Legible News

I built Legible News in 2018 after I found myself frustrated at how poorly US-based news organizations cover significant international events and tend to focus on more insignificant domestic matters. Additionally, I found myself thinking “why does this not link to source material” and “are all of these videos, images, javascripts, and advertisements really necessary”?

A few principals behind Legible News that I think make it great:

1. Fast - Most news websites load a bunch of advertisements, videos, graphics, and interactive elements that add no substance to the story. Legible News only loads text and each page is only one request, compared to 100’s for popular US-based news websites.

2. No breaking news - The news alerts and graphics of US based media companies have gotten out of hand. If you watch a news channel or view their website, there’s a good chance you’ll be hit with something “BREAKING” that’s not really breaking, designed to draw you in. Legible News is boring, almost to a fault, so you don’t become addicted to the news.

3. News once a day is enough - I think people are bonkers or sadists that allow News alerts to constantly be blowing up their phone. National or international news rarely effects people on that time frame where they need to know about something immediately. Legible News is updated once per day, at 18:00 PST to be exact, and doesn’t bother to alert you. Just check it once per day whenever you usually check the news and you’ll know what you need to know.

4. Learn something - News websites want to keep you on their news website, so they rarely link to source material or other contextually helpful information. Legible News judiciously links off to Wikipedia articles that people can read to get more context behind an issue and learn stuff. It’s actually informative.