DistantNews

About DistantNews

DistantNews helps travellers, expats, dual citizens, and anyone with an interest in the wider world stay informed with local news from countries that matter to them, all in English. We combine translated headlines with original reporting, country guides, and editorial resources to give you a deeper understanding of what’s happening around the globe.

Why we built this

Most English-language media covers international events through a narrow, Western lens. Meanwhile, thousands of respected local newspapers publish daily in dozens of languages, covering stories that rarely reach English-speaking audiences.

We spend our time researching and finding these smaller, independent news sources so you don’t have to. Whether you’re keeping up with your home country from abroad, preparing for a trip, or simply curious about what’s happening on the other side of the world, DistantNews puts local perspectives within reach.

What we offer

How we vet our sources

Every news source on DistantNews goes through a review process. Our team evaluates each outlet for editorial independence, credibility, and reliability before it appears on the site. We prioritise publications that serve their local communities and maintain strong journalistic standards.

What makes us different

DistantNews is organised by country and region, making it easy to explore what’s happening locally anywhere in the world. You can see what Germany’s leading dailies are covering, compare that with headlines from South Korea, Brazil, or Nigeria, and build a genuinely global perspective on the day’s news.

We focus on surfacing small, local sources that are hard to find elsewhere, and we pair translated news with our own original content to help you understand the full picture. We drive traffic to the original newspapers, not away from them. If a publisher would like their content removed, we honour those requests promptly.

Who’s behind DistantNews

Brandon Founder & Editor

Brandon is a product designer and the founder of DistantNews. He has spent over a decade building digital products and has lived and worked across multiple countries, giving him firsthand experience with how differently the same global events are covered depending on where you are.

Frustrated with the narrow lens that most English-language outlets apply to international stories, he wanted a way to read what local journalists were actually reporting on the ground, not just what wire services chose to syndicate. When he couldn’t find a good solution, he built one.

He handles source research and vetting, product development, editorial direction, and the translation and summarization pipeline that powers the site.

Editorial Standards

Transparency is central to how DistantNews operates. Every article on the site goes through a documented process, and we want readers to understand exactly how our content is produced.

How articles are produced

  1. Source selection. We research and vet news outlets in each country we cover, prioritizing editorially independent publications with strong local reputations. Each source is evaluated for credibility, editorial independence, and reliability before being added to the site.
  2. Translation. Headlines and article bodies published in languages other than English are translated into clear, natural English and reviewed against the original text to ensure accuracy.
  3. Original summaries. Every article receives an original English-language summary written by our editorial team, giving readers the key facts and context without needing to read the full original piece. These are not copies or rewrites of existing English coverage.
  4. Local perspective. We add an editorial perspective section that reflects how the story is being framed by the local publication and what context a reader outside that country might be missing. This original analysis is the most distinctive part of our coverage and is not available from wire services or other English-language outlets.

Source credibility and bias

Every source on DistantNews is tagged with its editorial lean (left, center, right, state-aligned) and a credibility rating (high, medium, low). These assessments are based on research into each publication’s ownership, editorial history, and reputation within its home country. We display these ratings on every article and source page so readers can evaluate coverage with full context.

Corrections

If we find an error in any of our content, we want to know about it. Contact us at hello@distantnews.com and we will review and correct the issue promptly. We do not silently edit published content; corrections are noted when made.

Technology

Our editorial process uses a combination of human judgment and technology tools to cover dozens of countries and languages at a scale that would otherwise require a much larger team. All content on DistantNews, from summaries to local perspectives, is original work shaped by our editorial guidelines and standards. The sources we select, the stories we surface, and the analysis we publish reflect deliberate editorial choices, not automated output.

Our sources

We feature newspapers from every major world region, including Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America, and Oceania. Our team is always researching new outlets to add, focusing on editorially independent publications that serve their local communities.

Have a source you think we should cover? Let us know.