• by Sara Guaglione , November 1, 2018

The Daily Beast

is introducing a video accompaniment to its popular Cheat Sheet franchise. Called "Video Cheat Sheet," the product is a daily compilation of the top five videos of the day, packaged in a one-minute video.

The videos do not replicate the news in Cheat Sheet, a daily news briefing newsletter with 4.5 million readers each month. Instead, Video Cheat Sheet aims to deliver the must-see video content of the day.

The video will contain a “mix of the most important national and international videos of the moment,” including interesting videos from around the world and highlights in entertainment or sports, "all in a small, easily digested single-video format,” said Tim Burke, former director of video at Deadspin.

Video Cheat Sheet is the first video offering following the hiring of Burke to head up its video initiatives three months ago.

(Burke was behind the famous video showing news anchors reading the same Sinclair script).

Bringing video to Cheat Sheet has been a goal at The Daily Beast for years, Burke said. None of the video experiments lasted, till now.

“We haven’t done a very good job of video at The Daily Beast,” he noted. “One of the big goals for us is to try and distill the videos we think people need to see or will appreciate seeing.”

Another goal? Expanding The Daily Beast’s audience, “to people who may not be regular readers but may become familiar with the brand through our easily-shared video product.”

The Cheat Sheet email newsletter will come with a link to the daily Video Cheat Sheet, since videos can’t be embedded in the newsletter.  The video will also be display on The Daily Beast’s homepage everyday and shared on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Text over the video explains the news. The product has the tone of The Daily Beast, Burke said: “lighthearted, insightful and political.”

But viewers will notice the Video Cheat Sheet is not all politics.

“That’s certainly the goal … There may be days when we have a lot of U.S. news or politics, but we are going to try to avoid that,” Burke said. It depends on the news of the day, and what is the most compelling video.

Videos are chosen from curated Twitter searches, and the 30+ video feeds that come into Burke’s office everyday, he said.

Daily Beast readers can also submit a video for consideration by emailing the Beast’s tip line.