# Commissioning checklist

Source: Black Box Notes, Methodology §05. https://blackboxnotes.com/methodology/choose-what-to-cover/
Licence: CC-BY 4.0.
Version: 2026-05-22.

For each candidate piece, the editorial team writes an affirmative answer to each of the four criteria below. Pieces that fail one of the four are not commissioned.

## 1. Beat fit
- [ ] Piece advances coverage of opacity, auditability, interpretability, or regulatory machinery
- [ ] Not a product review
- [ ] Not a fundraising narrative
- [ ] Not a breathless founder profile

## 2. Specific access
- [ ] Contributor has direct access to: primary document / working system / named source / regulatory development
- [ ] Access documented in pitch / commissioning note

## 3. Verifiable specifics
- [ ] Every load-bearing fact traceable
- [ ] No invented specifics required
- [ ] Anchors documented for any named individuals

## 4. Editorial timing
- [ ] Piece is responsive to a documented now-relevance
- [ ] "Could this piece exist in the absence of [trigger]?" answered honestly

## Standing decline reasons checked
- [ ] Not sourced from a press kit
- [ ] Not a re-tread of prior analysis without new evidence
- [ ] Not requiring unverified anchors on a named individual
- [ ] Not in material conflict with contributor's paid consulting (disclosed if not)
- [ ] Not commissioned in service of a vendor's launch communications
- [ ] Not delivering a verdict the publication has not actually reached

## Assignment
- [ ] Department assigned (Cornerstone / Notes / Field Reports / Regulation Watch / Conversations / Corrections)
- [ ] Editor of record named
- [ ] Fact-checker assigned
- [ ] Target length and structure agreed
- [ ] Conflict declaration drafted if applicable