Slugs, Topic Codes and Restrictions, when correctly applied, help to align partner content to platform navigation rules (e.g. filters), harmonize content restriction messaging, and increase partner content discoverability and usage on the platform.

Reuters Connect partners contribute content through two mechanisms:

1. Feed ingestion
2. Web-form contributions

For feed ingestion, slugs will be determined during the integration phase.

For the purposes of this document, we will provide some forward guidance on how to select slugs when contributing through the webform. In this case, contributors are required to add a slug to each uploaded asset. Before trying to determine your own slug, webform users should check if the event you are contributing content for is also being covered by Reuters. You should use the Reuters Connect Planning tool to try and align the contributed assets’ slug to ours.

For example, if a contributor is uploading London Fashion week content, go to ‘Planning’, use the ‘Filter’ and select ‘All Available’ under ‘Date’, then search for either ‘London’ and/or ‘Fashion’ to see if there is planned coverage.

Slugs, Slugging Rules, and Content Contribution

For Sports content, slug rules are slightly different. Click here to access the Sports Event Slugs page.

Slugs are a Reuters editorial mechanism used to standardize content by event. They are combinations of 2 or 3 words describing a news event – a string of keywords. Reuters editorial uses basic journalistic questions to determine the correct keywords, which occasionally change as news events unfold, mostly focused on answering three key questions:

• Where: the geography of the news event
• Who: the entity (person, company, industry) the news event covers
• What: the news event or subject more specifically

In most cases, Reuters editorial tries to answer these questions in the above order. However, since not all news events are straightforward (see examples below), the guiding principle is to be as clear as possible in trying to answer the above questions but most importantly remain consistent once a slug is determined. To ensure consistency, slugs follow a specific two-part structure:

• Packaging Slug: A packaging slug should consist of at least two, but no more than two, words that include a geography, a company or industry sector, or personal name (particularly with respect to people recognized by an international readership), or an event or subject category. It is separated by a dash and ends with a forward slash. Once established, this should remain the same for the duration of the news event coverage.
  
  For example:
  1. Geography-Subject: BRITAIN-ROYALS/
  2. Company-Event: FACEBOOK-RESULTS/
  3. Subject: GLOBAL-CLIMATECHANGE/
• Wild Slug: A wild slug is a third and final keyword added after the forward slash to provide additional detail regarding an asset. It is particularly useful for long-standing packaging slugs or news events with multiple side-stories.
  
  For example:
  1. Geography-Subject: BRITAIN-ROYALS/WEDDING
  2. Company-Event: FACEBOOK-RESULTS/STOCK
  3. Subject: GLOBAL-CLIMATECHANGE/ECONOMY

Consistency is particularly relevant for Reuters Connect, as all assets that follow the same packaging slug can be automatically clustered on the front-end.

Restrictions

Restrictions should adhere to the Reuters Restrictions Guide. This guide is applicable to all multimedia content – pictures, graphics, and video – and wherever possible, partners' restrictions should be transformed to conform with our guide.

For partner content contributed through feeds, these will be determined during the integration process.