Build the claim ledger
Write each material statement as a row: exact claim, speaker, period, underlying document, independent corroboration, and unresolved qualification. For a performance figure, record whether it is gross or net, personal or client, realised or modelled. A compelling quote may remain in a feature, but it must not become a verified fact merely by appearing twice.
Use proportional language
A competition result supports a claim about that division and period. It does not support a claim about all market conditions. A broker statement may support account arithmetic but still leave custody, omitted accounts or trade selection unresolved. Editorial phrasing should narrow to the evidence rather than widen the evidence to fit the headline.
Why this belongs in a magazine
Profiles are narratives, but readers make real decisions from them. This sheet makes the reporting trail visible without pretending every subject can be audited to the same level. Corrections should identify the original sentence, the new evidence and the precise change, so the archive remains interpretable.
A reporting example
An interviewee says they doubled a personal account. The quote itself establishes what they said, not what a broker recorded. A statement may establish arithmetic for one account, while leaving other accounts, cash injections or the measurement window unclear. The profile should preserve those boundaries in the prose: attribute the interview claim, describe the document that was reviewed, and state the missing fields. A correction is warranted if a later source changes the number, issuer or period, not only when a spelling error appears.
Make corrections usable
Store the archived sentence, date first published, new evidence, revised sentence and date changed. The public correction should let a reader understand whether the update affects a headline, a credential, a return or only background context. This protects the subject from an overbroad retraction and the reader from a silent alteration. The ledger also makes future profile updates easier: a new year of results becomes a new row, not an overwrite of an older claim.
Interview questions that change the copy
Ask the subject which document would let an outsider reproduce each headline number, whether the result includes fees, and which dates and account boundaries apply. Ask whether a title was awarded by the same body that ran the cited competition. Put the answers beside the manuscript, not only in private notes. When the evidence stops short, precise attribution can retain an interesting story without laundering a claim into fact.
Source trail
Evidence and editorial standards at Financial Trader Magazine