Here at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, we dedicate ourselves to keeping you informed and making our community a better place to live.
We provide important, reliable information so you can know more about what’s happening in South Texas and make the best decisions for yourself and your family. Serving your need for information serves our own needs, as well. That’s because we, like you, are daughters and sons, parents and siblings, trying like you to earn a living, stay healthy, pay our taxes on time and leave a better world than the one we found. We believe that what we do is a means to those ends.
Here’s a guide to answering some questions you may have about who we are, why we do what we do and what goes into our decision-making about the news.
What’s our mission?
We have a mission statement: “Working together to improve our community and ourselves.” But, more specifically:
We work as a team to deepen your knowledge and understanding of our community because it makes the whole community stronger. Our news, analyses and perspectives are meant to warn you, outrage you, inspire you to act on your and your family’s behalf, uplift you and entertain you.
We fight to expose wrongdoing, but we also call attention to this community’s achievements and victories. There is much to fix, but also much to celebrate and enjoy.
We view the pursuit of our mission as a privilege and a public service — though not a free one. It’s how we earn our living. It does not make us rich but it enriches us.
How do we decide what to cover?
Our staff monitors local government, education, the local military, business and industry, entertainment and the arts, local high school and collegiate sports, and other topics of interest. Reporters and the executive editor assess the news developments from those various beats and pursue the ones that appear to be the most important to you.
The goal is to focus most of our resources on breaking news, topics of interest and watchdog efforts. Some examples of our pursuit to report deeply on local issues include our series on efforts to restore the water quality of Baffin Bay and the decimation of the Hillcrest neighborhood as an effect of a Port of Corpus Christi program to lessen the effects of the new Harbor Bridge construction.
Our commitment also means that we have led with coverage that is of statewide and sometimes national interest. You can see those efforts with the Caller-Times’ contributions to “The Wall,” a series that explored the impact of President Donald Trump’s border wall. In 2018, the coverage won the USA TODAY Network and Arizona Republic a Pulitzer Prize — the most prestigious award in American journalism — for explanatory reporting.
Is choosing what we cover a science? No. A scientific or mathematical equation that could point us in the right direction would make our jobs so much easier.
Is it objective? We try our best to be. But we admit that our decisions on what’s most important to cover are judgment calls. We use our best judgment.
How do we select national and world stories?
Our emphasis is on the news gathered by our local staff. We put our main effort into the news that makes us a unique source and often the only one — the news of our community. Our providers of national and world news, and some Texas news, are not unique to us. But there still is a place for the news our staff didn’t produce.
The news we don’t report ourselves comes primarily from three sources — the USA TODAY Network, a for-profit news organization of which we are a member; Reuters, one of the largest news agencies in the world; and the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit news organization that promotes civic engagement via explanatory journalism and public events.
The Caller-Times editor decides what’s on Page One of our newsprint editions — again, with the heaviest emphasis on local news produced by our staff. The USA TODAY Network chooses much of the nation and world news you see anchored inside our newsprint editions.
We use the Texas Tribune for stories not covered by our Texas newsrooms.
Where do news tips go?
We receive news tips in all kinds of ways — from sources on our reporting beats, from emails, social media messages and phone calls.
Have a story idea or news tip? Here’s how to reach us:
Phone: 361-886-3662 (This is the direct line to the newsroom)
Email: newstips@caller.com
On Facebook: facebook.com/callertimes
Staff directory: caller.com/contact/staff
How do we handle corrections?
We strive for accuracy. That doesn’t mean never making errors. Sometimes we report incorrectly; other times we quote or cite official or reliable sources whose information is incorrect. Either way, if we published it, it’s our error and we want to correct it as soon as feasible. We can correct errors online within minutes of their discovery, and we can correct them in newsprint at the next available opportunity.
You can help us by pointing out errors when you see them. Bylined articles include the reporters’ contact information where you can contact them. If that information isn’t readily available to you, here are two other options:
To report corrections & clarifications, contact:
Phone: 361-886-3662
Email: accuracy@caller.com
Do we have an ethics policy?
Yes. You can read it in its entirety here: https://cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct/
But for a shorter version, here are the five pillars of our ethics policy:
Do we use unnamed sources?
The first thing to know about so-called anonymous sources is that anyone we quote but don’t identify by name is not anonymous to us. Sometimes we receive tips from people whose identities we don’t know. And sometimes those tips lead to big stories — but only after we’ve confirmed the tips with credible sources we can name. We do not quote anyone whose identity we don’t know. In that sense, “anonymous source” is a misnomer.
If we quote sources we choose not to name — which is rare in itself — it’s because:
We’re much more likely to hold the story than give up on finding a source we can name. We also don’t want people using us to attack other people anonymously and unfairly.
Opinion vs. News: What’s the difference?
A news story reports objective facts and does not take an opinion-based position on those facts. This does not mean there are no opinions in a news story. News stories often report the newsworthy opinions of elected and business officials and members of the public because their opinions are a part of the news. But a reporter’s opinion has no place in the report. News reporters and the editor strive to keep their own opinions out of the reporting.
But opinion has its traditional place in the Caller-Times, separate and distinct from the news reporting, just like in other news publications.
Opinion columns reflect the opinions of the writers. Often, column writers address topics of interest on which our board has not and probably will not take a position.
We make sure you’ll know immediately if what you are seeing is opinion. Editorials online include a statement at the top identifying that they’re editorials and how they’re different from news stories. In newsprint, we have a clearly marked opinion page on Sundays.
We offer editorials and columns not to tell you how or what to think, but to show you various perspectives on issues of importance.
How to submit a guest column
Email ctletters@caller.com.
We publish unsolicited guest columns if the topic is of interest to our audience and the writer has a special command of the topic that takes his or her position beyond mere opinion. For example, is the topic within the writer’s field of academic research? Is the writer a direct participant in a newsworthy conflict, or does he or she have a vested interest in the outcome? Does he or she work in the industry or profession being addressed?
Unlike in news reporting, having a vested interest can qualify rather than disqualify a guest opinion writer — assuming that the vested interest is disclosed readily and perhaps even is cited as a qualifying credential.
We limit guest columns to about 700 words — not because of limited space, nowadays a concern in newsprint only, but because it’s long enough to tell the story and going on longer will lose the audience’s attention.
We only accept guest columns that are either about local topics or that have a local connection to a statewide, national or global issue.
How to submit a letter to the editor
Email ctletters@caller.com.
Letters are limited to 200 words. Unlike guest column writers, letter writers are not required to have special knowledge of their topic. But they need to keep it clean and respectful.
What’s our business model?
The question itself clarifies that we are, indeed, a business — and that to stay in business we must have sources of revenue. Ours comes primarily from a combination of advertising and subscriptions.
Our industry is relying less and less on the printing press as a delivery platform. The growth of digital platforms has taught us that subscriptions are increasingly important to our future as a contributing member of the South Texas business community.
In the early years of internet delivery, we, like the vast majority of our industry, tried giving away our hard work for free online, on the theory that advertising would carry us. We discovered that our future depends on people like you who value real local journalism enough to pay for it. These days anyone with internet access can disseminate unverified information or their opinions and call it news. Our journalistic disciplines and principles are an investment of time and effort. They result in information you can trust.
Already a subscriber? Thank you! If not, check out our subscription options and special offers at Caller.com/subscribe.
Who owns the Caller-Times?
The Caller-Times is owned by Gannett, a for-profit news organization that is a publicly traded company. Its headquarters are in New York City.
The flagship, USA TODAY, and its network of local publications across the nation together reach millions of people through digital, mobile and print products.
There has been a newspaper in Corpus Christi for nearly as long as there’s been a town.
The Caller was started in 1883 on North Chaparral Street. The Times, a rival newspaper, began publishing in 1920 on the same street.
The two were later combined to become the Caller-Times.
The newspaper was printed at its location in the heart of downtown from 1935 to 2023. The Caller-Times print editions have been printed in Houston since the local printing press was shut down in February 2023.
The building that housed the Caller-Times, at 820 N. Lower Broadway St., was sold in May 2024. The Caller-Times newsroom moved into the Corona South Building, 4646 Corona Drive, Suite 163, in February 2025.
While the owners and location of the news organization has changed over the years, the mission has remained the same: to serve our community.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Caller-Times FAQ: Things you should know about what we do and how we do it
Reporting by Corpus Christi Caller Times / Corpus Christi Caller Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
