# Msn News Scraper (`xtracto/msn-scraper`) Actor

Extract full article content, headlines, and metadata from MSN news URLs, with support for bulk extraction and latest news discovery across multiple publishers.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/xtracto/msn-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Farhan Febrian Nauval](https://apify.com/xtracto) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Lead generation, Social media
- **Stats:** 7 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $10.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md):

```bash
pip install apify-client
```

In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):

````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash

In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md).

If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).


# README

## MSN News Article Scraper

Extract article text, headline, and metadata from **msn.com** news article URLs. MSN News aggregates content from hundreds of publisher partners including NBC News, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, and BBC, giving access to a wide variety of sources through a single scraper.

### Why Use This Actor?

- **Multi-source aggregation** - MSN serves content from 200+ publisher partners through one URL format.
- **Trending news monitoring** - MSN surfaces popular stories across categories in real time.
- **Content discovery** - use MSN editorial curation to find top news with minimal effort.
- **Research breadth** - MSN articles represent diverse publisher voices in a single feed.

### How It Works

This actor uses **only HTTP requests** - no browser, no Selenium, no Playwright. Articles are extracted in seconds with RAM usage well under 256 MB.

### Input

```json
{
  "url": "https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/example-article/ar-AA1rFgBz",
  "urls": [
    "https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/article-one/ar-AA1rFgBz",
    "https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/article-two/ar-BB2rGgBc"
  ]
,
  "mode": "article",
  "limit": 10
}
````

### Output

```json
{
  "url": "https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/viridian-eye-disease-drug-surpasses-expectations-in-late-stage-trial-shares-soar/ar-AA22sioL?ocid=BingNewsBrowse",
  "source": "MSN News",
  "title": "Viridian eye disease drug surpasses expectations in late-stage trial; shares soar",
  "description": "By Siddhi Mahatole May 5 (Reuters) - Viridian Therapeutics said on Tuesday its experimental thyroid eye disease drug met the main goal of a late-stage trial in chronic patients, sending its shares up nearly 35%. The drug, elegrobart, significantly reduced eye bulging in patients with long-standing thyroid eye disease, or TED, when given as a subcutaneous injection every four or every eight weeks",
  "content": "By Siddhi Mahatole May 5 (Reuters) - Viridian Therapeutics said on Tuesday its experimental thyroid eye disease drug met the main goal of a late-stage trial in chronic patients, sending its shares up nearly 35%. The drug, elegrobart, significantly reduced eye bulging in patients with long-standing thyroid eye disease, or TED, when given as a subcutaneous injection every four or every eight weeks, compared with placebo, the company said....",
  "image": "https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA22raV6.img",
  "language": "en-US",
  "word_count": 323,
  "published_date": "2026-05-05T18:07:31Z",
  "modified_date": "2026-05-05T18:44:43Z",
  "authors": [
    "Siddhi Mahatole"
  ],
  "categories": "",
  "tags": [
    "Health",
    "Health news",
    "Medical news",
    "Health and Fitness"
  ]
}
```

### Fetch Latest News

Set `mode` to `"latest"` to fetch the newest article URLs and titles from MSN News instead of extracting a single article.

**Input:**

```json
{
  "mode": "latest",
  "limit": 10
}
```

**Output** - array of objects:

```json
[
  {
    "url": "https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/the-greatest-sitcom-of-the-2000s-is-back-and-its-already-the-biggest-show-on-hulu/ar-AA212cvh?ocid=BingNewsBrowse",
    "title": "The greatest sitcom of the 2000s is back - and it's already the biggest show on Hulu",
    "source": "MSN News"
  }
]
```

Source: `https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world (homepage)` (homepage)

### Cron Schedule: Auto-Fetch Newest Articles

Combine `mode: "latest"` and `mode: "article"` to keep a fresh feed running on autopilot:

1. **Schedule** a recurring run of this Actor with `{"mode": "latest", "limit": 20}` via Apify Schedules (UI ▸ Schedules ▸ Create new). A cron expression like `*/30 * * * *` runs it every 30 minutes.
2. **Webhook** the dataset of the latest run into another Actor run with `mode: "article"` and the new URLs as input — Apify integrations let you chain runs via the "Actor finished" webhook without any glue code.
3. The article-mode run extracts the full body, image, authors, and metadata for each URL and appends to your master dataset.

Common cron expressions:

| Frequency | Cron |
|---|---|
| Every 15 minutes | `*/15 * * * *` |
| Hourly | `0 * * * *` |
| Every 6 hours | `0 */6 * * *` |
| Daily at 06:00 UTC | `0 6 * * *` |

### Notes

- MSN article URLs use a short alphanumeric ID (e.g., `ar-AA1rFgBz`). Always use the full canonical URL from the MSN website.
- Some MSN articles display only a summary when accessed without a referring header from a search engine; the actor handles this automatically.

### Other News Actors

Need a different news source? All actors in this collection:

| Actor | Source |
|---|---|
| [`aljazeera-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/aljazeera-scraper) | Al Jazeera |
| [`apnews-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/apnews-scraper) | AP News |
| [`bbc-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/bbc-scraper) | BBC News |
| [`cnbc-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/cnbc-scraper) | CNBC |
| [`forbes-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/forbes-scraper) | Forbes |
| [`fortune-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/fortune-scraper) | Fortune |
| [`ft-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/ft-scraper) | Financial Times |
| [`guardian-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/guardian-scraper) | The Guardian |
| [`msn-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/msn-scraper) | MSN News |
| [`nytimes-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/nytimes-scraper) | New York Times |
| [`reuters-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/reuters-scraper) | Reuters |
| [`scmp-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/scmp-scraper) | South China Morning Post |
| [`techcrunch-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/techcrunch-scraper) | TechCrunch |
| [`upi-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/upi-scraper) | UPI |
| [`yahoo-finance-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/yahoo-finance-scraper) | Yahoo Finance |
| [`smart-news-loader`](https://apify.com/xtracto/smart-news-loader) | Any URL - adaptive HTTP loader |
| [`bloomberg-scraper`](https://apify.com/xtracto/bloomberg-news-article-scraper) | Bloomberg |

All actors support `mode: "latest"` for fetching newest article URLs from each source.

# Actor input Schema

## `url` (type: `string`):

Single article URL to extract.

## `urls` (type: `array`):

List of article URLs to extract.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Operation mode: 'article' to extract a single article (default), 'latest' to fetch newest headlines from the MSN News homepage.

## `limit` (type: `integer`):

Number of latest articles to return when mode is 'latest'. Default: 10.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "article",
  "limit": 10
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("xtracto/msn-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("xtracto/msn-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call xtracto/msn-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=xtracto/msn-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "Msn News Scraper",
        "description": "Extract full article content, headlines, and metadata from MSN news URLs, with support for bulk extraction and latest news discovery across multiple publishers.",
        "version": "1.0",
        "x-build-id": "rCnEQIVEc41rp4YuT"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/xtracto~msn-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-xtracto-msn-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/xtracto~msn-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-xtracto-msn-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK",
                        "content": {
                            "application/json": {
                                "schema": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/xtracto~msn-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-xtracto-msn-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "schemas": {
            "inputSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "url": {
                        "title": "Article URL",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Single article URL to extract."
                    },
                    "urls": {
                        "title": "Article URLs",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "List of article URLs to extract.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "mode": {
                        "title": "Mode",
                        "enum": [
                            "article",
                            "latest"
                        ],
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Operation mode: 'article' to extract a single article (default), 'latest' to fetch newest headlines from the MSN News homepage.",
                        "default": "article"
                    },
                    "limit": {
                        "title": "Limit",
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Number of latest articles to return when mode is 'latest'. Default: 10.",
                        "default": 10
                    }
                }
            },
            "runsResponseSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "id": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "actId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "userId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "startedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "finishedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "status": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "READY"
                            },
                            "meta": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "origin": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "API"
                                    },
                                    "userAgent": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "stats": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "inputBodyLen": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2000
                                    },
                                    "rebootCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "restartCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "resurrectCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "computeUnits": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "options": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "build": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "latest"
                                    },
                                    "timeoutSecs": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 300
                                    },
                                    "memoryMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1024
                                    },
                                    "diskMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2048
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "buildId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultDatasetId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultRequestQueueId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "buildNumber": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "1.0.0"
                            },
                            "containerUrl": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "usage": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "usageTotalUsd": {
                                "type": "number",
                                "example": 0.00005
                            },
                            "usageUsd": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "number",
                                        "example": 0.00005
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```
