NPR News RSS Scraper: News and Technology Headlines

Overview

NPR News RSS Scraper collects recent headlines from the supported NPR News and Technology feeds and saves structured records containing article titles, links, publication dates, authors, and short summaries.

The Actor does not require login credentials. It collects metadata and short descriptions available in the feeds rather than downloading complete article text.

Each feed contains recent items rather than a complete historical archive. For ongoing monitoring, schedule recurring runs and use the guid field to identify duplicate stories.

Features

• Collects recent NPR News and Technology headlines.
• Extracts article titles, links, publication dates, and bylines.
• Captures short summaries in plain text.
• Filters stories using case-insensitive keyword matching.
• Supports configurable item limits and timeouts.
• Deduplicates stories using their guid values.
• Records errors for invalid inputs and unsuccessful feed downloads.
• Retries temporary failures, including timeouts and server errors.
• Supports JSON, CSV, and Excel dataset exports.
• Supports scheduled collection for news monitoring.

Use Cases

• News monitoring: Maintain an updated list of NPR headlines.
• Technology tracking: Monitor technology news alongside general news.
• Keyword filtering: Find headlines and summaries mentioning a particular topic.
• Research notes: Organize story links, dates, authors, and summaries.
• Deduplicated archives: Avoid storing the same story more than once when it appears in multiple feeds.
• Data analysis: Export structured news metadata for spreadsheet analysis and other workflows.

Filtering Options

Parameter	Description
keyword	Optional, case-insensitive text filter applied to headlines and short summaries. An empty value disables keyword filtering.

Keyword filtering narrows the results based on available headline and summary text. It does not search the complete text of individual articles.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
feedUrls	Array	NPR News and Technology feeds	List of supported feed URLs. Only the two verified NPR feeds are accepted.
keyword	String	Empty	Optional, case-insensitive keyword filter for headlines and short summaries.
maxItems	Integer	100	Maximum number of headline records to save. The value is limited to the range of 1–1,000.
timeoutSecs	Integer	300	Maximum overall run duration in seconds, including retries.
requestTimeoutSecs	Integer	30	Maximum duration of an individual feed download, in seconds.

Only the supported NPR News and Technology feeds are processed. Unsupported URLs produce error records rather than being fetched.

Example Input

{
  "feedUrls": [
    "NPR_NEWS_FEED",
    "NPR_TECHNOLOGY_FEED"
  ],
  "keyword": "",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "timeoutSecs": 300,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 30
}

Replace the descriptive feed placeholders with the supported NPR feed URLs in the Actor's input configuration.

Extracted Data

Each successful record contains the headline, short summary, publication date, story link, unique identifier, author, source feed, and collection timestamp.

The Actor removes HTML markup from summaries and ignores encoded full-article content. It does not save complete article bodies.

Example Output

{
  "itemTitle": "Pope Leo XIV to undergo lung surgery this week",
  "itemDescription": "Pope Leo XIV said he would undergo surgery after doctors found a \"localized nodule\" in his lung.",
  "pubDate": "Sun, 11 Oct 2026 08:54:25 -0400",
  "link": "ARTICLE_URL",
  "guid": "STORY_UNIQUE_IDENTIFIER",
  "author": "Ava Pukatch",
  "sourceUrl": "NPR_NEWS_FEED",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-12T00:00:00+00:00"
}

The example illustrates the output structure. Actual records depend on the stories available in the selected feeds.

Field Reference

Field	Type	Description
itemTitle	String	Story headline in plain text.
itemDescription	String or null	Short summary with HTML markup removed. Null when no summary is available.
pubDate	String or null	Publication date as provided by the feed. Null when missing.
link	String	Story URL supplied by the feed.
guid	String	Story identifier used for deduplication.
author	String or null	Byline supplied by the feed. Null when missing.
sourceUrl	String	Feed associated with the story record.
scrapedAt	String	UTC timestamp indicating when the record was created.
error	String	Error description included when an input fails.
input	String or other input value	Input associated with an error record.

Error Records

An invalid feed URL, an unsuccessful download, an HTML error page, or a feed that cannot be processed can produce an error record.

{
  "error": "ERROR_DESCRIPTION",
  "input": "INVALID_OR_FAILED_INPUT"
}

The error message depends on the problem encountered. A failed input does not necessarily stop the entire run.

Dataset Views and Exports

Collected records are saved to the Actor's Apify dataset.

Supported export formats include:

• JSON
• CSV
• Excel

These formats allow you to review headlines, filter records in spreadsheets, maintain a news archive, and use the collected metadata in other data-processing workflows.

Collection and Rate Limits

Feed coverage

The supported feeds contain recent items rather than a complete historical archive. They do not provide additional pages for retrieving older stories.

Increasing maxItems only allows more items from the available feed content to be saved, up to the configured maximum.

Recommended collection interval

Schedule runs at least five minutes apart. An interval of approximately 15 minutes is the safer option for routine monitoring and helps avoid excessive repeated requests.

Retry behavior

The Actor retries HTTP 429 responses, HTTP 5xx errors, and timeouts up to three times, with delays of approximately 2, 4, and 8 seconds. When a numeric Retry-After value is provided, the Actor may use that value instead.

Timeouts

• Overall run timeout: 300 seconds by default.
• Individual feed download timeout: 30 seconds by default.

Processing behavior

• Only the two supported NPR feeds are processed.
• A one-second pause is used between the two topic feeds.
• Duplicate stories are skipped using their guid values.
• The encoded full-article body is ignored.
• Invalid inputs and unsuccessful downloads can produce error records without stopping the entire run.

Attribution and Source Restrictions

NPR's terms restrict use of its RSS content to personal, non-commercial purposes and do not permit scraping for republishing. Review the applicable terms before using or redistributing collected records.

When working with the dataset:

• Attribute stories to NPR.
• Preserve links to original stories.
• Do not republish full copyrighted articles without permission.
• Respect applicable restrictions on commercial use and redistribution.
• Handle author information and other potentially personal data responsibly.

The Actor collects headlines, links, dates, bylines, and short summaries rather than full article text.

Free Usage Limits

The Actor is free to run. Standard Apify platform usage charges may still apply depending on your account, platform usage, and applicable plan.

FAQ

Does NPR News RSS Scraper require login credentials?

No. The Actor collects publicly available content from the supported NPR feeds without requiring login credentials.

Which feeds are supported?

The Actor supports the NPR News and NPR Technology feeds. Other feed addresses are rejected and recorded as errors.

Can I export the results to CSV or JSON?

Yes. Apify dataset exports support JSON, CSV, and Excel formats.

Can I collect older stories or access another page?

No. Each feed contains recent items and does not provide additional pages for historical retrieval. Schedule recurring runs and deduplicate by guid to maintain a growing collection.

What happens if a feed returns an error?

The Actor retries supported temporary failures and records an error when the input cannot be processed. Other feed inputs can continue processing.

Does the export include full article text?

No. The Actor saves the headline, short summary, publication date, story link, identifier, author, source feed, and collection timestamp. Encoded full-article content is ignored.

How are duplicate stories handled?

The Actor skips duplicate guid values, including duplicates encountered across the supported feeds. Deduplication depends on the source providing consistent identifiers.

How often should I schedule the Actor?

Runs should be at least five minutes apart. Approximately 15 minutes is a safer interval for regular monitoring.

Trademark Notice

NPR and all associated names, logos, and trademarks belong to their respective owners. They are referenced solely to identify the source of the collected information. This Actor is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by, or officially associated with NPR or its owners.

Disclaimer

This Actor is an independent tool for collecting publicly available news metadata. Feed availability, content, and structure may change over time, and uninterrupted or complete collection is not guaranteed.

Users are responsible for complying with applicable laws, source terms, copyright restrictions, attribution requirements, and data-handling obligations when collecting, storing, using, or redistributing the results.

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?.