The News-Gazette, published weekly in Lexington, Va on Wednesdays, serves Rockbridge County and the cities of Lexington and Buena Vista. The newspaper is part of a publishing tradition that goes back to 1801, which saw the founding of what became the Lexington Gazette. The other ancestor publication was the Rockbridge County News, founded in 1884. The two newspapers merged in 1962, forming The News-Gazette. By this lineage, The News-Gazette is the third oldest newspaper in Virginia, and the oldest in the state west of the Blue Ridge.
The News-Gazette Corp. also publishes Visiting Lexington and the Rockbridge Area, a print guidebook and electronic edition (https://publisher.etype.services/Lexington-News-Gazette/e-paper-special-edition/FD9163BE7428DC39) for visitors to our area, our Lexington area Newcomer's Guide, and Valley of Virginia Properties, a monthly local real estate magazine. And, of course, we publish on this website, www.thenews-gazette.com.
The current management and ownership represents the fourth generation of involvement in the newspaper by the Paxton family.
The News-Gazette has been the recipent of numerous state and national awards for writing, photography, and design from the Virginia Press Association and the National Newspaper Association.
All departments of the newspaper can be reached by calling our main phone number - (540) 463-3113.
The News-Gazette's Mission Statement
The News-Gazette’s mission is to comprehensively provide the residents of the Rockbridge County, Virginia area with local news and information in print and digitally following the best practices of journalism, to provide a forum to the community for the exchange of ideas, and to be a force for positive change and understanding within the community.
The News-Gazette’s Statement of Ethical Principles.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution and subsequent court cases have afforded the Press with broad rights to operate in the interests of unfettered reporting of public affairs. With those rights come responsibilities, which The News-Gazette accepts. We pledge to live up to these responsibilities to the best of our ability, recognizing that our goal is to continue to examine and to improve our performance in adhering to the following principles.
Accuracy
Accuracy is the overriding value of journalism.
- We will always work to ensure that all the facts in our work are accurate.
- We will not omit facts that are material to an understanding of what we are reporting on.
- Context is often critical to accurate reporting. We will ensure that adequate context is provided.
- We will clearly distinguish between fact and assertion or opinion.
Independence
Independence from state control, business interests, market forces, or any other vested interest or outside pressure is a hallmark of dispassionate, critical, and reliable journalism. It bolsters legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of the public.
- We will make our own editorial judgments based solely on careful consideration of all the facts.
- We will not allow ourselves to be influenced by political, sectional, or commercial interests.
- We will declare and manage any conflicts of interest, including gifts, funding, advertising relationships, and free or discounted travel or services.
Impartiality
Impartiality means not being prejudiced towards or against any particular ideology, idea, or preconception. Impartiality requires fairness and balance that follows the weight of evidence: it allows the journalist to make sense of events through dispassionate analysis of all relevant facts and perspectives.
- We will treat all facts the same, making editorial judgments and delivering analysis based only on the weight of evidence.
- We will not allow our own views, preferences, biases, or prejudgments to affect our work.
- We will not simply recite lists of facts or engage in false balance: but will weigh the evidence and reflect that weight of evidence in our work.
- We will aim to include an appropriate diversity of views, and accord those views the space warranted by their prominence and significance.
Integrity
Integrity in journalism ensures that people and organizations uphold the values of journalism, always strive to do the right thing in all situations, even to their personal or organizational detriment, and put their obligations to the public first.
- We will treat those we deal with in our work with respect and courtesy.
- We will always identify ourselves as journalists, unless withholding disclosure is essential to uncovering the truth in a matter of public importance.
- As far as possible, we will look for opportunities to "show our work", sharing with the public the underlying information we have gathered.
- The use of any form of secret information gathering (hidden cameras, secret recording devices, etc.) may be justifiable if it is essential to uncovering the truth in a matter of public importance.
- We will provide anyone accused of misbehavior a reasonable opportunity to respond.
- We will attribute information to its source unless that source needs to be protected to ensure the truth can be uncovered in a matter of public importance. Where a source needs anonymity, we will provide it.
- We will not plagiarize.
Harm minimization
Journalists must always remember that they are dealing with human lives. The potential for public good must sufficiently outweigh the potential for harm that may come from the activity of journalism.
- We are mindful that our work may contain content that causes harm. We will carefully consider how we proceed to ensure that undue harm is not caused.
- We will avoid the gratuitous use of offensive, confronting, or harm-inducing sounds, imagery, or words.
- We will respect people's reasonable rights to privacy unless they are outweighed by the need to report on a matter of public importance.
- We will show sensitivity when dealing with children, victims of crime, or people who are especially vulnerable due, for example, to trauma, injury, illness, or other factors.
Engagement
Engagement with the public ensures that journalism remains open, accessible, collaborative, and participatory while keeping the journalist accountable to the highest standards of accuracy, independence, impartiality, and integrity.
- Our decisions on what work to do will be based on what is relevant and newsworthy to the community we serve.
- We will establish and maintain open communications with the community.
- We will seek input and ideas from the community before, during, and after completing our work.
Accountability
Accountability is essential to the ethical practice of journalism and the maintenance of the public trust. Being accountable for news-gathering practices and reporting means making firm commitments and taking responsibility for our journalism and the journalism of our peers.
- We will seek and carefully consider the feedback we receive from the community about our work.
- We will respond constructively to any complaints, particularly those related to matters raised in relation to these standards.
- Where errors or potentially incomplete or misleading information is found, corrections or clarifications will be made promptly, prominently, and transparently.
- Where no errors or incomplete or misleading information is found, our work will not be altered or removed in any material way in response to pressure from outside interests.
Comments or concerns about these principles and the newspaper’s performance in following them may be referred to the publisher at [email protected].
Terms of Service
Welcome to The News-Gazette’s website. Following are the terms and conditions that govern your use of this website.
Using this site tells us that you have read and agreed to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy detailed below. Please read the following sections carefully. If you do not agree with these terms, please exit this site or any site affiliated with this site. These Terms of Service and Privacy Policy apply to all web sites owned and operated by The News-Gazette Corporation. The News-Gazette reserves the right to terminate Membership and deny access to the site to any person who violates these Terms of Service.
Future Changes
These terms may change at any time in the future. No individual notice of changes will be provided to Users. So, please check back periodically and review the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to ensure that you still agree to abide by them. Unless you terminate your registration and use of this site or any site affiliated to this site, you will be bound by any subsequent change to these Terms.
Copyright
All information, content, services and software displayed on, transmitted through or used in connection with The News-Gazette’s site, including, but not limited to, news articles, reviews, directories, guides, text, photographs, images, illustrations, audio clips, video, html, source and object code, trademarks, logos and the like, as well as its selection and arrangement, is owned by The News-Gazette Corporation, You may use the Content online only, and solely for your personal, non-commercial use. If you operate a Web site and wish to link to any of the sites owned and operated by The News-Gazette, you may do so provided you agree to cease such link upon request from The News-Gazette and that you do not state or imply any sponsorship of your site by The News-Gazette. No other use is permitted without prior written permission of The News-Gazette. The permitted use described in this Paragraph is contingent on your compliance at all times with these Terms of Service.
You may not, for example, republish any portion of the Content on any Internet, Intranet or extranet site or incorporate the Content in any database, compilation, archive or cache. You may not distribute any Content to others, whether or not for payment or other consideration, and you may not modify, copy, frame, cache, reproduce, sell, publish, transmit, display or otherwise use any portion of the Content. You may not scrape or otherwise copy our Content without written permission. You agree not to decompile, reverse engineer or disassemble any software or other products or processes accessible through The News-Gazette, not to insert any code or product or manipulate the content of The News-Gazette in any way that affects the user’s experience, and not to use any data mining, data gathering or extraction method.
Requests to use Content for any purpose other than as permitted in these Terms of Service should be directed to publisher of The News-Gazette at [email protected]. In certain cases, you may be able to obtain a license to use individual stories that appear on anyof The News-Gazette’s sitesThe through online functionality we have specifically designated. For example, email a story to a friend or purchase a photograph.
Copyright Complaints
The News-Gazette respects the intellectual property of others and holds no claim to copyrights of content that is owned by a third party or is in the public domain. If you believe your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement or you are aware of any infringing material on any of The News-Gazette site, please contact us immediately.
Membership, Registration, Termination and Passwords
To use certain features of any Service provided by The News-Gazette, you must register on the form(s) provided. If you become a Member of The News-Gazette, or any of its affiliated sites or services, you accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account and Password, and agree not to sell, transfer or assign your Membership or any Membership rights.
When registering, you agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Service’s registration form and to maintain and promptly update the information you provide to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. We reserve the right to terminate your Membership at any time for any reason and without notice. In the event of termination, you are no longer authorized to access the part of the Service affected by such cancellation or termination. The restrictions imposed on you with respect to material downloaded from any Service, and the disclaimers and limitations of liabilities set forth in these Terms of Service, shall survive.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for restricting access to your computer so others outside your household may not access The News-Gazette’s sites using your name in whole or in part without your permission. If you believe someone has accessed your member name and/or password without your authorization, e-mail us immediately. The News-Gazette cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to protect your password or account information.
License to The News-Gazette
By posting a message, uploading a file, providing information to, communicating with, or otherwise placing any material on our websites, you are granting The News-Gazette and its affiliated newspapers, a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted right and license to use, copy, modify, display, archive, store, distribute, reproduce and create derivative works from such information, in any form, media, software or technology or any kind now existing or developed in the future. Without limiting the generality of the previous term, you authorize The News-Gazette Corporation to share the information across all The News-Gazette Corporation’s locations, other The News-Gazette Corporation websites and to use your name and any other information in connection with its use of the material you provide. All rights in this term are granted without the requirement for additional compensation of any sort to you and without further permission required.
Interactive Features
Services offered by The News-Gazette or any of its affiliated sites may include a variety of features, such as message boards, photo galleries, comments and other interactive features which will allow feedback to The News-Gazette and real-time interaction between users. These features are provided to give users an interesting and stimulating forum to express their opinions and share ideas and information. The News-Gazette cannot and does not monitor all of the material posted or transmitted by users and third party information providers.
It is a condition of your use of these Services that you exercise your best judgment and do not:
• Restrict or inhibit any other user(s) from using and enjoying the Service.
• Post any material that contains vulgar, profane, abusive, hateful or racist language or expressions, text, photographs or illustrations in poor taste, or attacks of a personal, racial or religious nature.
• Post any material that is threatening, false, defamatory, misleading, fraudulent, unfair, and inaccurate, contains gross exaggeration or unsubstantiated claims, violates the privacy rights of any party, is unreasonably harmful or offensive to any individual, community, association, business or group.
• Violate any right of The News-Gazette or any of its affiliates.
• Post any material that discriminates, or refers to such matters in any manner prohibited by law.
• Disrupt, interfere with or otherwise harms or violates the security of The News-Gazette, or any services, resources, passwords, servers or networks through The News-Gazette or affiliated or linked sites.
• Post any material that contains or links to viruses or other harmful, disruptive or destructive files.
• Use or attempt to use another’s identity, account, password, service or system except as expressly permitted by the Terms of Services.
• Post any material that includes copyrighted or other proprietary material of any kind without express permission of the owner of the material.
• Post any material that includes advertisements, promotions, or offers to trade any goods or services, except in areas specifically designated for such purpose, if available.
• Post any material that violates or encourages the violation of any municipal, state, federal or international law, rule or regulation.
• The News-Gazette reserves the right to delete any communications at any time, for any reason or in its discretion, but has no obligation to review or remove any such content. The News-Gazette also reserves the right to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or governmental request, or to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that in The News-Gazette’s sole discretion are objectionable or in violation of these Terms of Service.
E-Commerce and Transactions on our sites
The News-Gazette may allow you to engage in a transaction involving the purchase of a product or service such as a newspaper subscription, a print or online advertisement, a print of a photograph, a photograph product, a discount coupon, or other tangible goods and services. The service may be administrated by the newspaper or by an affiliated company. The service may also have an additional terms of service and privacy policy that serves as an addendum to this one. To serve you most efficiently, credit card transactions and order fulfillment are often handled by a third party. These third parties may have separate privacy and data collection practices, so please be sure to read these as well. If you’re concerned about online credit card safety, in most cases a telephone number will be provided so that you can call to place your order by phone. The News-Gazette cannot take responsibility for the success or security of transactions undertaken or processed by third parties. The News-Gazette is not responsible for the quality, accuracy, timeliness, reliability or any other aspect of these third party products and services. You agree to release The News-Gazette Corporation and its affiliates from any damages that you incur, and agree not to assert any claims against them, arising from your purchase or use of any products or services made available by third parties through The News-Gazette.
Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability
While The News-Gazette uses reasonable efforts to include accurate and up-to-date information, we make no warranties or representations as to the accuracy of the Content and assume no liability or responsibility for any error or omission in the Content. The News-Gazette does not represent or warrant that use of any Content will not infringe rights of third parties. The News-Gazette has no responsibility for actions of third parties or for content provided or posted by others.
Because services provided by The News-Gazette may include links and pointers to Internet sites, content and services provided by third parties. Neither The News-Gazette, its parent or subsidiary companies nor their affiliates operate or control in any respect any information, products or services that third parties may provide on or through The News-Gazette or on a website linked to by The News-Gazette. The content on this site and any third-party sites are provided “as is”, “as available” and without warranties of any kind either expressed or implied. To the fullest extent permissible pursuant to applicable law, The News-Gazette disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchant ability and fitness for a particular purpose. The News-Gazette does not warrant that this website or any of its functions will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that this site, including bulletin boards, or the servers that make it available, are free of viruses or other harmful components.
All Services are provided for informational purposes only, and is not intended for trading or investing purposes, or for commercial use. Stock and mutual fund quotes, and related financial news stories may be delayed at least 20 minutes, as may be required by the stock exchanges and/or the financial information services. The Service should not be used in any high risk activities where damage or injury to persons, property, environment, finances or business may result if an error occurs. You expressly assume all risk for such use.
In no event, including, but not limited to, negligence, shall The News-Gazette, its subsidiary and parent company or affiliates be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, special or consequential damages including, without limitation, damages related to unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data, the content or any errors or omissions in the content, even if advised of the possibility of such damages or those that result from the use of, or the inability to use, The News-Gazette materials, products or services, or third party materials, products or services made available through The News-Gazette. You specifically acknowledge and agree that The News-Gazette is not liable for any defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of any user.
Use of Company Directories
The information contained in the Company Directories is provided for business lookup purposes and is not to be used for marketing or telemarketing applications. This information may not be copied or redistributed and is provided “AS IS” without warranty of any kind. In no event will The News-Gazette or its suppliers be liable in any way with regard to such Information.
