University Communications Editorial Use and Content Aggregation

Penn Today is Penn’s official news platform, sharing original stories daily via newsletters and social media with hundreds of thousands of subscribers—staff, faculty, students, alumni, parents, and community members. These stories also appear in approximately 50 University publications and websites, showcasing Penn’s impact and achievements.

University Communications (UComms) writers, editors, photographers, and videographers create original stories each day for Penn Today, which also includes content from other campus communicators, forming a broad network for content creation and aggregation.

How to use Penn Today content

Penn stakeholders

  • Attributions should include all of the following:
    • Penn Today in the byline
    • Writer’s name in the byline
    • If partial story is used: “Read more at Penn Today (with link to story)”
    • If full story is used: Preference for the top of the story, if your CMS allows, with the following language: “This story was originally published on (date) in Penn Today (with link)”
    • Photo credits
  • Edits to a story (including length, word choice, headline, subhead, or other text elements), photograph(s), or video need to be approved. Penn Today stories, particularly research content, go through a source-approval process, and requested edits will need to be communicated to the original source(s). Please email Heather Davis, Director of News Publications (hdavis2@upenn.edu).
  • Newsletter attribution: Newsletter blurbs should include the following language in italics: Penn Today. They should also include a direct link to the story on the Penn Today website.
  • Initial requests to regularly repurpose content in a newsletter, website, or in a digital or print publication require prior approval from UComms. Please email Moira Baylson, AVP (moirab@upenn.edu).
  • For regular use of Penn Today content on a Penn website, please consider using a JSON feed from our Application Programming Interface (API). Please contact Steve Minicola, Senior Director, Web Strategy & Visual Communication (minicola@upenn.edu).

External to Penn

External publications or organizations should contact Ron Ozio, Director of Media Relations (ozio@upenn.edu), to inquire about repurposing Penn Today content.

How we feature University content in Penn Today

Penn Today repurposes content from publications at all 12 schools, as well as numerous centers, departments, programs, and offices. Repurposing content from colleagues serves a dual purpose. First, it increases the breadth of content featured in Penn Today, enhancing our readers’ experience. Second, it amplifies the work of communicators around the University, delivering original content through Penn Today channels locally, nationally, and globally.

Depending on the format (i.e. news, feature, or research stories; first-person pieces; blog posts; or external media hits), the Penn Today editorial staff works to incorporate content into the Penn Today website and/or newsletter through a variety of editorial treatments, including a short feature link out, direct link out, newsletter link, or running the piece in its entirety. We work with the original publication team on necessary permissions and attribution.

Editorial Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence

The following guidelines cover Penn Today, its corresponding email newsletters, and social media content. It also includes UComm’s other print and digital publications such as Research at Penn, Penn’s flagship website, communications campaigns, and related social media platforms.

The UComms editorial team is committed to creating accurate original content and delivering high-quality storytelling. At this time, we do not use generative AI to create original text or original visual assets (photography, video, and graphics). We do use imaging programs, such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere to alter images using standard adjustments, cropping, and touch-ups.

Our rigorous editorial process includes fact-checking and source review. When we feature content from other University sources in Penn Today, Research at Penn, or other print or digital publications, we require full transparency on whether generative programs were used to create stories, photos, videos, illustrations, graphics, or other materials.

The use of AI for both internal and external communication is rapidly evolving. For more information, please see Penn Information Systems & Computing’s Statement on Guidance for the University of Pennsylvania Community on Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence.