The Daily Signal

The Daily Signal is a conservative American political media news and commentary website founded in June 2014. The website focuses on politics, policy, and culture and offers political commentary from a conservative perspective.

The Daily Signal was a project of The Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank from the time of its launch in 2014 until June 3, 2024, when it became an independent publication with its own board of directors and leadership.

Content
The website reports on American politics and public policy issues, both foreign and domestic, with a focus on stories it believes to be unreported or under-reported. The site relies on original investigative reporting and initially aimed to be an unbiased news source, but it is currently pro-conservative in its content. It was created as an attempt to remedy what the organization saw as a lack of original reporting on public policy issues from understaffed publications.

The Daily Signal includes an opinion section geared toward Millennial readers that features conservative commentary. Entertainment and sports stories that relate to politics are also published by the site.

Leadership
Katrina Trinko, a former National Review political reporter, is The Daily Signal's editor-in-chief. Robert Bluey, a former Human Events editor, Media Research Center reporter, is the president and executive editor of The Daily Signal. Tyler O'Neil, a former Fox News editor, is the managing editor.

History under Heritage Foundation
Prior to starting The Daily Signal, The Heritage Foundation ran two digital publications: The Foundry, a blog, and Townhall, a news and opinion site. In 2005, Townhall was acquired by Salem Communications, and The Foundry was phased out in preparation for The Daily Signal, which the foundation founded in May 2014.

The Heritage Foundation founded The Daily Signal as a digital-only news and commentary website. Atlantic Media Strategies was hired to design the site for mobile phones and tablets. Kelly McBride, a media ethicist at the Poynter Institute, said The Daily Signal could never be credible for liberal readers, but could reach an undecided audience, so long as the publication removed political agenda and published quality work from trained journalists.

The site officially launched the following month, in June 2014. Debut stories included an interview with then Kansas Governor Sam Brownback about federal health care law's effects on his state, and an account of a trip to the Korean Demilitarized Zone by Jim DeMint, then president of The Heritage Foundation.

The Daily Signal was funded entirely by the Heritage Foundation through June 3, 2024, when it became independent. The publication's initial annual budget was US$1 million.

When the site launched in 2014, it had a staff of 12 plus freelance reporters.