Content forms

Fact sheet

facts at a glance · one-pager

Definition

Fact sheet is a short, scannable list of numbers and specs a reporter can lift: headcount, founding, jurisdictions, product names, the one statistic that matters this week. No narrative. No adjectives that cannot be sourced.

If a number is in the fact sheet, someone must be ready to defend it on the record.

How it works

One page. Date and version. Units on every figure. Link the methods or the filing. Kill last quarter’s numbers when they change — do not leave two fact sheets in Google.

Worked example

A 12-line sheet: employees 1,140; states 8; median permit time 41 days (n=6,400, methods URL). Two local TV producers read only this. The 8-page backgrounder stays unused, which is fine.

How it differs

A press release has a lede. A backgrounder has history. A fact sheet is the table. Schema can encode some of the same facts for machines.

Common errors

Mixing aspirational targets with actuals. No date. Seventeen product nicknames.

Sources