VERIFY’s Fast Facts newsletter is an innovative, engaging newsletter that launched in May 2021. The newsletter is one of VERIFY’s flagship products, showcasing our fact checks in a dynamic format. The newsletter is sent every weekday to more than 22,000 subscribers.
The Fast Facts newsletter was designed to catch the reader’s attention, help them understand what’s true and false, and connect them to our brand in an authentic way. Instead of a text-heavy, graphic-light newsletter like many other news organizations produce, VERIFY Fast Facts is slick, with short explanations and clear graphics so the reader can skim and understand what’s real and what’s misinformation. In addition, we prioritize viewer questions, one of the core values of our brand. Our newsletter is not a one-way communication vehicle. We provide multiple ways for viewers to engage with us, ask us questions and learn more about the fact-checks.
The newsletter is divided into five sections:
1: Header & Intro
The heading is a clean design that showcases the VERIFY brand and contains a CTA prompting subscribers to text our team with topics they’d like us to VERIFY. We also provide a quick summary of what’s being covered as well as a link to share the newsletter with friends.
2: Question of the Day
This section is based on the top questions received from VERIFY readers. We answer our viewer questions at the beginning of the newsletter, emphasizing our dedication to the audience and encouraging two-way communication. We also highlight our sources, so the audience knows how we verified our rating.
3: Fast Facts
Next is the Fast Facts section that quickly fact-checks three claims with bold true and false graphics. This optimizes user experience, so viewers have an easy to digest section after reading the Question of the Day, and before the Big Picture.
4: Big Picture
The Big Picture section is the most thorough explanation of a story in the newsletter and is where we highlight a more complicated story that usually ties into the trending news of the day. It features a large cover photo, which provides a welcome respite from text on screen and captures the audience attention.
5: Did You Know
This is the dessert! We end the newsletter with a fun fact that incentivizes viewers to read to the end. This is routinely what we hear is the most memorable and beloved part of our newsletter.
