News about any and all countries?

December 5, 2010 6:42 PM

What, if any, English-speaking website will give me news about all of the world's nations?

My biggest complaint about most newspapers is that they only report on the big events. I'd like to be able to read news about any and all countries. Is there any website or news organization that strives to report on as many places as possible? What about a 'master list' of English-language versions of local papers?

posted by reductiondesign to media & arts (16 answers total)

reductiondesign, I believe Daily Earth is what you're looking for. I bookmarked it years ago and it's still the go-to resource for me when I want to read the local version of what's happening in other countries.

http://www.dailyearth.com/#directory
posted by zooropa at 6:44 PM on December 5, 2010

Per your first question, the Economist does a better job of global reporting than any other major publication, but it is still limited to "bigger" stories (though what are you looking for, local sports scores? city council elections?) If you want really local data, you're better off just going to the country's/city's Wikipedia page, where they will always link to the major newspapers and specify if they are in English or not. There's also the Newseum's Today's Front Pages which shows almost 600 front pages of newspapers from around the world.
posted by proj at 6:49 PM on December 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'd probably just go for some sort of version of google news. It's highly customizable and can draw from multiple sources to get you the coverage you want.
posted by jourman2 at 6:52 PM on December 5, 2010

It’s not free, but PressDisplay.com has newspapers available from all over the world. You might want to test it out. The pay as you go plan is .99 cents per paper. It also lets you search for English language papers.
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear at 7:02 PM on December 5, 2010

As a one-stop news site that strives to cover events around the world, BBC World is pretty good and even has sections broken down by region.
posted by ssg at 7:02 PM on December 5, 2010 [5 favorites]

Google
posted by pompomtom at 7:20 PM on December 5, 2010

Google Translate has gotten remarkably good lately, I'd try it on popular news sites in your country of choice.
posted by miyabo at 7:30 PM on December 5, 2010

Worldpress.org is very good for this purpose. The front page presents some major stories from around the world, or you can use the links to find newspapers, magazines and blogs from anywhere.
posted by Corvid at 7:52 PM on December 5, 2010

I'll second BBC World. (I listened to the BBC worldservice radio when i lived in africa, and when i moved home i was shocked at how little global news got through to north americans via our own media.)
posted by Kololo at 8:54 PM on December 5, 2010

I rather enjoy the Economist too, but then you get stuff like this.
posted by ikaruga at 9:13 PM on December 5, 2010

Thirding BBC World.
posted by Joh at 9:32 PM on December 5, 2010

In addition to the ones mentioned above: New Internationalist Magazine
posted by kch at 9:37 PM on December 5, 2010

Actually, while BBC World is definitely better than most American news stations, you really should check out AlJazeera's English site. Their coverage is surprisingly (at least to me) wide and balanced. I was taken aback at how much more of the world they cover than BBC.
posted by bardophile at 1:28 AM on December 6, 2010

Online Newspapers has a very broad range of publications. A critical resource if you need to know what's happening in North Korea straight from the horse's mouth.
posted by hawkeye at 4:40 AM on December 6, 2010

The Christian Science Monitor is good too.
posted by chocolatetiara at 7:44 AM on December 6, 2010

Google News and BBC.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:54 AM on December 6, 2010