Documentation · Updated 13 November 2026
Change labels and tags
Every change carries one label and a set of tags. They are assigned by fixed rules, applied the same way to every outlet. These are the definitions.
Labels
A change gets exactly one label. The rules are tried in the order below, and the first one that fits is used. So a change that rewrote the headline and altered a figure is labelled "Headline rewritten", and its tags show the figure.
Article removed. The page returned "not found" on two checks in a row, or began redirecting to a section front instead of the story.
Link changed. The story moved to a different address and is still a story.
Correction noted. A line beginning "Correction", "Clarification", "Editor's note", "Update" or "This story has been updated" appeared that wasn't in the earlier version.
Headline rewritten. The headline on the page differs from the earlier version. Differences in spacing or the style of quotation marks don't count.
Byline changed. Only the list of authors changed.
Summary changed. Only the summary or the social-media headline changed; the story itself didn't.
Story updated. Paragraphs were added and nothing existing was reworded or removed. This is what a developing story normally looks like.
Typo or style fix. 15 characters or fewer changed in total, with no change to any figure or quotation and nothing removed.
Substantive edit. A figure changed, a quotation changed, or a paragraph was removed.
Revised. Wording changed in a way that fits none of the above.
Tags
Tags record the details. A change can have several.
- Headline, Social headline, Summary, Byline: that part of the story changed.
- Text added, Text removed, Text edited: a paragraph was added, removed or reworded.
- Numbers changed: the figures in a reworded paragraph, or in the headline, are not the same set as before. Dates, counts, percentages and amounts all count.
- Quotes changed: the quoted passages in a reworded paragraph differ, or a removed paragraph contained a quotation.
- Correction note added: a correction or editor's note appeared.
"Page marked as updated" and "No update notice on page"
Every edit also shows one of these two tags.
Page marked as updated means that, along with the change, either a correction or editor's note was added, or the page's machine-readable "last modified" date moved. That date is a field in the page's code that search engines read.
No update notice on page means neither of those happened: the words changed, and nothing we can read on the page recorded that they had.
Two limits are worth knowing. We don't use the "Updated 3:15 pm" time some sites print near the byline, because many sites change it without changing the story. And when the earlier version of a page carried no modified date at all, we can't tell whether it moved, so we don't count it.
Which labels are listed publicly
Changes labelled Headline rewritten, Correction noted, Substantive edit, Revised and Article removed go to human review, and appear on the Changes page once approved. Story updated, Typo or style fix, Byline changed, Summary changed and Link changed are saved in the archive but not listed by default, because they are routine. More on review.
What the labels are not
A label describes the form of a change. It is not a judgment about whether the change was right, or about why it was made. "Substantive edit" means a figure, a quotation or a paragraph changed; it doesn't mean anyone did anything wrong.