Documentation · Updated 13 November 2026
How to read a change record
Each story with a published change has its own record page. This is what every part of that page means.
The headline, and "First published as"
The large headline at the top is the story's current headline, taken from the latest version we saved. If the headline on the first version we saved was different, it appears underneath, struck through, under the words "First published as".
The four dates
- Published is the publication time the outlet itself gave in its feed.
- Found in feed is when we first saw the story in the outlet's feed.
- Last checked is the most recent time we looked at the page.
- Original links to the article on the outlet's own site.
All times are shown in UTC so that records from outlets in different countries line up. UTC is 5 hours ahead of US Eastern time in winter and 4 hours ahead in summer.
Each change: "Version 1 → Version 2"
A story can change more than once. Each change has its own section, headed by the two versions it sits between, the time we detected it, and how long after publication that was ("+9 h 55 min after publication").
The time is when we saw the change. The edit itself happened at some point between that check and the one before it, so the true time can be earlier by up to the gap between checks.
The markings
Changed text is marked the way an editor marks a proof:
Council approves 12 21 new bus routes
Struck-through text on an orange groundwas in the earlier version and is gone from the later one.- Underlined text on a green ground is new in the later version.
- Plain text is unchanged and is there for context.
- An ellipsis (…) means unchanged text was left out to keep the excerpt short.
The line above is an illustration, not a real record.
The sections inside a change
- Headline, Social headline, Summary, Byline show a change to that part of the story. The social headline and summary are the ones the outlet supplies for link previews, which often differ from what is printed on the page.
- Removed is a paragraph that was taken out.
- Added is a paragraph that is new.
- Paragraph edited is a paragraph that was reworded, shown word by word.
Record pages show up to 12 changed passages per change. If there were more, a line underneath says how many.
The tags
The yellow tag is the overall label for the change. The grey tags list what was involved. The last grey tag says whether the page itself signaled the change: "Page marked as updated" or "No update notice on page". Every label and tag is defined here.
The Versions box
The box at the side lists every version we saved, with its capture time and a 12-character fingerprint. Two versions with different fingerprints differ in their words. How fingerprints work, and how to cite a record.
"What the page says about itself"
This box shows any correction, clarification or editor's note that appears on the current version of the article, in the outlet's own words. If there isn't one, it says so.
What a record does not tell you
A record shows what changed and when we saw it. It doesn't show why, or who made the change. Most edits are ordinary journalism: a developing story gains detail, a headline is updated when events move on, an error is fixed. A record is evidence of a change, not of a motive.