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Get an editor's comments on your news draft
Paste your story and get a desk editor's comments on the lede, structure, sourcing, fairness and AP style, anchored where each issue appears.
River edits your news draft the way a desk editor would, with comments anchored to the passages they concern. It looks at the lede and nut graf, the order of information, attribution and sourcing, fairness to the people in the story, clarity, and AP style. Your draft is not rewritten. Each comment says what the problem is and suggests a fix you can accept or ignore.
The number of comments depends on the draft, not a quota. A clean story gets a short edit; a rough one gets more. The most important issues, such as a buried lede or a person criticized without a chance to respond, are summarized at the top so you fix those first.
It is for student journalists, freelancers filing to a new editor, reporters at small newsrooms with no second reader, and anyone who wants news copy to meet professional standards.
What a desk editor looks for
An editor reads first for the story: is the news in the lede, does the nut graf explain why it matters, and does the order of information follow what readers need next? Structural problems come before line edits, because fixing commas in a paragraph that should move is wasted effort.
Next come sourcing and fairness. Every fact a reader could doubt needs attribution, and people who are criticized or accused should be asked to respond, with the story saying so. The SPJ Code of Ethics asks journalists to seek out subjects of news coverage so they can respond to criticism or allegations of wrongdoing.
Then the line edit: clarity, length, jargon, and style. AP style covers numbers, titles, dates, abbreviations and much more, and consistency matters as much as any single rule. A good edit explains its reasoning, so the writer learns the pattern instead of just accepting changes.
How it works
Paste your draft
Paste the story or attach the file.
River edits like a desk
It reads for structure first, then sourcing, fairness and style.
Get comments
Each issue is commented where it appears, with a suggested fix.
Revise and resubmit
Fix what you agree with and ask River to read the next draft.
What you get
- Comments anchored to the exact passages they concern, with your draft left as written
- Lede, nut graf and structure checked before line-level issues
- Attribution and sourcing gaps marked, including facts with no source
- Fairness flags where a person criticized has no chance to respond
- AP style and clarity notes, plus a summary of the biggest issues at the top
Common questions
Will River rewrite my story?
No. Every note is a comment beside the passage it concerns, and your text stays as you wrote it. Where a fix is simple, the comment suggests the wording. You decide what to change.
How many comments will I get?
As many as the draft needs. There is no fixed number. A tight story may get a handful of comments; a first draft may get many more. The summary at the top ranks the issues so you know which to fix first.
Does it check facts?
It flags facts that lack a source and claims that need confirming, but it does not verify each one. For a claim-by-claim check with sources, River's fact-check tool marks every checkable claim and checks what public sources can confirm.
Is this only for AP style?
AP style is the default, since most American newsrooms use it. If your publication has its own style guide or uses Chicago, say so in the chat and River will apply it.
Get an editor's comments on your news draft
Describe what you need, add any files you have, and your workspace opens with the work already underway.