The new Early Bird Brief is now available

The new Early Bird Brief is now available

By Jeff Schogol           

Fifty years after the Pentagon gave flight to The Early Bird, the popular roundup of global news reports on military, defense and security matters has been sent to the boneyard. The Pentagon’s public affairs office suspended its morning email brief Oct. 1 as part of the government shutdown and does not plan to bring it back.

Generations of military and defense-industry leaders, as well as media members who covered them, consumed the Early Bird as part of their morning routine. Now, like caffeine junkies missing their morning Joe, they find themselves looking for that jolt of niche news that kept them abreast of what was going on in their world, all in one handy report.

Enter Early Bird Brief, the aggregation of international defense and military reports compiled by the staffs of Military Times and Defense News. It’s comprehensive, independent and free to anyone who signs up.

What you need to know.

The Early Bird Brief is well established

Reporters and editors with Military Times and Defense News, sister publications, have for years culled the Pentagon product to provide subscribers with a concise read of the news vital to their communities. Each daily report includes dozens of items from media outlets around the world — news, features, analysis and opinions. Each story is summarized in a paragraph and includes a link to the originating news outlet, whether it be the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Associated Press, CNN, Fayetteville Observer, The Times of London, or Military Times and Defense News.

What's new

Now the Early Bird Brief is available to everyone, whether you’re a subscriber or not. Military Times and Defense News staff build it from scratch, with no reliance on any Defense Department clipping service. The process goes on nearly nonstop, with world overnight reports added well before the sun rises over the Pentagon as the daily report takes shape by mixing in news scoops, stories of unique interest, blog posts and and more. That includes the latest from Defense News and Military Times, as well as sister publications C4ISR, Federal Times and Armed Forces Journal.

Early Bird Brief pulls no punches

As government employees, Defense Department public affairs officials — despite their best intentions — were ultimately subject to institutional oversight of the Early Bird. They worked for leadership often concerned with political sensitivities and public perceptions of DoD-related programs, personnel and activities.

By contrast,the Early Bird Brief is compiled by staff members of the largest independent newsroom dedicated to military and defense news. Key word: Independent. Early Bird Brief story selections are made on news value, period.

No noise. No nonsense. Just news

The Early Bird Brief provides the earliest and most comprehensive roundup of global defense industry and military news of consequence. Most importantly, it keeps the focus squarely on the headlines — no wasting readers’ time. The Early Bird Brief starts you off with “Today’s Top 5” highlighting key stories of intrigue and importance. Then you roll into the roundup: Scan through the story summaries and open the full read on items of interest to you.

Here's how you get it

The Early Bird Brief is free. Just sign up by entering your email address at militarytimes.com/ebb.