Frequently Asked Questions

Your free trial starts immediately when you sign up with a credit card. You'll receive the full daily brief for 14 days at no charge. After 14 days, your subscription automatically begins at $9/month (or $60/year for annual) unless you cancel. We'll email you 2 days before your trial ends to remind you. Cancel anytime before day 14 with one click from your dashboard - no phone calls, no hassle.

Choose your delivery time during signup: 4:30 AM, 5:30 AM, or 6:30 AM Pacific Time. Your brief arrives every morning at your selected time. You can change your delivery time anytime in your dashboard.

No! Signal Brief is delivered directly to your email inbox. Read it in your favorite email client—no app downloads, no new passwords to remember, no extra steps.

Absolutely! View our brief from today to see exactly what you'll receive. No email required, no signup needed. This is what you'll get every morning.

We monitor 60+ news sources every morning, looking for stories that meet three criteria: significance (how many people are affected), verification (multiple credible sources reporting it), and novelty (genuinely new information). Stories covered by multiple sources get priority—if only one outlet is reporting something, we wait for confirmation before including it.

Three ways: First, we pull from sources across the political spectrum—left, right, and center. Second, we focus on extracting verifiable facts, not opinions or editorial framing. Third, we require multiple sources for stories from partisan outlets. We're not perfect, but our multi-source approach significantly reduces bias compared to reading any single news source.

Most aggregators just collect links. We actually read and synthesize the content, extracting key facts and presenting them neutrally. Plus, we're 100% reader-funded with no ads, so we optimize for clarity, not clicks.

After your free trial, Signal Brief costs $9/month or $60/year (that's 33% off—just $5/month). We believe quality journalism is worth less than your daily coffee, and our readers agree.

Absolutely. Cancel anytime from your dashboard with one click. Your subscription will remain active until the end of your current billing period, then stop. No exit surveys, no retention calls, no guilt trips.

Yes! If you're not satisfied within the first 30 days of your initial paid subscription, we'll provide a full refund—no questions asked. Just email support@signalbrief.org or reply to any brief email. We believe in earning your subscription every single day.

When news is free, you're not the customer—advertisers are. This creates three unavoidable problems:

• Engagement over accuracy. Ad revenue depends on clicks and time-on-site. Outrage, fear, and controversy keep people scrolling. Nuance doesn't.
• Advertiser influence. News outlets can't bite the hand that feeds them. Stories that threaten major advertisers get softened, buried, or killed entirely.
• Filter bubbles. "Free" platforms show you content that confirms your existing beliefs and triggers emotional reactions—not content that informs.

We charge $9/month (or $60/year) because it's the only way to make you our only customer. No advertisers to please, no outrage-optimized feed, no corporate parent with an agenda. Just facts, delivered to people who pay for them.

We organize news into five sections:

• Global: International affairs and world events
• US: American politics, policy, and national news
• Business: Markets, economics, and corporate news
• Tech: Technology, science, and innovation
• Life: Culture, health, and human interest

Each section includes 3 carefully selected stories daily.

We aggregate from 60+ sources including major outlets like Reuters, AP, Bloomberg, WSJ, NYT, WaPo, Fox, CNN, BBC, and many others. We intentionally include sources from across the political spectrum to minimize bias. Every story includes links to the original sources.

Currently, all subscribers receive all five sections to ensure you don't miss important cross-cutting stories. We're considering customization options for the future based on reader feedback.

Past briefs are available in your archive (30 days of history). You can also save briefs in your email client.

We collect only what's necessary: your email (for delivery), payment info (handled by Stripe/Paddle—we never see your card number), and basic usage data (open rates to improve the service). We never sell your data, we have no advertising partners, and we use minimal cookies. Read our full Privacy Policy for details.

We use "magic links" for authentication. When you need to access your dashboard, enter your email and we'll send you a secure login link. It's actually more secure than passwords (can't be guessed or reused) and you'll never forget it.

Yes. We use Stripe and Paddle, industry-leading payment processors trusted by millions of businesses. Your card details are encrypted and handled entirely by them—we never see or store your full card number.

First, add support@signalbrief.org to your contacts. Then check your spam folder and mark our email as "not spam." Gmail users: drag the email to your Primary tab. If you're still having issues, email us and we'll help troubleshoot.

You can share individual stories, but please don't systematically forward entire briefs. We're a small, reader-funded operation and every subscription helps us stay independent. Encourage friends to start their own free trial!

Not yet, but it's on our roadmap. If you're interested in programmatic access for research or integration purposes, email us at support@signalbrief.org to discuss.

We correct errors immediately and notify affected readers. Corrections are noted in the next day's brief. Our multi-source verification approach significantly reduces errors, but we're human and occasionally miss something. Transparency about mistakes is part of building trust.