Most Trusted Newspapers and Magazines in Aplomb

The New York Times

Founded in 1851 and published by The New York Times Company, a listed company, the Times has one of the largest newsrooms in the world and publishes corrections every day. Its Opinion section, which includes columnists from the left and the right, is run separately from the newsroom. All three raters place its news coverage left of center (Lean Left, Skews Left, Left-Center), and it rates High for factual reporting. Read it for: depth on US politics, culture and international affairs. Is The New York Times biased?

The Wall Street Journal

Founded in 1889, the Journal belongs to Dow Jones, which Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought in 2007. Raters split its news pages from its opinion pages: AllSides rates the news Center, while Media Bias/Fact Check rates the publication Right-Center, mainly because of its editorials, and Mostly Factual. It is the only outlet in Aplomb that leans right on our combined score. In 2023 Russia jailed its reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges the paper rejected; he was freed in a prisoner exchange in August 2024. Read it for: business, the economy and markets. Is The Wall Street Journal biased?

The Guardian

Founded in Manchester in 1821, The Guardian is owned by the Scott Trust, set up to secure its independence. It has an openly progressive editorial line, and every rater places it left of center, AllSides furthest at Left. Media Bias/Fact Check still rates its factual reporting High; Ad Fontes Media places it at the lower edge of its reliable range, mainly because of the share of analysis and opinion it found. Read it for: the UK, the environment and international stories. Is The Guardian left or right?

The Economist

Published in London since 1843, The Economist argues a declared line: free trade and open markets, with liberal positions on social issues. Most articles carry no byline and speak in the paper's collective voice. Its ownership structure caps any shareholder at 20% of voting rights, with trustees protecting editorial independence. Raters place it from Least Biased to Lean Left, and it sits in our center zone. Read it for: explanation and global context rather than breaking news. Is The Economist biased?

Financial Times

The FT, founded in 1888, has been owned by Japan's Nikkei since it bought the paper from Pearson in 2015. All three raters place it near the center, and it ranks among the most reliable outlets we track. Its best-known investigation questioned the accounts of Wirecard, a German payments company, for years, despite a criminal complaint against two of its journalists; Wirecard collapsed in 2020 after admitting that 1.9 billion euros did not exist. Read it for: business, economics and international policy. Is the Financial Times biased?

The Globe and Mail

Canada's leading national newspaper took its current name in 1936 and has been fully owned by Woodbridge, the Thomson family's holding company, since 2015. Woodbridge also holds about 70% of Thomson Reuters, but the two newsrooms are separate. Raters disagree on its side of center: Ad Fontes Media scores it just left of zero, Media Bias/Fact Check rates it Right-Center, and the average lands in our center zone. Read it for: Canadian politics, business and policy. Is The Globe and Mail biased?

La Presse

Montréal's French-language daily, founded in 1884, stopped printing at the end of 2017 and is now published online and in its free La Presse+ app. Since 2018 it has been an independent non-profit organization, after Power Corporation of Canada gave up ownership; it is funded by advertising and readers' donations, and it is one of the three owners of The Canadian Press. Only Media Bias/Fact Check has rated it: Left-Center (-4.2), with High factual reporting. Read it for: Québec politics and news in French. Is La Presse biased?

The Christian Science Monitor

Launched in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy as an answer to the sensational press of her time, the Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, but its news coverage is secular, with one labeled religious article a day. Its reporters have won seven Pulitzer Prizes. All three raters place it near the center, and it has the highest combined reliability of any paper in Aplomb. Read it for: calm, explanatory coverage of world news. Is The Christian Science Monitor biased?

Every paper here runs an opinion section next to its reporting, and the two can lean in different directions. AllSides rates The Wall Street Journal's news coverage Center, while Media Bias/Fact Check rates the whole publication Right-Center, mainly because of its editorial pages. The New York Times keeps Opinion under a separate editor from the newsroom. The Economist goes the other way: its viewpoint runs through most articles, but openly.

When you judge a paper, check which part you are reading. Online, opinion pieces are labeled ("Opinion", "Comment", "Editorial", "Guest essay"), but the label is easy to miss once an article is shared. Aplomb shows the videos these papers publish, and one of our six criteria is a clear separation between news and opinion.

• US politics: The New York Times for depth, The Wall Street Journal for a right-of-center counterweight.
• Business and markets: the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.
• The big picture: The Economist, once a week.
• World news without the noise: The Christian Science Monitor.
• Britain: The Guardian, with the Financial Times for economics.
• Canada: The Globe and Mail, paired with CBC News; in French, La Presse.

The Economist publishes weekly but calls itself a newspaper, and like The Christian Science Monitor it has a large reporting staff and a published corrections policy, the two things that matter to us. We group them with the dailies because they meet the same standard, not because of how often they print.

Most of these papers charge for full access to their articles. The exceptions are The Guardian, funded largely by voluntary reader contributions instead of a paywall, and La Presse, a non-profit funded by advertising and donations. Their short videos are a different matter: each paper posts them free on its official YouTube channel, and those are the videos Aplomb shows. It is a quick way to follow several papers you would never subscribe to all at once, and to decide which one is worth paying for.