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Homepage / Exploring global news with Factiva

Exploring global news with Factiva

11/09/2025

Whether you’re tracking global business trends, analysing media coverage, or researching international markets, Factiva is a powerful tool that can help you access high-quality, up-to-date news from around the world. Factiva is one of the largest news aggregators available with more than 30,000 sources in 32 languages, including many major national and international publications, local news, newswires, and business sources. These can be searched using Factiva’s powerful search tool and comprehensive indexes. Whether you’re looking for breaking news in Brazil, policy updates in China, or market trends in Europe, Factiva has you covered.

Searching: Classic Factiva Interface

The first search box you see on Factiva is the “Free text search”. You can enter your search terms or company name, adjust the date range, and hit search.

screenshot of Factiva- Free text search

If you want to perform a more advanced search, the second option – the Search Form – allows you to include or exclude words and to search by phrase. Toggle between Free Text Search and the Search Form by clicking on the links on the left of the search boxes.

Either search option lets you specify a date range – the default is the last three months.

Refining your search with filters

Below the search box in Factiva, you’ll find a set of filters to help narrow down your results. Click on any heading—such as Source, Author, Company, Subject, Industry, or Region — to explore its options. For example, Source lets you choose specific publications or groups of titles. To add a term from Factiva’s index to your search, simply click on it and it will turn yellow to show it’s been selected. To remove it, click again and choose ‘Remove’. If you want to exclude a term from your results, select ‘Not’—but use this carefully, as it will remove all articles tagged with that term. You can also adjust how terms are linked by clicking the grey ‘AND/OR’ buttons between them to change the logic of your search.
 

Search results

Your results will appear in a list like this.
 
Screenshot of the Factiva search result page
 
On the search results page, Factiva defaults to showing articles by “Most recent first.” Change the Sort By dropdown menu to “Oldest” or “Relevance” to change how the results display. Use the filters on the left to narrow the search results further, such as by Companies mentioned, people mentioned, Author, Language, and other options. To open any article, click on its title. You can read online or download it. To download multiple articles at once, use the checkboxes on the left of the title and then select your preferred option from the row at the top.
 
Screenshot of Factiva search results page
 
Make sure that you always select a download option that includes ‘Article’ format to get the full-text.
 
Screenshot of Factiva search results- showing how to select article format when downloading
 

Searching: New Factiva Interface

In September 2024, Factiva launched a redesigned search interface powered by AI. It uses natural language processing to interpret the context and intent behind search queries, rather than relying solely on keywords. It supports phrase searching and can accommodate misspellings and typos, making it more accessible to a broader range of users. However, it’s worth noting that the new interface currently offers fewer features and filters compared to the classic version. For more advanced searches—such as those involving complex search operators or detailed filtering—the classic interface remains the preferred option. Factiva can also be used to search for company information. See our separate post for more information. If you have any questions about Factiva, newspaper content, or any other area of Library services, please do get in touch.

Feature image from Pixabay. Available at: https://pixabay.com/photos/business-background-blog-2651346/

Delphine Olandzobo

Written By: Delphine Olandzobo

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