Seven Yardsticks

Years ago, an organization called Grade the News created what they called the "seven basic yardsticks of journalism quality."

http://www.gradethenews.org/feat/recentgrades/indices2004.htm

They are, in order:

1. Newsworthiness (will it affect a lot of people for a long time?)
2. Context (probably better called "Sources")
3. Explanation (a.k.a. big picture reporting, probably better called "Context")
4. Local relevance (self-explanatory)
5. Civic contribution (keeping an eye on government)
6. Enterprise (prefer active to passive reporting)
7. Fairness (covering all sides of a story)