# newspaper bot

The newspaper bot is not a bot from a single service but a user-agent for the 'newspaper' Python library, an open-source tool for web scraping and content extraction. It is used by developers and researchers to automatically extract structured content, like articles and author information, from websites. Its presence in your logs means an individual or organization is using this tool to collect your content, often for research or data analysis.

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## What is the newspaper bot?

The newspaper bot user-agent is associated with the 'newspaper' Python library, an open-source tool for web scraping and content extraction from news articles and blogs. It is not a bot from a single company but a tool that can be deployed by anyone. It functions by downloading the HTML of a webpage and using algorithms to extract meaningful information like article text, authors, and publication dates. It identifies itself in server logs with the user-agent string `newspaper/0.2.8`.


## Why is the newspaper bot crawling my site?

The newspaper bot is crawling your website because someone is using the 'newspaper' library to collect your content. The purpose could be anything from academic research and data analysis to content aggregation for a machine learning dataset. The frequency of visits is determined entirely by how the person using the library has configured their scraping operation. It is important to note that this crawling is not from an official service and may be unauthorized.


## What is the purpose of the newspaper bot?

The purpose of the 'newspaper' library is to simplify the process of extracting structured content from news websites. It supports various applications, including research, content aggregation, and the creation of training datasets for natural language processing. Unlike search engine crawlers that can provide a direct benefit to websites through increased visibility, this tool primarily benefits its users. Website owners should be aware that content extracted with this tool may be repurposed in ways not originally intended.


## How do I block the newspaper bot?

To prevent the 'newspaper' library from being used to scrape your site, you can add a disallow rule for its user-agent in your `robots.txt` file. This is the standard method for managing access for web scrapers that identify themselves.

Add the following lines to your `robots.txt` file to block this bot:

```
User-agent: newspaper
Disallow: /
```


## Related agents and operators


## Canonical

Human friendly, reader version of this article is available at [newspaper bot](https://plainsignal.com/agents/newspaper-bot)

## Copyright

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