If you published a story by accident, you can hide it from audiences immediately. You also have the option to set an expiration date, which will hide the story at a specific time in the future.
To hide a story immediately
- Head to the Finalize screen.
- Expand the Advanced section.
- Select Hide. No need to publish changes—the story will immediately be hidden.
- If the story was active for a while, we recommend redirecting the URL.
- If anything changes, you can unhide the story, and it will display for audiences and be visible on other platforms.
To schedule a story to hide (expire) on a specific date
- Head to the Finalize screen.
- Expand the Advanced section.
- To Schedule hide date select both the date and the time that you would like the story to hide. Do not select Hide Story. That option is only for hiding a story immediately.
- No need to publish changes—the story will be scheduled to hide as soon as you fill out the date and time.
- Since your story may have been active for a while, we recommend redirecting the URL.
- If anything changes, you can unhide the story, and it will display for audiences and be visible on other platforms.
Hiding a story will
- Block audiences from reaching the URL (they will see a 404 message)
- Block the story from publishing to Google AMP, Apple News, and RSS feeds if you are hiding a story immediately.
- Remove the story from Google AMP, Apple News, and RSS feeds if you scheduled the story to expire at a later date. If you do not want the story published to Apple News or RSS feeds at all you can block the story.
- Display a message to contributors in your community that the story is hidden
Hiding a story will work as described in this guide.
Your organization will need to set up the behaviors described in this guide. Your organization may also have other tools and options available to hide a story.