Who Owns It, Who Pays, and How It Is Made
Effective October 27, 2026
Set by machine, checked by hand. The Nugget is put together each day by our digital overlords: software that reads the public record, the local press, and the venues' own listings, then sets it all in type under the house rules and the publisher's eye. Features and photographs from the publisher's own reporting are spliced in as written.
Take it in the right spirit. This is a free, volunteer, Modern-Vintage paper in its soft-launch days, meant to inform and amuse the neighbors. It is not the paper of record. The machines are diligent but not infallible, so mistakes will happen, and when they do a correction runs at the bottom of the next edition.
When it matters, check the source. Every story links to where it came from. Before you act on a meeting time, a showtime, a road closure, or a fire, follow that link; the official word lives there, not here.
The compiling software is Claude, made by Anthropic.
The Nugget is independently published in Nevada City by the owner of The Hat Store, 314 Broad Street. It is a volunteer effort: the paper earns no money and takes no funding of any kind, from sponsors, investors, grants, political groups, or government. It is not an official publication of the City of Nevada City or Nevada County, and has no relation to the historical paper of the same name beyond admiration.
The ads. The Hat Store advertisement in every edition is the publisher's own shop. Now and then the paper also runs a courtesy ad for a friend's business or a community cause. No one pays for any ad, every ad is plainly an ad, and no advertiser has any say over the news. When a business that has run a courtesy ad turns up in a story, the story says so.
When the paper covers its own. If The Hat Store, its block of Broad Street, or a matter in which the publisher has a personal stake appears in the news, the story says so plainly. The Hat Store will appear rarely as Merchant of the Day, and with that disclosure when it does.
On the air. The publisher co-hosts Under the Influence on KVMR 89.5 FM. The Radio Log lists the station's whole day as KVMR publishes it, and the paper's coverage of the station is held to the same standard as everything else.
No business, venue, candidate, or organization pays to be listed, profiled, reviewed, or covered. Merchant of the Day, the Amusements listings, and every story are chosen on merit and on what can be verified. No gifts or free goods are accepted in exchange for coverage. If the paper ever sells advertising, every paid ad will be marked "Advertisement," kept apart from the news, and given no say over what the news reports.
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Sourced or it doesn't run. Every story ends with an italic line naming, and where possible linking, what it was built from. Meeting summaries come from the official recording or agenda packet; votes are reported exactly as recorded.
Officials on the record. What elected officials are quoted as saying comes from the public record, with a date and a link.
The blotter. Retold in the paper's own words, and nobody is named unless charged or named in an official release.
Quotation. Other papers' reporting is summarized in the Nugget's own words, credited and linked, with at most a short quotation from any one source.
Right of reply. Anyone written about who believes the paper got them wrong or left out their side is invited to write news@nevadacitynugget.com.
Invented content. The horoscope, and only the horoscope. Recipes and illustrations are original to the paper; its imagery is its own drawings, the house ad, and photographs used with permission.
When the paper gets something wrong it says so. The item is fixed and a Corrections box at the bottom of the next edition (or of that evening's edition) states what was wrong and what is right. Mistakes are never quietly rewritten, and archived editions stay as they were published. To report an error, write news@nevadacitynugget.com with the edition date and the item.
Tips are welcome and every one is checked against independent sources before it prints; a tip runs as "a reader tip" unless the sender asks to be named. Events from reader flyers are confirmed with the venue or organizer and credited "from a reader flyer." Reader photographs, recipes, and nominations run only with permission, and Citizen o' the Day only with the honoree's consent. See the Privacy page for how what you send is handled.
The paper should be readable by everyone. It is plain web pages with real headings and text, alternative text on images, a layout that fits phones, and colors for both light and dark settings. If something gets in your way, from a screen reader stumble to type too small to read, write news@nevadacitynugget.com and it will be fixed.