Debriefd: Morning Paper

Debriefd is a daily newspaper for your phone. Ten minutes a day. Finishable. No infinite scroll, ever.

Every morning at six, a new edition lands on your phone. You open it, read it, and you're done. The paper is finite. When you reach the back page, the app says so, and steps out of your way.

WHAT'S IN AN EDITION

A cover with a kicker, a headline, and a short subhead. The lead story, written to be read in two or three minutes, with every source linked. A handful of briefs from around the world, one or two paragraphs each — the kind of stories you want to know happened but don't need a fifteen-minute essay about. A few stories from your city. The almanac, with weather, sunrise, a small fact, and a poem. A crossword, Monday-difficulty, seven by seven, friendly to people who don't normally do crosswords. The funnies. A meme of the day, hand-picked, never AI-generated. Classifieds and obituaries when the city has them. The finale — a short close from your editor, then a single discreet link to yesterday's edition if you want it.

That is the whole paper. No notifications during the day. No breaking news alerts. One edition, one read, then it is done.

WHO IT IS FOR

People who used to read the morning paper. People who tried three news apps and deleted all of them. People who notice when something has been padded, or summarized down to nothing, or written by a committee that has never met its reader. People who would rather know ten things well than scroll past a hundred things badly.

WHO WRITES IT

The editor of Debrief is named Margot. She is a character — a voice — written by AI under human supervision. We do not pretend she is a real person. We chose a coherent editorial voice over algorithmic summarization because it reads better. Margot has a sense of humor, no patience for nonsense, and a soft spot for boring infrastructure stories. She picks what goes in the paper, writes most of it, and signs the editor's note at the end of every edition.

Every story has cited, linked sources. Every claim should hold up. When the reporting is thin, Margot says so.

WHAT IS IN THIS RELEASE

Three city editions to start: Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Sioux Falls. National and global stories run the same in every edition. The city section is local to you. We add new markets as readers arrive in them.

The first edition is free. After that, a subscription is $5.99 a week or $39 a year, with a seven-day free trial. Cancel anytime. The subscription also unlocks the archive — older editions you may have missed, available to read but never recommended at you.

A WORD ON WHAT WE DO NOT DO

No infinite scroll. No streaks. No social features — no comments, no likes, no follower counts. No daytime push notifications, ever. One push at six a.m. local time when the edition publishes. That is it.

The whole product is built around the idea that the news should fit in your morning, not consume your day.

If that sounds like the kind of thing you have been wanting, give it a week. If not, you will know quickly and can move on. Either way, no hard feelings.

— The team behind Debriefd hello@debriefd.app