Some of the best stories we have published started with a message from a reader. A neighbour noticed a road project that had stalled for months. A clinic worker saw supplies running short. A parent heard about a change to school hours before it was announced. If you know something that the public ought to know we want to hear about it. This page explains how to reach us and how to protect yourself while doing it. It also tells you what happens to your tip once it arrives.
How to reach us
Choose the method that feels safest and easiest for you. All of these go to the newsroom and are read by editors.
stories@tamrahnews.com
What makes a good tip
We are interested in anything that affects people in our community and that the public has a reason to know about. That includes decisions by local government and the use of public money and problems at schools and hospitals and businesses and the conduct of officials and police. It includes safety hazards and environmental damage and unfair treatment of workers or tenants or customers. It also includes good news and unusual stories and quiet acts of kindness that never reach us otherwise.
A tip does not have to be a finished story. We do the reporting. What we need from you is a starting point that we can check. The more specific you can be the faster we can act.
What to include
Tell us what happened or what you saw. Say when and where it took place and who was involved. Explain how you know about it and whether you saw it yourself or heard it from someone else. If you have documents or photographs or recordings tell us and we will explain how to send them. Give us a way to contact you unless you want to remain fully anonymous. If you do not want us to use your name say so at the start of your message.
It helps to tell us if there is a deadline. Some matters are urgent because a decision is about to be made or evidence might be lost. Others can wait while we check the facts carefully.
Confidentiality and anonymity
We take the safety of people who contact us seriously. If you ask us to keep your identity private we will treat your request with care. Our standards are explained on our Journalistic Ethics page and we summarise the key points here.
- We will not reveal the name of a confidential source to anyone outside the newsroom without that person’s permission.
- A senior editor will usually need to know who you are before we agree to publish information that you provide on a confidential basis. That editor is bound by the same promise.
- We will explain what we can and cannot guarantee before you share sensitive information with us.
- We will tell you in advance if a story is likely to make it easy for others to work out who you are.
There are limits. We cannot promise that a court will never order us to hand over material. We will resist such orders as far as the law allows but we will not pretend that the risk does not exist. If you are worried about this talk to us before you send anything.
Protecting yourself
If your tip involves your employer or a government body or a powerful person take sensible steps before you contact us.
- Use a personal device and a personal account. Do not use a work computer or a work phone or a work network.
- Think about who else has access to your phone or your email. Delete messages to us after you send them if that is safer.
- Photographs and documents can carry hidden information such as the time and place they were created or the name of the device. Ask us how to remove it if that matters.
- Be careful about what you tell other people. The more people who know that you are talking to a journalist the harder it is to keep your identity private.
- Do not take any risk to your safety to get more information. No story is worth that.
Photographs and video
Pictures from the public help us report events as they happen. If you send us a photograph or a video tell us when and where it was taken and who took it. Send the original file and not a copy forwarded through a messaging app because the original contains details that help us confirm what it shows. Please do not stage or alter a scene. We check every image before we use it and we will not publish one that we cannot verify. If we do publish your image we credit you by name unless you ask us not to. By sending us an image you confirm that you took it yourself or have permission to share it.
Never put yourself in danger to take a picture. If a situation is unsafe leave it to those whose job is to deal with it.
What happens next
Every tip is read by a member of the newsroom. We cannot reply to all of them and we cannot follow up on every one. That is a question of time and not of how much we value what you sent. Here is what you can expect.
- Tips that suggest a risk to public safety are looked at straight away.
- For other tips an editor decides within a few working days whether we can pursue the story.
- If a reporter takes it on you may hear from us with questions. We will check your information against documents and other sources and we will give anyone who is criticised a chance to reply before we publish.
- If we decide not to pursue the story we will tell you when we have a way to reach you. We may keep the tip on file in case more information appears later.
Checking takes time. Some stories come together in days and others take months. We will not publish something we cannot confirm even if it seems very likely to be true.
What we will not do
We do not pay for tips or for information. Paying sources would give people a reason to exaggerate or invent and it would damage the trust that readers place in us. We do not promise that a tip will become a story. We do not give sources a say in how a story is written or when it runs. We do not use a tip to help one person gain an advantage over another in a private dispute.
If it is an emergency
We are not an emergency service and we cannot respond to danger in real time. If someone is in immediate danger or a crime is taking place call the emergency services first. You are welcome to tell us afterward.
A note on false or misleading tips
Occasionally people send us information that is untrue or that is meant to harm someone. We check everything and we treat a tip as a lead and not as proof. If we find that someone has deliberately given us false information we will not use it. We may decline to work with that person in future.
Questions
If you are unsure whether to contact us or how to do it safely write to stories@tamrahnews.com and ask. We will answer without asking you to reveal anything about your tip. This page was last updated on 1 October 2026 and we review it every year.