Murdoch’s News Corp. launches ‘Knewz’ aggregation platform as alternative to Google, Facebook

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. launched Knewz service on Wednesday, a news-aggregation service that seeks to serve as an alternative to Google and Facebook.

“Knewz.com is an innovative service designed to let you consume news from a wide variety of sources, free of the bias bubbles and vacuous verticals that frustrate so many discerning readers and thoughtful publishers,” reads the About Us page on the website.

Welcome to https://t.co/Sl65YA9i4I, an innovative service designed to let you consume news from a wide variety of sources, free of the bias bubbles and vacuous verticals that frustrate so many discerning readers and thoughtful publishers. pic.twitter.com/CIW4ESMqRD

— Knewz (@knowknewz) January 29, 2020

Knewz.com offers headlines from more than 400 publishers, with publications ranging both in size and ideology.

The publications include large publications like the Washington Post and small publications such as the Anchorage Daily News. Online sites including the left-leaning Daily Kos and the right-leaning The Federalist will also be offered.

Headlines will be handled by both artificial intelligence and human editors, according to the company, with the technology constantly scanning “hundreds of real news sources” that provide “a broad perspective on stories of the day.”

Knewz.com comes as many in the news industry have complained for years about how Google and Facebook have profited off from its content without compensating publishers fairly.

“Knewz is unique in that readers can, at a single glance, see multiple sources. It is not egregious aggregation but generous aggregation. There are mastheads from across the political and regional spectrum, and premium publishers will not be relegated in the rankings,” said Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp., in Wednesday launch announcement.

“Readers will have access to publishers large and small, niche and general, located in all 50 states,” said Mr. Thomson.