About

A modern online research service for busy professionals

Defense Industry Daily (DID) is an online trade publication dedicated to defense acquisition, with a strong focus on the procurement of weapon programs, systems, and their subsystems.

DID provides sophisticated trade advertising solutions to discerning prime contractors and their suppliers, and a premium membership for industry participants and observers who need to keep close tabs on major defense programs.

DID was founded in 2004 to help address what was seen as an opaque and poorly performing market.

Guiding principles: where software meets content

As a publication unencumbered by a print legacy, DID has made several innovative, deliberate choices to increase value and save time for its readers, producing a data service rather than a normal trade magazine.

Centralized, de-duplicated resources save time

We compile dossiers on major programs that we keep updating in one place over the years. By applying to editorial content the Don’t Repeat Yourself principle that grew in software circles, we aggressively cut into the duplication that plagues print-centered media. Google Labs called this Living Stories years after we started doing it.

Transparent, data-focused sourcing increase accuracy, transparency and accountability

We don’t rely on access journalism, bogus “exclusives” or rumors to drive traffic. Instead, we focus on data by tapping a huge number of primary sources cross-referenced with worldwide media coverage. And we make it transparent to our audience with supporting references to the original documents, in English and other languages.

Seamless narratives beyond words enhance understanding

We embed relevant pictures, videos, charts, and data tables directly in their relevant narrative context, avoiding the temptation to create media galleries of little value in our sidebar as a “multimedia” gimmick.

Trade publishing deserves better

We think critical industries like defense should benefit from the same level of innovation and scrutiny provided by the best in general news and finance media. We are committed to continuous improvement at the intersection of vertical content and online software systems that allow us to bring more visibility and liquidity to the market.

See here an example of these principles applied in practice.