How The Cruise Brief is made
A daily news channel is only worth watching if you can see how it is put together. This page is the whole of it, and it is linked from every video we publish.
Every story names its source
Each story credits its outlet on screen for the whole time it runs, and links it in the video description. Nothing goes in a bulletin that we cannot point at.
Where a figure appears in a chart, it carries a source. Our production tools will not render a chart without one — this is enforced by the software rather than left to whoever is on the desk that morning.
Where only one outlet is reporting something, we mark it single source on screen and word the script as “reported by”, not “confirmed”. We would rather run a thinly sourced story honestly labelled than not run it at all, but you should know which is which.
We do not caption footage with a place name unless the footage is of that place. Where we do not have accurate pictures, we use plain sea and ship imagery rather than something that looks specific and is not.
April Harlow is an AI anchor
The Brief is read by a synthetic presenter. We say so in every video description, in the channel description, and here.
What is not synthetic: the editorial judgement. Every script is written, sourced and edited by a person, a named human editor is accountable for each bulletin, and someone watches the finished cut end to end before it is published.
We do not generate imagery of real events, ships or incidents. Synthetic pictures in a news bulletin are how audiences get misled, and the cruise audience has already seen plenty of that.
We correct on air, the next morning
If we get something wrong, we say so in the following bulletin rather than quietly editing a description. Corrections are read out, not buried.
To report an error, comment on the video in question. We read them.
What we are connected to
The Cruise Brief is a service of Cruises with Friends. Mia Cruise, an associated travel agency, sells cruises from lines that this bulletin reports on.
That relationship does not decide what we run. Nobody at Mia Cruise sees a rundown before it airs, and no cruise line has any say over whether a story about it appears. But you should not have to take that on trust without knowing the connection exists, which is why it appears under every video rather than only here.
If we ever cover a story where the connection is directly material — a Mia Cruise promotion, or a dispute involving it — we will say so in the bulletin itself.
Not currently in play, and we will update this page before any of it changes: we take no payment for coverage, run no sponsored stories, and accept no complimentary sailings in exchange for editorial. If that ever changes, it will be disclosed here and on air first.
What we use, and where it comes from
Footage and stills come from our own archive wherever possible, then from public domain and openly licensed sources, then from cruise line press material used with permission. We do not use image search results, footage lifted from other creators, or clips taken from cruise line marketing videos.
Music is licensed. Where a cue was commissioned for the channel, it is ours.