Editorial Policy

Who runs Papamoa.info

Papamoa.info is owned and operated by PlainBlack Ltd, a New Zealand company based in the Bay of Plenty. The site is run editorially - every business listing, community guide and local information page is researched and written by our team, not submitted by businesses.

If you'd like to reach an actual person, email jayden@papamoa.info.

How we choose which businesses to list

A business appears on Papamoa.info if it meets all of the following:

• It physically operates in Pāpāmoa, or actively serves Pāpāmoa residents from a nearby suburb (Mount Maunganui, Tauranga East, Te Tumu).
• It's a legitimate, registered business - we check the NZBN, Companies Office or the relevant licensing body where applicable.
• It would genuinely be useful for a local or visitor to find it.

Listings are not pay-to-appear. A free, editorially-written listing is available to any qualifying business that wants one - and to many that haven't asked for one yet.

How we research and write listings

Each listing is written by the Papamoa.info team based on information from a combination of sources, in priority order:

• The business's own published information (website, Google Business Profile, social media).
• Public reviews on Google, TripAdvisor and similar platforms - used as context, not copied verbatim.
• Direct contact with the business owner where details aren't publicly available.
• Site visits where useful (e.g. for new openings, food, accommodation).

We aim to describe what a business does, who it's for and what makes it distinctive - not just repeat the business's own marketing copy. Any review-style ratings or counts (e.g. "consistently top-rated on TripAdvisor") are deliberately phrased to be true at the time of writing and resilient to small changes, rather than relying on exact star ratings.

Category guides and section copy are business-neutral. Our general category and guide content - the descriptive sections, sidebars and FAQs on each category page - describes the types of options available (e.g. holiday parks, motels, bed & breakfasts) without naming or ranking specific businesses. Named businesses appear in their own listings and in clearly-labelled Spotlight or Featured placements, never in the neutral editorial copy, so no business is favoured in our general guidance.

How sponsored placements are handled

Papamoa.info offers two paid product types. Both are clearly labelled wherever they appear:

• Gold & Silver Listings - paid, enhanced versions of a regular listing with extra photography, longer descriptions, contact buttons and richer formatting. The basic free listing remains available to all qualifying businesses; paying upgrades the presentation, not the inclusion.
• Spotlight Ads - explicit homepage and category-page ad placements, marked with a "Spotlight Ad" or "Featured local business" label. These are independent of editorial listing decisions.

What money does not buy on Papamoa.info:

• It does not buy a place in any "best of" list, or a higher position in editorial roundups.
• It does not buy a more positive description.
• It does not buy the right to remove or downplay a competitor.
• It does not buy a ranking change in the on-site search index.

How businesses can update their info

If your business is listed and something is wrong, missing or out of date - hours, address, ownership, phone, anything - let us know:

• Email jayden@papamoa.info with the change.
• Or use the List Your Business form, ticking "I'm an existing listing".

We aim to action correction requests within five working days. Substantive changes are timestamped on the listing.

How often we review listings

Listings are reviewed in two ways:

• Continuous - we monitor public information sources (Google reviews, business hours, local Facebook groups, council notices) and update listings when material changes are detected.
• Scheduled - every Pāpāmoa business listing is reviewed at least once every 12 months whether or not anything has changed, to confirm details are still accurate.

Local information pages (weather, surf, schools, rubbish & recycling, emergencies) are reviewed and refreshed at least quarterly, or sooner when the underlying facts change (e.g. new term dates, council bylaw changes, infrastructure updates).

Corrections & takedowns

We try to get things right. When we don't, we want to fix it quickly.

If you spot a factual error on Papamoa.info - about a business, a place or a piece of local information - email jayden@papamoa.info with the page URL and the correction. We'll respond within five working days.

Businesses can request removal of their listing at any time. We'll comply and the listing will be unpublished within five working days. We do not require a reason.

If your complaint is about an ad or sponsored placement on Papamoa.info and you're not satisfied with our response, you can escalate it to the Advertising Standards Authority (asa.co.nz), New Zealand's independent body for advertising complaints.

Use of AI tools

Papamoa.info uses AI tools (including large language models) as part of the writing and research workflow. AI helps us draft, summarise, structure and check content - but every published page is reviewed by a human before going live, and editorial decisions (which businesses to feature, what to say about them, how to handle a sensitive local issue) are made by people, not models.

We do not publish AI-generated content as if it were a person's first-hand experience.

How we make money

Papamoa.info has exactly two sources of revenue:

• Paid listing upgrades - businesses can upgrade their free listing to Silver or Gold for a richer presentation (photography, longer write-ups, contact buttons, their own dedicated page).
• Spotlight ad spots - clearly labelled ad placements on high-traffic pages, sold as time-bound slots.

That's the whole model. Just as important is what we don't do:

• No affiliate links. We earn nothing when you click through to a business or buy from them.
• No selling data. We do not sell, rent or trade visitor or business data to anyone.
• No pay-to-be-included. A free listing is available to any qualifying business; money never determines who appears in the directory.
• Money never changes what we write. Paying gets a business a bigger presentation, not a better description. Every listing stays editorial, whatever the tier.

Pricing is published openly on the List With Us page, so every business sees the same numbers.

Labels you'll see

Wherever a business has paid for a placement or an upgrade, we label it. Here's what each label means:

• Featured - a paid placement highlighting a listed business on a category or community page. Featured businesses come from existing listings; the label marks the placement as paid.
• Spotlight - a paid ad spot, typically at the top of a sub-category page or on the homepage. One slot per spot, time-bound, and always marked as an ad.
• Gold / Silver badge - shows a business has a paid listing upgrade. The badge signals a richer listing (more photos, longer write-up, dedicated page), not an editorial endorsement or a ranking.

If something on the site looks paid but isn't labelled, that's a mistake - tell us and we'll fix it.