Journalism

Breaking News Source Monitoring

Stories break on primary source pages before they hit the wire. Cheetah Ping monitors those pages so you report first.

e.g. White House Statements & Releases

The story broke on the agency website. Your competitor had it first.

In journalism, the story goes to whoever publishes first. Not whoever writes best, not whoever has the deepest analysis, but whoever gets the facts out the door first. Speed has always mattered, but in the age of social media it matters more than ever. A ten-minute lead on a breaking story can mean the difference between being the source everyone else cites and being the publication that "also reported."

The best stories break on primary sources: government agency pages, corporate press release sections, court filing databases, regulatory portals. These pages update without fanfare. No push notification. No press conference. A PDF quietly appears on a .gov website at 4:37 PM, and the first reporter to notice it gets the scoop.

Your newsroom monitors key sources, but the coverage is inconsistent. During business hours, someone is usually checking the important pages. After hours, on weekends, and during holidays, the monitoring gaps widen. That is precisely when some of the biggest stories drop: Friday evening document dumps, holiday weekend announcements, pre-dawn regulatory actions.

Wire services like AP and Reuters catch some of this, but they are not watching every source you are. Your beat has niche primary sources that the wires do not monitor. A local court clerk page. A state agency that publishes enforcement actions. A corporate investor relations page. These are the pages where your original reporting advantage lives, and they are the pages that slip through the cracks during off-hours.

Cheetah Ping watches your primary sources 24/7, including the hours when your newsroom is dark. When a page updates, you get an alert. You review the change, write the story, and publish. Being first is not about working harder. It is about knowing sooner.

How Cheetah Ping helps journalists break stories

Monitor government, corporate, and institutional primary source pages

AI identifies new content additions and significant updates

Catch after-hours and weekend document drops that newsrooms miss

Monitor niche beat sources that wire services do not cover

Immediate alerts let you write and publish before competitors notice

Three steps. Under a minute.

No downloads. No browser extensions. No complicated setup.

01

Paste any URL

Copy the link to any public webpage. A careers page, a product listing, an appointment portal - anything.

02

We start watching

Cheetah Ping checks the page on your schedule. Every minute, every 5 minutes, every hour - you choose. No browser extension needed.

03

Get pinged instantly

Email, Slack, or Discord - your choice. The moment we detect a change, you know. While everyone else is still refreshing.

Email
Slack
Discord

Broke a story about a state agency enforcement action because Cheetah Ping caught the filing at 9 PM. No other outlet had it until the next morning.

Investigative Reporter, Regional Newspaper

Unlimited checks. Every plan. Flat-rate monitoring, no per-check billing.

Simple, honest pricing

No surprises. No per-seat pricing. Cancel anytime with one click.

Free

Track a few prices

$0/mo

~150 checks/month on autopilot

  • 5 monitors
  • Unlimited checks
  • Every 24 hours
  • 7 days history

Starter

For serious deal hunters

$9/mo

~28,800 checks/month on autopilot

  • 10 monitors
  • Unlimited checks
  • Every 15 minutes
  • 30 days history

Pro

Most popular

For power users

$19/mo

~432,000 checks/month on autopilot

  • 50 monitors
  • Unlimited checks
  • Every 5 minutes
  • 90 days history

Ultra

Fastest

Can't miss a beat

$49/mo

~2.16M checks/month. Nothing slips past you.

  • 50 monitors
  • Unlimited checks
  • Every minute
  • 180 days history

Frequently asked questions

Start monitoring now

Set up your first journalism monitor in 30 seconds. Free forever for 5 monitors.