TL;DR

The New Paper is a news aggregator that makes it quick and easy for you to get up to speed on the day's top news, free from noise.

We use a combination of human editors and automated tools to systematically eliminate clickbait, sensationalism, and bias.

The end result is a clear, concise collection of news articles from reliable sources that comprehensively covers high-impact stories.

We then send it to you by email or text message, once per day.

It's quite refreshing. We'd love for you to give it a try.

About us (in more detail)

We noticed something.

Nearly everyone agrees that something feels broken in the modern news media landscape, yet no one seems able to fix it.

Incessant notifications, clickbait headlines, sensationalism, and biased reporting have turned the simple act of reading the news into an overwhelming experience. Major outlets blur the lines between fact and opinion, forcing you to sift through noise just to find basic reporting on what happened in the world today.

Most news outlets didn't start with that goal in mind, but the perverse incentives underlying the modern media industry create pressure that slowly pulls (and traps) them in that direction.

That's why, since day one, The New Paper has operated under a clear mission: to overcome sensationalism in media by making straightforward, fact-first news easy to consume.

We believe that by consistently building products and running our business to serve this mission, we can avoid the pitfalls and make a real dent in fixing the challenges of the modern media landscape.

We don't claim to have all the answers, but we do think we've created something that's a great start.

Unlike other news aggregators, we don't serve you content based on what you're most likely to click on. Instead, our system is designed to identify the "common set of facts" that are widely agreed upon and surface articles that cover these stories accurately and as neutrally as possible.

The result is a refreshing, concise collection of news articles from reliable sources, delivered once per day via email or text message. No infinite feeds. No constant updates. Just the essential stories you need to stay informed—without the overwhelming noise.

Why does news media feel so noisy and overwhelming?

Here is an incomplete list of patterns and trends that The New Paper aims to provide an alternative to:

  • Clickbait push notifications: News apps bombard you with alerts designed, not to inform you, but to make you open their app. This drowns out legitimate news updates and, frankly, is an abuse of your limited time and attention.
  • Infinite feeds: Current news aggregators and social media serve endless streams of content, aiming to keep you engaged for as long as possible rather than efficiently inform you.
  • Constant updates: News outlets continuously update their websites and other channels, so the news you see depends on when you look at it, creating pressure to check constantly.
  • Mixing basic reporting with opinion: Most outlets don't clearly differentiate between factual reporting and opinion, making it hard to distinguish between news and narrative.
  • Self-dealing aggregation: Most news sites, newsletters, and other channels exist to serve an outlet's own content. If they don't cover something, you don't see it, meaning you can't trust any single source to be a comprehensive update.
  • Personality-driven content: Television and individual creator-based news often revolves around personalities, whose biases influence the presentation. Polarizing views often drive the largest viewership (i.e., the most money), creating a cycle of more and more polarizing content.

In contrast, The New Paper offers:

  • Minimal notifications: Just one update per weekday.
  • Comprehensive coverage: We cover all major stories.
  • Finite content: We keep each edition as brief as possible.
  • Fact-first reporting: We exclude opinion and narrative pieces to create a product that focuses only on basic fact reporting.
  • No personality (lol): We don't try to infuse the daily news with our own voice, perspectives, or opinion.

What is your process?

Our process aims to identify, organize, and conveniently deliver the basic news reporting of high-impact stories that gets drowned out in the chaos of the modern news cycle. Here's an overview:

  1. Identify the day's top stories: Our system ingests a diverse array of news sources and looks for the "common set of facts" agreed upon across ideological spectrums. Each story is also ranked based on its impact within its sphere (e.g., impact to politics, the economy, or business) eliminating low-impact sensationalism and surfacing high-impact developments.
  2. Select a reliable article for each story: After determining the top stories, our system finds an article for each one that covered it accurately and as close to neutral as possible.
  3. Deliver conveniently: Our system then packages and sends the final product by email or text message, once per day, offering an easy and convenient way to stay informed.

At each stage of this process, we employ checks to ensure that we continue to serve and do not stray from our mission over time.

Do you use human editors or algorithms?

Both.

We combine the strengths of both human editors and algorithms to overcome the shortcomings of each.

  • Algorithms: Our system uses algorithms to objectively identify overlap in coverage among a wide array of diverse sources and score news based on coverage significance. This includes sources on the left, right, and center politically as well as domestic and international sources. It also includes niche sources in areas like politics, business, and tech.
  • Human editors: Editors refine, but do not materially alter, the algorithmic output. Common refinements include removing duplicative coverage, decreasing the priority of obviously over-weighted stories (e.g., the algorithmic system over-weights stories about celebrities), increasing the priority of obviously under-weighted stories (e.g., major scientific stories are often not covered widely).

It's important to note that the human editorial contributions are limited adjustments to overt shortcomings of the raw algorithmic output. For example, the human editorial team cannot completely remove a story that is ranked highly by the algorithm.

What is the content exactly?

Our process produces an organized collection of news articles that comprehensively covers the day's high-impact news.

For each article, both our email and the text message products display the article's headline, description (optional), and source.

The stories are prioritized based on a combination of the breadth of their coverage and impact within their respective domain (i.e., a business story's impact is relative to business stories).

Are the headlines written by AI?

No. While we use sophisticated tools (including AI) as part of our process to objectively curate, filter, and prioritize articles, the end product is an aggregation of articles with each article's headline and description (optional) referenced directly, as noted above.

How do you determine what sources you link to?

After our system identifies that a particular news event should be covered (which is always determined by referencing a wide array of diverse sources), it then identifies an single article that covered that news event accurately and as close to neutral as possible.

There is no set list of sources that we will link to, but trends do emerge. Our most commonly linked sources are:

  • Associated Press
  • Reuters
  • BBC
  • Axios
  • UPI
  • The Hill
  • Semafor
  • CNBC
  • NBC
  • NPR
  • C-SPAN
  • The Verge

All articles are evaluated on an individual basis. Linking to a source once does not mean we would link to anything from that source. No source is assumed to be consistently or generally reliable.

Furthermore, as a minimum threshold, we require that all sources we link to have "high factual integrity," meaning they have a strong track record of presenting facts accurately and adhering to core journalistic principles. We monitor this internally and check against third-parties like mediabiasfactcheck.com.

Outlets often get sorted into binary buckets, but the reality is more nuanced. While no source is perfect, it also doesn't mean that they are all entirely bad either. Our job is to create a system that is able to recognize the nuances and pull out the signal from the noise.

Don't the sources you aggregate have bias?

Yes, all news sources have at least some bias.

However, it's important to distinguish between the general bias of a source and the specific slant of individual articles. For example, the Associated Press is considered to have a left-center bias in aggregate, but individual Associated Press articles can lean left, lean right, or be very close to neutral depending on the topic, the journalist, and the specifics of the news event.

At The New Paper, our aggregation process is designed to discern and mitigate these biases. By analyzing a wide array of articles from diverse sources, we are able to determine which source is as close to a neutral presentation as possible for a given story.

How does this fit into the broader news landscape?

Modern news aggregators, social media feeds, and the digital media business model as a whole currently reward (i.e., create an economic incentive for) clickbait and sensationalism.

By creating a news aggregator that rewards direct, fact-first reporting, we create a competing incentive structure. Over time, we hope that this can shift a news ecosystem that begins with sensationalism to one that starts with a common set of facts.

Why do you send once per day?

It keeps people informed without intruding into their daily life.

We aim to mirror the cadence of the pre-Internet "morning paper." Where folks could reliably receive a comprehensive news update once per day and go about the rest of their day.

Why do you send only on weekdays?

This schedule mirrors the typical workweek, helping maintain a consistent but manageable flow of information.

Our Monday edition covers news from the entire weekend, allowing you to start your week fully updated.

Why is it paid?

Our subscription model supports a small, dedicated team committed to delivering high-quality, non-sensational news. This model ensures our operational sustainability without relying on ad revenue, which can introduce pressure to serve the interest of advertisers instead of the interests of of subscribers.

We invite you to compare us with free "alternatives" for a few days to truly appreciate the difference in quality and focus.

How do you process transactions?

We use Memberful and Stripe to process transactions. They are well known and established membership and payment platforms, respectively. Learn more at memberful.com and stripe.com.

Do you take user feedback?

Absolutely. User feedback is a vital took to improve the quality and reliability of our service. We're happy to say that we receive a similar amount of feedback across ideological spectrums, including the left-right political spectrum that people tend to think of first.

What is your mission?

Our mission is to overcome sensationalism in media by making straightforward, factual news easy to consume.

How can I contact you?

Email editors@thenewpaper.co to contact the team. We love hearing from our readers and others passionate about our mission.