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Help Center/Using Podspun/News and members

Can my website list news from other publications by itself?

Yes. Add each publication as a News Feed channel in the Dataweaver: choose Add channel, pick News Feed, and enter the website's address or the address of its RSS feed. The preview shows the outlet's name and its newest headlines before you add it. Podspun then checks the feed every hour for new stories. Nothing is billed for a News Feed channel.

Each website chooses which feeds it publishes from and how many items a day, in that site's News / Blog, Automation Config, under Stories From News Feeds:

  • Link Cards Per Day (0 to 40): a card with the outlet's headline, the outlet's name and a picture, which opens the story on the outlet's own site in a new tab. Add Our Summary To Link Cards puts one line under it saying what the story reports.
  • Combined Stories Per Day (0 to 10): when two or more of your outlets report the same thing, a short article on your own site that credits and links each report in its Sources.
  • Daily Roundup: one article each evening, soon after 5 PM in your site's time zone, listing every story added since the last roundup with a line about each and a link. An evening with fewer than 5 new stories gets no roundup. Roundup Picture sets a wide picture the roundup wears every day, like the cover of a regular column, and Roundup Card Picture a square one for its card in News / Blog. Without them, a roundup wears its top story's picture. A roundup is filed under its own type, Roundup. Your News page lists it with the other stories; to show the roundups in a row of their own, add a News Index block and set its Type to Daily roundups only.

Ticking your first outlet fills in 10 link cards and 2 combined stories a day, which you can change. Focus On and Leave Out tell it in your own words what to favour and what to skip, and File Under Category puts every item in one of your News categories. The numbers are spread across the day, so new items arrive from morning to night.

Which stories are chosen: each new story is scored for how well it fits what your website covers, and the best ones are published first. When several outlets report the same event, it appears once. No single outlet takes more than half of a day's link cards.

What is shown is the outlet's headline, its name and a link. The outlet's own text is never copied onto your site: the summary line and the combined stories are written in new words. Pictures are your choice, under Pictures. The story's own picture is the one the outlet published with it, such as a film still or a poster, copied into your Assets. A picture made for your site is generated from the story's subject and shows a place or an object, never a person or lettering. A story that has no picture of its own gets a made one either way. A link card stays for 30 days and then comes off your site, unless you edited it, featured it or picked it for a block. Combined stories and roundups are your own articles and stay. A card you delete stays deleted. The stories do not feed your Ask search.

To have a home page row show your own stories first and the newest after them, open that page's News block, choose your own stories under Featured Articles and set How Many In The Grid to the number of newest stories that follow.

Data & Integrations · Full walkthrough

Keep up with the publications you follow.

Add feeds, then choose link cards, combined stories or a daily roundup for your website.

Before you start

Choose publications you want to follow and decide how their stories should appear: source link cards, combined stories or a daily roundup. Preserve clear links to the original reporting.

Step 1

Connect the publications you want to follow

News feeds: Connect the publications you want to follow
Connect the publications you want to follow

Open Podspun Dataweaver → Add channel → News Feed. Enter a publication’s website or RSS address, then Preview. Check the publication name and headlines before adding it. Repeat for the sources you actually want this website to use.

Add a News Feed channel in Podspun Dataweaver. Review the feed’s source and confirm it contains the publication you intended.

Connect the sources first so the website can use the correct incoming stories.

Step 2

Select sources and daily output limits

News feeds: Select sources and daily output limits
Select sources and daily output limits

In the intended website, open Content → News / Blog → Automation Config. Under Stories From News Feeds, select the outlets. Set Link Cards Per Day from 0–40 and Combined Stories Per Day from 0–10; zero disables that output. The first selected outlet starts with 10 cards and 2 combined stories.

Link cards open the original reporting in a new tab. Combined stories are short articles drawing on at least two reports about the same event and include source links. Quotas are distributed through the day, not necessarily published all at once.

Feeds are checked hourly and the system avoids repeated events; no outlet supplies more than half the day’s cards. Select sources for relevance instead of adding more sources only to fill a quota.

Open the website’s News / Blog and Automation Config. Choose the feeds and the story presentation you want.

Review the distinction between a card linking to a source and a generated combined story or roundup. Select the treatment that fits your editorial purpose.

Step 3

Choose pictures and link-card summaries

News feeds: Choose pictures and link-card summaries
Choose pictures and link-card summaries

Set Add Our Summary To Link Cards if you want an original summary line. Under Pictures, choose the story’s own picture or a picture made for your site. Original pictures are stored in Assets; if a story has no usable picture, a generated one can be used with either choice.

A generated news picture uses a place or object rather than inventing a person or placing lettering inside the image. Review its relevance to the article; an illustration is not proof that a depicted event happened.

Keep the difference between a card linking to another publisher and an article written on your own website clear. Open source links when checking the resulting presentation.

Step 4

Set roundup, topic filters and category

News feeds: Set roundup, topic filters and category
Set roundup, topic filters and category

Daily Roundup creates a recap after 5 PM in the website’s time zone when at least five new stories are available. Use Focus On, Leave Out and File Under Category to guide the selection. Choose Save Settings for this website; choosing values without saving does not apply them.

Focus On describes relevant subjects; Leave Out excludes subjects you do not want. Start with precise topics and inspect the results before adding a long list of rules. A category helps the website’s News blocks show the right group of stories.

Daily Roundup is optional and its minimum story count matters: turning it On does not guarantee a roundup on a quiet day. Check the site time zone before expecting its after-5-PM schedule.

Step 5

Review the public News presentation

News feeds: Review the public News presentation
Review the public News presentation

Check the resulting News list and the website’s News block filters. Open cards to verify their original source. Read combined stories and roundups with their source links. Featured Articles can put your own stories first; How Many In The Grid controls the additional grid items.

Link cards expire after 30 days unless edited, featured or selected by a block. Combined stories and roundups remain. A deliberately deleted card is not repeatedly re-added.

Outside News Feed stories do not become sources for Ask & Search. News automation, imported Substack posts and your episode archive are different inputs with different purposes.

Review the resulting stories on the website. Check titles, images, source links and how several stories sit together in the News list.

For combined stories or roundups, read the full text and inspect the original sources. Change the configuration if the result is repetitive or does not fit the publication’s tone.

Review checklist

  • The selected feeds are the intended sources.
  • The presentation distinguishes source links from combined stories.
  • Visitors can open the original reporting.

If you get stuck

The wrong publication appears

Check the News Feed channel and the feeds selected in Automation Config.

The News list feels repetitive

Review the selected sources and whether cards or a roundup better suit the site.

Try it in Podspun Cloud ↗

Related questions

News and members

Using Podspun: all 82 answers

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