Ownership & Funding
Why this page exists
Readers of cannabis media have earned their suspicion. A meaningful share of what looks like cannabis journalism is brand content in a newspaper costume: sites owned by producers, reviews funded by the reviewed, and rankings whose order is a price list. The only defense a reader has is disclosure, and the only disclosure worth anything is specific. This page states who owns TIMES OF CANNABIS, where its money comes from, and what that money cannot buy.
Ownership
Times of Cannabis is independently owned and operated by its small editorial team. It is not owned, wholly or partly, by any cannabis producer, processor, retailer, brand, licensing group, investment fund, industry association, or advocacy organization, and it is not part of any media conglomerate. No outside party holds equity, holds debt convertible to influence, or occupies any position from which editorial decisions can be directed. If any of that changes, this page changes first, and prominently.
Where the money comes from
Running an independent publication costs money, and honesty about the sources of that money is the foundation for trusting everything else on the site. Our revenue comes from:
- Advertising. Advertisers buy space on the site under the rules described on our advertising page. They buy audience, not opinion. No advertiser is told about coverage in advance, shown drafts, or given any means to shape a story, and advertising status has never protected any company from critical reporting here.
- Affiliate links. Some articles contain links to merchants through which we may earn a commission if a reader makes a purchase, at no additional cost to the reader. Every article containing affiliate links discloses the fact. Affiliate relationships never determine what we cover, how products are assessed, or whether a product appears in an article at all; the editorial decision comes first and the link, where one lawfully exists, comes after.
- Sponsored content, when present. Clearly labeled paid material, visually and verbally distinct from journalism, produced under the rules in our editorial standards. If a piece is not labeled, it is not sponsored; there is no gray zone between the two on this site.
What the money cannot buy
- Coverage. Stories are chosen by the editorial team on news value alone.
- Silence. No payment, actual or dangled, suppresses a story or softens one.
- Corrections or removals. The record is repaired under our corrections policy on evidence, never on commercial pressure.
- Review outcomes or rankings. Neither exists for sale in any form.
- Data about our readers. We do not sell reader information, as our privacy policy makes explicit.
What we refuse
We decline advertising that would compromise the publication: ads making medical claims for cannabis products, ads targeting minors, ads for unlawful sales channels, and arrangements whose real product is influence, such as payment for guaranteed editorial mentions. We also decline investment from within the industry we cover, which has been offered and will be declined again, because a publication funded by its subject is a newsletter for that subject.
Conflicts and disclosure in practice
Where a specific story intersects with a commercial relationship, for example coverage touching a current advertiser, the article discloses the relationship in the text. Team members with any personal financial interest in a story’s subject are recused from that story under our editorial standards. Disclosure here is a floor, not a substitute for independence: the arrangement is designed so there is rarely anything to disclose.
Questions
If you want to know whether a commercial relationship exists behind any piece of coverage, ask, at support@timesofcannabis.com. You will get a straight answer, because the alternative, a reader wondering quietly, costs more than any advertiser pays.
