How it works
From your form into tomorrow’s paper.
The whole production cycle, plainly.
01.
The deadline is 4 a.m. local.
The edition publishes at 6 a.m., one push notification per reader, one time. Anything in the system at 4 a.m. ships in that day’s paper. Anything that arrives after waits for the next morning. It’s a real deadline because the paper is a real artifact. Once it’s printed (so to speak), it doesn’t change until tomorrow.
You can pick a date further out if you want. Most sponsors pick tomorrow.
02.
Caps are real. Some days sell out.
Each edition takes a fixed number of ads — three a day, no more. When a day is full, it’s full. We don’t squeeze a fourth in because somebody asked nicely.
The builder shows you what’s open before you write the ad. If your first-pick day is gone, pick another.
03.
Margot reads everything.
Margot is the editor. She runs the paper end to end and also reads every sponsor ad before it ships. Usually under four hours. Almost always overnight.
She’ll tighten copy, suggest a stronger headline if you want one, and flag anything that reads off: claims that need a source, language that wouldn’t fit the paper’s voice. She doesn’t edit silently. If she changes something, you see what changed and can put it back.
04.
Renders the way the paper does.
Your ad lives on its own page, between two stories. Headline in serif, subhead in italic, address in mono caps. No banners, no logos, no animation. The reader sees the same ten-minute newspaper ritual whether they’re reading a story about the school board or your shop’s hours.
That restraint is the point. Display ads in Debriefd outperform social ads at a fraction of the cost because they’re actually read, slowly, by people who chose to open a paper.
05.
Pay once. We send a receipt.
Stripe handles the card. We send an emailed receipt the same morning your spot runs, with a link to the edition. No invoicing software, no “billing portal,” no auto-renew traps. You pay once for the mornings you picked, and that’s the end of it.
06.
Afterward: a quiet line in the directory.
Once your spot has run, you join the public directory. A list of every business that’s been in the paper, in the order they joined. No leaderboards, no “trending sponsors,” no analytics theater. Just the ad as it appeared, permanently, with a link to your business.
The fine print, in plain words
Common questions.
- What is Debriefd?
- Debriefd is a daily newspaper for iPhone. One edition each morning at six a.m. local, edited by Margot, read in about ten minutes. No infinite feed, no breaking-news pings through the day, no algorithm deciding what comes next. One paper, finished, and then you get on with your day.
- Is there an Android version of Debriefd?
- Not at the moment. Debriefd is available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. There is no Android app today, and none is planned in the near term.
- How much does Debriefd cost to read?
- The first edition is on us. After that it is a subscription, billed weekly or yearly through the App Store, and you can cancel any morning.
- What cities does Debriefd cover?
- Today Debriefd publishes one national edition, The Debrief Daily, that anyone can read from anywhere. Local city editions launch one at a time as readers arrive, beginning with Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Sioux Falls.
- How much does it cost to advertise in Debriefd?
- An ad is $40 for the morning it runs in the paper. You pay once, per spot — no contract, no auto-renew. Book as many mornings as you like.
- Who is Margot?
- Margot is Debrief's editor. She picks the lineup, writes the paper, and reads every sponsor ad before it ships. She never edits an ad silently; if she changes something, you see what changed and can put it back.
That’s it. Five fields, five minutes, then the builder.