WIRED RSS Scraper: Export Headlines to JSON or CSV

WIRED RSS Scraper collects headlines, story links, publication dates, authors, categories, and short summaries from public WIRED RSS feeds. Export results to JSON, CSV, or Excel for news monitoring, research, and scheduled updates.

The feeds contain recent stories rather than the full archive. For ongoing monitoring, schedule regular runs and use the guid field to identify stories already processed.

Use Cases

• News monitoring: Collect the latest WIRED headlines on a schedule.
• Section monitoring: Track a specific section, such as business.
• Keyword filtering: Keep stories whose headlines or summaries contain a specified keyword.
• Research lists: Export story links, publication dates, and summaries.
• Duplicate detection: Use story identifiers to avoid processing the same item repeatedly.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
feedUrls	Array	Main feed and business feed	WIRED RSS feed URLs, one per entry. Other sites are rejected.
keyword	String	Empty	Optional filter applied to headlines and summaries.
maxItems	Integer	100	Maximum number of story rows per run. Hard limit: 1000.
timeoutSecs	Integer	300	Overall run time limit in seconds.
requestTimeoutSecs	Integer	30	Timeout for an individual request in seconds.

Example Input

Replace the placeholders with the WIRED RSS feed URLs you want to monitor.

{
  "feedUrls": [
    "WIRED_MAIN_RSS_FEED_URL",
    "WIRED_BUSINESS_RSS_FEED_URL"
  ],
  "keyword": "",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "timeoutSecs": 300,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 30
}

What Data Does This Actor Extract?

Each story is saved as a separate dataset row. Headlines are stored in itemTitle, and summaries are stored in summaryText. Summaries are converted to plain text and trimmed to a maximum of 500 characters. Full article HTML and article bodies are not collected.

Example Output

{
  "itemTitle": "Example WIRED Story Headline",
  "link": "STORY_URL",
  "guid": "example-story-identifier",
  "pubDate": "Sun, 11 Oct 2026 11:30:00 +0000",
  "summaryText": "A short plain-text summary of the story.",
  "categories": [
    "Gear",
    "Gear / Gear News and Events"
  ],
  "author": "Example Author",
  "imageUrl": "IMAGE_URL",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-12T00:00:00+00:00"
}

Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
itemTitle	String	Story headline.
link	String	Story URL.
guid	String	Feed identifier used for deduplication. Falls back to the story link if unavailable.
pubDate	String or null	Publication date provided by the feed.
summaryText	String or null	Short, plain-text story summary.
categories	Array	Category labels associated with the story.
author	String or null	Author, when provided by the feed.
imageUrl	String or null	Media or enclosure image URL, when available.
scrapedAt	String	UTC timestamp when the row was saved.
error	String	Error description for a failed input instead of a story record.
input	String	URL or setting associated with a failed input.

How It Works

1. Reads the configured feed list, optional keyword, and maximum item count.
2. Checks that each feed belongs to an accepted WIRED RSS feed pattern.
3. Requests the configured feeds and parses their RSS items.
4. Removes HTML from text fields, filters stories by keyword when specified, and removes duplicate story identifiers.
5. Stops when the configured item limit is reached.
6. Saves story records and error details to the dataset.

Retries and Error Handling

• HTTP 429 responses, server errors (5xx), and timeouts are retried up to three times.
• Retry delays are 2, 4, and 8 seconds, with short Retry-After delays respected when provided.
• Invalid feed URLs, non-XML responses, and HTTP errors produce rows containing error and input.
• A failed feed does not prevent the actor from attempting other configured feeds.

Feed and Rate Limits

• RSS feeds provide recent items; they do not provide a complete historical archive.
• Each feed is processed as a single page, without backward pagination.
• Schedule polls approximately 5–15 minutes apart for the same feed.
• The source may expose request-limit information in its response headers. If the remaining request allowance reaches zero, additional requests in that run are skipped after the current response is saved.

Limits and Terms

WIRED's user agreement specifies conditions for personal and non-commercial use. This actor stores headlines, links, dates, author information, image URLs, and short summaries rather than downloading full article bodies.

You are responsible for ensuring that your use of exported data complies with applicable source terms, copyright requirements, attribution rules, and other relevant restrictions.

Pricing: The actor is free to run. Normal Apify platform usage charges may apply.

FAQ

Can I export results to CSV or JSON?

Yes. Dataset results can be exported in JSON, CSV, and Excel formats.

Does it collect older stories?

No. The feeds provide recent items, not a complete archive. Schedule repeated runs and use guid to identify new stories and avoid duplicates.

What happens if a feed URL is invalid?

The actor saves an error row for the invalid input and continues processing other configured feeds.

What is the maximum number of items per run?

The default is 100, and the maximum is 1000.

Does the actor download full articles?

No. It collects feed metadata and short summaries, not full article bodies.

Trademark Notice

WIRED and related names, logos, and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Their use in this documentation is solely to identify the source of the data and does not imply affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, or partnership.

Disclaimer

This actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or officially associated with WIRED or its owners. Users are responsible for complying with applicable source terms, rate limits, attribution requirements, and licensing restrictions.

Is Web Scraping Legal?

Collecting information that is already public is generally legal. Scraping is not the same thing as hacking, and there is no single law that bans it. The limits are the usual ones: do not break into accounts, do not take private or confidential data, and be careful with personal data and copyrighted works. A site's terms can also restrict how you access it. Facts such as a public name, price, or rating are not the same thing as republishing someone's article or photo.

This actor collects information from public pages. It does not log in and it does not bypass access controls.

For a longer explanation, see Apify's article Is web scraping legal?.