Illustration by Martha Napier.
The Top Doctors issue is a popular one every year, and for good reason: It’s a great resource for figuring out whom to trust with your health care. There can be misconceptions about how the doctors on this list are chosen, and how we put this issue together, so I’d like to take this chance to clarify.
We partner with the Orange County Medical Association and have for more than a decade. We don’t pick the doctors who make the list. There’s a stringent process to that, run by the group’s selection committee, which you can read about on page 83. Advertisers can’t pay to get on the list, and the doctor on the cover knows nothing about that choice until the editorial team reaches out to schedule a photo shoot. We believe this makes the list infinitely more credible, since the selection criteria is transparent and many of the committee members who decide are medical professionals in our county themselves.
Credibility is a big part of our mission at Orange Coast. We’re one of the few remaining publications not to accept gifts in exchange for coverage. Our critic dines anonymously for restaurant reviews. We try to experience the things the county has to offer the same way you would. We fact-check all the text that runs on our editorial pages every month. Our advertising and editorial departments operate completely separately, which means advertisers don’t get preferential coverage— what many in the industry call “pay for play.” It also means the editors don’t have any say in the ads that run.
These practices have helped us earn your trust, and we take that responsibility to heart. We strive to be a reliable source of information about Orange County. That’s been our mission for nearly 50 years, and we’re eager and grateful to keep doing it every month.
Ms. Alan Gibbons
Editor-in-chief
agibbons@orangecoast.com
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