FAQ

Here are some common questions asked about Ground News

What is Ground News?

Ground News empowers readers to compare how news sources from across the political spectrum are covering the same story. With Ground News, readers can expand their view of the news and easily compare reporting from a wide range of news outlets.

A Ground News account gives you access to the mobile app", website, browser extension, and exclusive newsletters that help readers access multiple perspectives and stay informed easily.

How does it work?

Ground News identifies every news articles written about a recent event, and categorizes the reporting based on the source's political bias, factuality, ownership, geographic location, and chronology. Get the overview of reporting with the Ground Summary, which highlights the key points from all of the articles reporting on a story, from left, right, and center. If you're interested in learning about our rating system, learn more about it here.

What makes Ground News different?

While the Top Stories feed offers a unique overview of today's media landscape, Ground News also features many alternative, independent sources that aren’t confined to the mainstream news narrative. You can view stories that are minimized or emphasized by only one side of the political spectrum with the Blindspot Feed, which shines a spotlight on lopsided coverage. This puts our community in a position to choose and easily compare the news they want to read, and also get a peek into what's being reported on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Who owns and operates Ground News?

Ground News is a small team of 18 media outsiders, based in Ontario, Canada. Ground News is co-founded by siblings Harleen Kaur (ex-NASA) and Sukh Singh (ex-Bain). Ground is backed by a handful of mission-aligned independent individual investors, with no ties to corporate media, big tech, or government affiliations. In addition to our team, Ground is supported by our community of subscribers who resonate with our team’s mission to improve the online news environment.

You can learn more about us here.

Does Ground publish any original news?

Ground News is not a news publisher, nor do we editorialize any news. Ground News provides tools to help readers compare how different news sources are covering the same story, making it easier for you to feel more informed about the news you’re consuming. The Ground News community can conveniently see how a story is being reported according to a source’s political bias rating, geographic location, and when it was published. These features can be used in the free version of Ground News, but we offer subscriptions for news junkies and anyone else dedicated to seeing past the partisan spin.

How does Ground decide what news stories to show me?

Ground endeavors to make readers easily, clearly and fully informed on the most important news stories of the day as well as the news most relevant to their personal interests.

Widely reported news can be found in the Top Stories tab. Every user on Ground sees the same Top Stories according to the Edition of Ground that they’re using. Readers can opt-in to the International Edition of Ground to see Top Stories from around the world, or they can opt-in to the US Edition for Top Stories based in the US.

The My Feed tab offers a personalized collection of stories which is algorithmically curated based on stated and observed reading behaviors, and reflects what media sources and interests you’ve followed within the app. Any changes you’ve made to what topics/source you’re following will be reflected here.

Ground reveals the reader’s own reading behaviors in the feature “My News Bias”. With this feature, news sources are selected for each story to show a full and balanced set of coverage of the event.

How can I see news that’s relevant to my country?

Our goal is to offer an app that curates relevant news for users all over the world, and from all walks of life. To see news more relevant to your country, you can follow more news sources based in your country, including smaller, local sources. These changes will be reflected in your “My Feed” tab. The more sources you follow, the more relevant your My Feed will be.

Where does the news on Ground come from?

The news on Ground comes from 2 sources: directly from over 50,000 major news publications (newspapers, news TV channels, news magazines) from around the world, and trending social media (including select blogs). If you don’t like the mainstream perspective, you can always find the independent one by swiping through sources or by following your favourite publications.

If you cannot find your favourite news publication on Ground, you can submit it for review within the app by going to Settings > Support > Suggest News Source.

How does the rating system on Ground News work?

The Ground team takes no part in evaluating a Bias or Factuality Rating on news publications or stories – we leave that to the experts. Bias and factuality ratings are averaged from the published ratings from three third-party independent news publication monitoring organizations, when available: All Sides, Ad Fontes Media, and Media Bias Fact Check. These organizations each have their methodology listed on their respective websites if you’d like to read more about them.

To learn all about our methodology, read more here.

Ratings are not static and can evolve over time based on the trajectory of reporting. If you disagree with a rating, you can always select “Edit Bias Rating” on a news source to change the rating on your personal account.

Have any questions? Feel free to reach out to us via email at [email protected].

Does Ground have a political agenda?

Ground has no political agenda and only presents the news as it's being reported. We do not censor any news, nor do we publish or editorialize any of our own. News is sourced from publications across the political spectrum and flagged with a bias and factuality ratings in order to help readers understand where the news is coming from and allow them to come to their own conclusions.

The Ground team is happy to receive users from all walks of life, but the platform operates independently of readers’ political preferences.

How can I see fewer ads?

We do not serve ads on the Ground News platform. However, the news articles we link to may include advertising or paywalls. We can’t block advertisements or paywalls on these sites, but there are a couple of things you can do to improve the reading experience.

1. Select an article you want to read. Once the publisher page loads, click on the icon in the top right corner (next to the share icon). This will open the text in a cleaner format with fewer popups.

2. Any news source that uses a paywall is indicated by a $ icon over the source logo. This makes it easier to know which publishers offer free access to a story when swiping through sources to compare how the story is being reported. You can filter out stories with paywalls by using the Sort & Filter menu when viewing a story's full coverage.

I have a suggestion. How do I give it to you?

All Ground readers can submit feedback and suggestions through the “Feedback” feature from the “Support” section of the in-app settings. Whether you’d like to recommend a news source, suggest an improvement, report a bug, or have a few questions about Ground, we’d be happy to receive it at our feedback channel: [email protected].

Developers regularly review feedback to improve the app experience. We thank you in advance for your suggestions!

Want to know more about Ground?

Check out the following pages:

Ground News Help Center

About Ground News

About Bias Ratings

How do I subscribe?

Ground News Pro or Premium subscriptions are purchased through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store's in-app purchases. Subscribers have the option to select annual or monthly billing.

For more information about features included in Ground News subscriptions, or for information on how to purchase or cancel the subscription, please visit the About Subscriptions page. For issues in activating or using your subscriptions please see our Subscription Troubleshooting page.

Want to give the gift of Ground? You can read about gift subscriptions here.

Why am I not getting password reset emails?

Sometimes the security settings on your email inbox prevent the password reset email coming through. Remember to check your spam/junk folders first, but if it is still not there, consider whitelisting [email protected] as an approved sender. Here’s an article describing how to whitelist a sender in some common email clients.

Want to know more about Ground?

Check out the following pages:The History of Ground News About Ground News About Bias Ratings

How do I subscribe?Ground News Subscriptions are purchased through our Website or through the Apple App or Google Play Store's in app purchasesSubscribe NowFor more information about features available from Ground News, or for information on how to purchase or cancel the subscription, please visit the Subscriptions page. For issues in activating or using your subscriptions please see our Subscription Troubleshooting page.

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