Suede Editorial Board

The Board exists so that any position published under the Suede masthead — a list, a verdict, a policy on what the publication will and will not cover — is one the publication is willing to defend on a slow news week, six months after the fact, when the original argument has cooled. Columnists write. The Board reads what columnists write, asks whether the rule behind the column is sound, and either ratifies the piece for the masthead or sends it back. Nothing institutional ships without that second read.

Five seats. The Standards Editor, who owns disclosure, sourcing, and corrections policy. The Senior Editor for Gear, who reads any verdict involving an instrument, an amplifier, or a pedal against the publication's prior calls. The Voice Editor, who guards tone and refuses hedge-language. The Editor at Large, who is responsible for asking whether the piece will read the same way in a year. The Founding Editor, who breaks ties and who does not vote first. Seats are roles, not people; the roles outlive the people in them.

The Board rejects pieces that hedge, pieces that run both sides for the appearance of balance, and pieces whose central claim cannot be stated in one sentence the writer is willing to sign. The Board requires a named rule behind every verdict, a disclosure of any commercial relationship in scope, and primary sourcing where a claim is contestable. Scope is enforced: the masthead does not opine on subjects outside its beat. Corrections run at the top of the piece, not the bottom. Silence is also a position; the Board will withhold ratification rather than ship a column it cannot defend next month.