Two-source rule
A claim is treated as established only when independent reporting supports it. If one outlet has the story alone, the sentence names that outlet.
How the brief works
Read every desk. Explain the city.
New York Explained is built for one job: turn the morning's local reporting into one traceable, borough-aware brief that says what happened and what it means for people who live here.
Workflow
Five steps, every morning.
- 01
Gather
The run reads local feeds across 10 categories, from straight government desks to transit, housing, schools, culture, and sports.
- 02
Read
The brief is drafted from article text, not just headlines. Source names stay attached so the final page can show where each claim came from.
- 03
Cluster
Stories about the same real event are grouped together. A broad topic is not enough. It has to be the same concrete development.
- 04
Explain
Each cluster answers the practical New York question: what changed, who benefits, who pays, and when a reader will feel it.
- 05
Publish
The site ships static HTML, RSS, a Google News sitemap, JSON-LD, and an llms.txt guide so people and crawlers can read the same facts.
Sourcing
Facts keep their names attached.
Visible disagreement
If sources conflict, the brief flags the conflict. It does not quietly pick the cleaner version just because the page would read smoother.
Reader consequence
Every cluster has to touch daily life here: rent, commute, school, paycheck, dinner, safety, the block, or the city that runs those things.
Images stay honest
Daily story photos come from the source article when available. Generated artwork is only for evergreen brand surfaces and social cards, not documentary news evidence.
AEO and SEO
Readable by people. Parseable by machines.
The growth bet is simple: publish the same useful text for readers, search crawlers, and AI answer engines. No hidden feed, no JavaScript-only body, no thin answer pages.
- RSS feedThe current and recent briefs in a standard reader format.
- News sitemapRecent briefs for Google News discovery.
- llms.txtA plain-text guide to the site, categories, recent briefs, and citation policy.
- ArchiveEvery published brief at a permanent dated URL.
Questions
Trust, without theater.
Is New York Explained written by AI?
The framework is human-designed: categories, source rules, voice, sourcing policy, and the questions every story has to answer. The daily reading and drafting is AI-assisted, using the actual article text gathered that morning. The final brief names sources so claims can be checked.
How do you decide what becomes a story cluster?
A cluster is one specific real-world development covered by one or more sources. Two stories about the same broad topic do not become one cluster unless they are about the same event, decision, lawsuit, vote, opening, closing, game, or policy change.
Do you use generated images for news stories?
No. Daily story images come from the article lead photo when available. AI-generated images are reserved for evergreen brand, site, and social-share surfaces like this page, where they are clearly editorial artwork rather than documentary evidence.
Why does the site expose RSS, news sitemap, and llms.txt?
The brief is meant to be read, cited, and checked. RSS serves readers and email, the news sitemap helps search engines find recent briefs, and llms.txt gives AI answer engines a plain map of the site and how to cite it.
Read the method in motion.
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