Specialist Briefs/Custom Brief
09Commissioned · Specialist Brief

A brief in your field.

If your field is not one of the eight, we build the ninth. Scoped to your sources, your decision horizon, your week.

+ yours

What it is

A weekly specialist brief built to order. We scope the field, agree the sources, and lock the structure. From there the brief lands every Sunday evening, ahead of your week, in the same shape as every other InStone specialist brief.

Best suited for

Corporate affairs, policy, and strategy leaders whose field sits outside the eight standard briefs. Also for teams commissioning institutional intelligence on a niche dossier, region, or regulatory thread.

How it works

From intake call to first issue in three to four weeks.

  1. 01

    Intake call

    One 60 minute call to scope the field, the decision horizon, the stakeholders you care about, and the signals that matter. We come out of it with a one-page brief definition.

  2. 02

    Sourcing setup

    We build the source list: official institutions, trade publications, primary actors, adjacent regulators. You approve the list. This becomes the foundation every issue is built from.

  3. 03

    Pilot issue

    The first issue runs as a pilot. You read it, mark it up, tell us what is signal and what is noise. We tune the structure. No subscription fee until the pilot is approved.

  4. 04

    Weekly rhythm

    From approval, the brief lands every Sunday evening, ahead of your week. Same masthead, same structure, your field.

What we need from you

Four inputs. One intake call to collect them.

The field

The specific area the brief will cover. Precision matters. Narrower fields produce sharper briefs.

The sources

The institutions, regulators, and publications you already watch, or know you should. We build from this base.

The decision horizon

How far ahead you plan. Weekly briefs are forward-looking, scoped to your planning rhythm.

Example topics

Three to five recent developments the brief would have flagged. Calibrates what signal means in your field.

What you get

The same shape as every InStone specialist brief.

  • 01A masthead that carries your field's identity
  • 02The week ahead in four TL;DR bullets, each naming the institution and the moment
  • 03One featured development with its four-week trajectory
  • 04Longer signals, moves building over four to eight weeks
  • 05Brief, forward-looking context on what just happened
  • 06Implications, what you should do or watch next

Common questions

Yes, for the first 12 months. Founding subscribers pay a premium rate during exclusivity because we are building the sourcing from scratch for one reader. If we later open the field to others, you keep a founding-subscriber discount off the public rate for as long as you remain subscribed. You funded the field; you should not pay more than the readers who arrived after.

Yes. The structure is fixed; the field can evolve. Minor scope shifts are handled in-cycle. Major pivots warrant a short recalibration call.

A named InStone analyst owns your brief end-to-end. You know who is writing it. They know your field.

We tune and re-pilot at no additional fee. Subscription only begins when you approve. If the second pilot still misses, we refund the setup.

Yes. Business Seats bundle custom briefs into team licences, with optional SSO. See the team page for pricing.

Start the commissioning

Book an intake call.

Sixty minutes to scope the field. If it is a good fit, we start sourcing the week after. If it is not, we say so and point you at the closest existing brief.

Eight fields live. The ninth is yours.