These terms
These terms govern the use of Sanchika, the newsroom workspace at sanchika.news and its subdomains. “Sanchika”, “we” and “us” mean the team that provides it. “The newspaper” means the publisher that subscribes. “You” means the newspaper and everyone it adds to its newsroom.
By subscribing, the newspaper accepts these terms, and it makes sure everyone it adds to its newsroom uses Sanchika within them. If the newspaper has signed a separate agreement or order with us, that agreement governs wherever it differs from these terms. Our privacy policy explains how personal data is handled and forms part of these terms.
The service
Sanchika lets reporters file stories and photographs from their phones and lets desks review, edit and approve them. It brings in wire copy, offers AI assistance, and produces approved stories as clippings and files. We keep improving it, and may change or retire features along the way. We will not remove a feature the newspaper’s plan depends on without telling its administrators in advance.
Accounts and the roster
- The newspaper’s administrators decide who is in its newsroom, what each person may do, and when access ends. People sign in with a mobile number on that roster and a one-time code.
- Each account belongs to one person. Keep your phone and codes to yourself, and do not sign in as anyone else.
- The newspaper is responsible for what happens under its accounts. It should deactivate people promptly when they leave, and tell us at once if it suspects misuse.
- The newspaper must have the right to add each person’s details to the roster.
Your content
The newspaper owns everything its newsroom puts into Sanchika and everything Sanchika produces from it for the newspaper. This includes its stories, photographs, attachments, reference material, settings and approved clippings. The newspaper gives us permission to store, process and transmit that content only as needed to provide the service, including sending it to the providers and destinations the newspaper has chosen.
The newspaper confirms that it has the rights to what it uploads, and that its reporting, and the use Sanchika makes of it on its instructions, do not break the law or anyone else’s rights.
AI assistance
Sanchika can draft, translate, shorten, caption, check and suggest. AI output can be wrong, incomplete or unoriginal, even when it reads well. It is a starting point for editorial review, not a source of fact.
When an editor comments on a laid-out page, Sanchika may change how the page is laid out, never the approved words. Where a comment needs it to see a story’s photograph, Sanchika may send the photograph’s screen copy to the newspaper’s own AI provider. This is on by default, and the newspaper’s administrator can switch it off in Newsroom › Pages. Whether a photograph is blurred, replaced or left out is always an editor’s choice, recorded with who made it.
The newspaper’s editors decide what is published, and the newspaper is responsible for everything it publishes, whether or not AI helped prepare it. That includes accuracy, fairness, attribution and compliance with law.
Wires, AI accounts and deliveries
- AI accounts. The newspaper connects its own account with Anthropic, OpenAI or Google. Its use of that account, and the charges for it, are governed by the newspaper’s agreement with that provider. Prices Sanchika shows are estimates for comparison, not invoices.
- Wires. Wire copy and photographs, such as PTI’s, need the newspaper’s own subscription with the agency. The newspaper must use them within that subscription’s terms.
- Deliveries. Where the newspaper sets up an automation, for example delivery to its own server, it is responsible for that destination, whether it is reached over an encrypted connection, and what happens there.
We are not responsible for services we do not run, or for their availability.
Acceptable use
Do not use Sanchika to:
- break the law, or help anyone else break it;
- upload malware, or anything you do not have the right to share;
- get into accounts, newsrooms or data that are not yours, or probe, overload or disrupt the service;
- copy, resell or reverse-engineer Sanchika, or use it to build a competing product;
- send people messages they have not agreed to receive.
Plans and fees
The newspaper’s plan (Standard or Premium), its price and its billing terms are agreed with us in writing before the subscription starts. Unless that agreement says otherwise, fees are invoiced in Indian rupees, exclude applicable taxes such as GST, and are due within 30 days of the invoice. We may pause a newsroom whose fees are more than 30 days overdue, after warning its administrators in writing. We will give at least 30 days’ notice of any change in price, and a change takes effect only from the next billing period.
Availability and support
We work to keep Sanchika available at all hours, since newspapers work at night. There will still be occasional maintenance and faults outside our control. Unless a signed agreement promises a service level, Sanchika is provided without a guaranteed uptime. Support is by email at hello@sanchika.news, and we will tell administrators about planned work that affects them.
Confidentiality and data
Each side will keep the other’s non-public information confidential, and use it only for this service. For us, that means the newspaper’s unpublished stories, its sources, its people and its settings. This does not cover information that is already public, or that the law requires to be disclosed.
For personal data in the newsroom, the newspaper is the data fiduciary and Sanchika is its data processor under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. We process that data only on the newspaper’s instructions and as the privacy policy describes. We keep it secure, and will tell the newspaper without delay about any breach that affects it.
Sanchika’s property
Sanchika’s software, design, name and marks belong to us. The newspaper receives the right to use the service during its subscription, and nothing more. If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them freely and with no obligation to you.
Suspension and ending
- The newspaper can end its subscription at the end of any billing period, by writing to us, unless its signed agreement sets a fixed term.
- We can end it with 30 days’ written notice, or at once if the newspaper seriously breaches these terms and does not put it right within 15 days of our notice.
- We may suspend an account or a newsroom at once if that is needed to stop harm to the service, to others, or a breach of law. We will say why and restore access as soon as the problem is resolved.
- When the subscription ends, the newspaper has 30 days to download its approved stories and clippings, and on request we will provide a copy of its stories and photographs. After that, or sooner if it asks, we delete the newsroom and its files, and they cannot be recovered.
Sections on content, confidentiality, liability, indemnity and law continue after the service ends.
Warranties
We will provide Sanchika with reasonable skill and care. Beyond that, and to the extent the law allows, Sanchika is provided “as is”. We do not promise that it will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that AI output will be accurate or fit for publication.
Liability
To the extent the law allows, neither side is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss, or for lost profits, revenue or goodwill. Sanchika’s total liability arising from the service in any 12 months is limited to the fees the newspaper paid us in those 12 months, or ₹50,000, whichever is greater. Nothing in these terms limits liability for fraud, or anything else the law does not allow to be limited.
Indemnity
The newspaper will cover our reasonable costs if a third party brings a claim against us over what the newspaper published, uploaded or delivered through Sanchika, or over its breach of these terms.
Law and disputes
These terms are governed by the laws of India. We will both try in good faith to settle any dispute by talking first. If that fails within 30 days, the courts at Hyderabad, Telangana have exclusive jurisdiction.
General
- We may update these terms. We will change the date at the top of this page, and tell administrators at least 30 days before a significant change takes effect. Continuing to use Sanchika after that means the newspaper accepts the change.
- Neither side is responsible for delays caused by events beyond its reasonable control.
- Neither side may transfer these terms without the other’s consent, except to a business that takes over all of its relevant operations.
- If part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest still applies.
- Not enforcing a term straight away does not mean giving up the right to enforce it later.
Contact
Questions about these terms, notices under them and requests for support go to hello@sanchika.news.