Article Health & Sources

Article Health provides a quick completeness check before publication. It surfaces missing metadata, missing art, and unrecorded attribution before an article goes live.

Article Health is informational

Article Health serves as an editorial checklist to assist review. It does not evaluate writing quality and does not block WordPress publishing. The decision to publish remains with the editor.

The four completeness checks

News Desk evaluates each story against four editorial readiness checks:

1. Featured image

• What it checks: Checks whether a WordPress featured image is assigned to the post.
• Why it matters: Helps editors catch stories that are missing the featured image expected by the publication.
• How to resolve: Upload or select a featured image within the WordPress editor or block inspector.

2. Excerpt

• What it checks: Confirms that the article has a post excerpt.
• Why it matters: Many sites use explicit excerpts for newsletters, mobile deck headlines, and search summaries.
• How to resolve: Enter an excerpt directly inside the Story Drawer or in the Document settings inside the editor.

3. Source

• What it checks: Shows whether at least one named source has been recorded.
• Why it matters: Shows whether at least one named source has been recorded for the story.
• How to resolve: Add a named source in the Sources section of the Story Drawer.

4. Photo credit

• What it checks: Checks whether an attribution note is recorded for the story’s visual assets.
• Why it matters: Helps editors notice when a photo credit has not been recorded.
• How to resolve: Enter the photo credit directly in the Story Drawer.

Resolving issues from the Story Drawer

The Story Drawer enables editors to resolve most Article Health issues directly without launching the full block editor:

• Quick Excerpt Fix: If an excerpt is missing, clicking Fix beside the excerpt check focuses the excerpt field in the drawer. Typing a summary and saving immediately clears the issue.
• Quick Photo Credit Fix: Clicking Fix on photo credit opens the credit field, allowing you to add attribution (such as “AP Photo / John Doe” or “Staff Photo / Jane Smith”).
• Add Source: Clicking the source check highlights the Sources module to add contacts.
• Featured Image: Clicking Fix directs you to open the story in Editor Mode to select visual media from the WordPress Media Library.

Unassigned Idea behavior

If a story is currently an unassigned Idea:

• Source tracking and notes remain available so pitch leads can be recorded.
• Certain metadata updates (such as full draft preparation) will prompt the desk to assign a staff member as part of moving the piece into Writing.

Managing sources

News Desk provides structured source management inside the Story Drawer to track people and organizations associated with a piece.

Source attributes

For each source, you record:

• Name: The full name and affiliation of the contact (e.g., “Dr. Eleanor Vance, City Health Director”).
• Status: Current reporting contact stage:
  • Confirmed: Use when the source has been confirmed for the story.
  • Contacted: Reached out; waiting for response or scheduling.
  • Waiting: Statement requested or records request pending.
  • Unverified: Initial lead not yet confirmed (default).

Recording sources inside News Desk keeps source information with the story without exposing private phone numbers or background notes in the public post content.

Filtering by Article Health in the Newsroom

Editors can filter the Newsroom by Article Health status:

• Needs attention: Isolate unpublished stories that have one or more failing checks.
• Complete: Filter for stories that pass all four checks.
• Specific deficiencies: Filter specifically for stories with Missing featured image, Missing excerpt, Missing source, or Missing photo credit.

This makes it simple for copy editors or photo editors to conduct focused passes through the publication queue before deadlines.