placed in the Valley Sentinel Community Calendar at no cost. Our full, current Community Calendar Policies — including calendar categories, editorial guidelines and exclusions, image requirements, and options such as Featured Events — are published at https://valleysentinelnews.com/submit-an-event/and control the operation of the calendar; those policies may be updated from time to time. (Ownership of, and restrictions on copying, the calendar and its descriptions are addressed in Part III, Section 3.)

6. Single-Copy Distribution & Anti-Theft

Print editions available for general distribution on newsstands are free as a single copy, per person, of each edition. Each additional copy is valued at $1,000, to be paid directly to Lower Wisconsin River Valley Sentinel, LLC. This provision is designed to prevent the bulk removal of papers to suppress journalism; it is wholly enforceable by Valley Sentinel and its principals, is irrelevant if not enforced, and is retroactively waivable by Valley Sentinel and its principals.

Part VII — Platform, Security & Liability

1. Disclaimer of Warranties. The Services, including our website and mobile application, are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We make no warranties, express or implied, regarding the continuous uptime, reliability, security, or accuracy of the Services, and we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement to the fullest extent permitted by law.

2. Third-Party Data (Weather). Our mobile application relies on third-party sources, including the National Weather Service API, to display local weather. We do not guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, completeness, or safety of that third-party data, particularly during severe-weather events, and you agree that Valley Sentinel is not liable for any damages, injuries, or losses resulting from system outages, API failures, or reliance on information provided through the app. Always consult official sources and emergency authorities during severe weather.

3. Prohibited Conduct & Right of Termination. To protect our platform, our authors, and our community, you agree not to: attempt to hack, disable, overburden, or interfere with the website or app (including denial-of-service attacks); inject malicious code, malware, or spam into our forms or any future comment feature; harass, threaten, or “doxx” our journalists, editors, sources, or community members; or impersonate any person or entity — including municipal officials, community leaders, or Valley Sentinel staff — or submit materially false, fraudulent, or deliberately misleading events to the Community Calendar. We may block your access, restrict submissions, or terminate your use of the Services, with or without notice, for any violation of these Terms.

4. Third-Party Links & External Sites. Our journalism and Community Calendar frequently link to external, third-party websites (such as municipal portals, local businesses, and source documents). We do not control and are not responsible for the content, security, or privacy practices of those sites; accessing them is at your own risk, and we encourage you to review their policies.

5. Limitation of Liability. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall the Valley Sentinel, its owners, editors, or volunteers be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages arising out of or relating to your use of the Services. In no event shall our total aggregate liability to you for all damages, losses, and causes of action exceed the greater of fifty U.S. dollars ($50.00) or the amount you have paid to the Valley Sentinel in the preceding twelve months.

6. Force Majeure. We shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performance, especially due to causes beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, war, riots, embargoes, acts of civil or military authorities, fire, floods, accidents, labor disruptions, or Internet-infrastructure or utility failures.

7. System Integrity. We do not warrant that the Services or the servers that make our content available are free of viruses, bugs, or other harmful components. You are responsible for implementing sufficient safeguards and virus checks on your own devices and browsers to meet your particular requirements for security and reliability.

Part VIII — Mobile Application & App Store Terms

Our mobile application is distributed through the Apple App Store and Google Play. Your download and use of the application is also subject to the terms and policies of the platform through which you obtained it (the “Platform Terms”), and where these Terms conflict with the applicable Platform Terms, the Platform Terms control with respect to that platform.

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the application on any Apple- or Android-branded device that you own or control, as permitted by these Terms and the applicable Platform Terms.

The application is free. There are no in-app purchases and no in-app account creation. Optional subscriptions and donations are handled outside the application through our website and our third-party payment vendor (opened in your device’s browser), and unlock no digital content within the application.

Apple-specific terms. With respect to the version of the application obtained through the Apple App Store, you and we acknowledge that: (a) these Terms are between you and Valley Sentinel only, and not with Apple, and Apple is not responsible for the application or its content; (b) Apple has no obligation to furnish any maintenance or support services for the application — that responsibility is ours alone; (c) in the event the application fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple may refund the purchase price (if any), and to the maximum extent permitted by law Apple has no other warranty obligation with respect to the application; (d) Valley Sentinel, not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claims relating to the application, including product-liability claims, claims that the application fails to conform to legal or regulatory requirements, and claims arising under consumer-protection or similar law; (e) in the event of any third-party claim that the application or your use of it infringes that third party’s intellectual-property rights, Valley Sentinel, not Apple, is responsible for the investigation, defense, settlement, and discharge of such claim; and (f) Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms, and upon your acceptance Apple will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms against you as a third-party beneficiary.

Legal-compliance representations. You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated as a “terrorist-supporting” country, that you are not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties, and that you will use the application only in compliance with applicable law.

Contact. The developer of the application is Lower Wisconsin River Valley Sentinel, LLC. For application support or questions, contact us using the details in Part IX or through the application’s Settings tab.

Part IX — Contact & Legal Notices

General & Editorial Contact. For editorial inquiries, letters to the editor, calendar questions, privacy or data requests, or application support: Email: editor@valleysentinelnews.com Calendar: calendar@valleysentinelnews.com Mail: PO Box 144, Spring Green, WI 53588 Phone: 608-588-6694

Copyright / DMCA Agent. To submit a notice of alleged copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 512 (see Part III, Section 6), contact our Copyright Agent by email at editor@valleysentinelnews.com (subject line: “DMCA — Copyright Agent”) and by mail at PO Box 144, Spring Green, WI 53588, with a copy to our Attorney of Record below.

Formal Service of Process & Subpoenas. For all purposes of accepting service of process or receiving legal and other documents on behalf of the Valley Sentinel — such as subpoenas, regulatory and tax notices, and related correspondence — please direct them to our registered agent, and copy our Attorney of Record (email preferred):

Wisconsin Registered Agent LLC
2800 E. Enterprise Ave STE 333 Appleton, WI 54913
Phone: (608) 234-4009
Email: agent@wisconsinregisteredagent.net

Attorney of Record. For all purposes of accepting service of process or receiving legal and other documents on behalf of Valley Sentinel, such as subpoenas, regulatory and tax notices, and related correspondence, or any legal or civil inquiries, Valley Sentinel (the entity) and its owners and editors (in all capacities, personal and professional) have indefinitely retained:

Gary Ernest Grass (State Bar No. 1035738)
Siddique Law, LLC
6060 N. 77th Street, Milwaukee, WI 53218
Phone: (414) 324-9639
Email: g.grass@sbcglobal.net
Email: attorneysiddique@gmail.com