FAQ
NewsPlatform FAQ
Answers to the questions people ask most often about NewsPlatform, the free independent news publishing platform where writers run their own channels.
What is NewsPlatform?
NewsPlatform is an independent news publishing platform at newsplatform.org. Writers, journalists, small newsrooms and organisations create channels and publish articles to them; readers browse a newest-first front page, filter by category and subscribe to the channels they trust.
Is NewsPlatform a news aggregator?
No. An aggregator collects links to articles published elsewhere. NewsPlatform hosts the articles themselves — everything on the site was written and published to the site by the channel it appears under. NewsPlatform does not scrape or syndicate other news sites and does not rate outlets for political bias.
Is NewsPlatform free?
Yes. Reading is free and does not require an account. Creating an account, creating a channel and publishing articles are also free: there are no subscription fees and no upfront costs for writers.
Do I need an account to read articles?
No. Every published article and channel page is public. You only need a free account to subscribe to channels or to publish your own work.
What is a channel?
A channel is a publishing space on NewsPlatform with its own name, description, images, category focus and public subscriber count. It can represent an individual writer, a small newsroom or a topic desk. Browse them all in the channel directory.
How do I publish an article on NewsPlatform?
Create a free account, create a channel, then write the article in the built-in editor and publish it. The editor supports headings, lists, links, tables, images with captions, charts and location tags. There is a step-by-step guide on the How it works page.
How does NewsPlatform decide what appears on the homepage?
Mostly time. The main story list is newest-first, by the time the article was created, so a channel with a handful of subscribers can appear at the top. Two slots work differently: the lead story is picked by a platform setting — by default the most-read story among the most recent day of articles, and it can also be set to the newest story, the most-read of all time, or an article pinned by the editor, with sponsored pins labelled as sponsored — and a “Most read” rail ranks by view count. Nothing is personalised to the individual reader.
Can I make money writing on NewsPlatform?
Not through the platform today. NewsPlatform has no paid reader subscriptions, no paywall and no revenue share for writers. The platform itself sells clearly labelled sponsorships, listed with prices on the Advertise page. If earning directly from readers is your priority, Substack or Ghost are built for that and NewsPlatform is not.
Does NewsPlatform send my articles out as an email newsletter?
No. Readers follow channels on the site, and every channel has an RSS feed at /channels/<id>/rss.xml. There is a site-wide feed at /rss.xml. Email sending is not part of the platform.
Does NewsPlatform have an API?
Yes. There is a public, key-free read-only endpoint that returns recent published articles as JSON, and an authenticated write API that lets you create articles in channels you own. API keys are generated from your profile, shown once, stored as SHA-256 hashes and can be revoked at any time. See the Content API documentation.
Can AI assistants and search engines read NewsPlatform?
Yes. Article pages are prerendered as plain HTML with NewsArticle structured data, the marketing pages are static HTML built at deploy time, every public URL is listed in /sitemap.xml, and robots.txt explicitly allows the major search and AI crawlers. A machine-readable summary of the site lives at /llms.txt.
What categories does NewsPlatform cover?
Articles are filed under Politics, Business, Tech, AI, Science, Sports, Culture, Lifestyle, Education, Environment, Opinion and Law. The category ribbon across the top of the site filters the feed to a single section.
Who moderates content, and what is not allowed?
Articles must be original or properly attributed and must comply with the Terms of Service, and spam and malicious content is removed. There is no in-page report button yet — to flag something, email the contact address on the Terms of Service page, which is also where copyright complaints go.
Can I advertise or sponsor content on NewsPlatform?
Yes, and the rates are published. The Advertise page lists a sponsored homepage Featured Lead at $99 per day and channel sponsorships from $299 per month, with newsletter slots and content partnerships available on request. All sponsored content is labelled, and the platform does not run pop-ups, autoplay audio or takeover interstitials.
Can I delete my articles or my channel?
Yes. You can edit, unpublish or delete any article you have published at any time, and channel owners manage their own channel and subscriber list.