The Daily Signal was a project of The Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.–based conservative think tank from the time of its launch in 2014 until June 3, 2024, when it became an independent publication with its own board of directors and leadership.

[2] The website reports on American politics and public policy issues, both foreign and domestic, with a focus on stories it believes to be unreported or under-reported.

[11][3][6][12] Prior to starting The Daily Signal, The Heritage Foundation ran two digital publications: The Foundry, a blog, and Townhall, a news and opinion site.

[3] Kelly McBride, a media ethicist at the Poynter Institute, said The Daily Signal could never be credible for liberal readers, but could reach an undecided audience, so long as the publication removed political agenda and published quality work from trained journalists.

[9] Debut stories included an interview with then Kansas Governor Sam Brownback about federal health care law's effects on his state,[9] and an account of a trip to the Korean Demilitarized Zone by Jim DeMint, then president of The Heritage Foundation.