About us
A tiny Australian company that thinks the news could be written more plainly, and decided to show its working.
The company
Mundane Read is built and operated by Creditcrest Technologies Pty Ltd, an Australian proprietary company — ACN 702 318 778, ABN 80 702 318 778. We are not a registered charity, not a not-for-profit, and not owned by a media group. Nobody else has a say in what this site publishes.
Why this exists
Back in school, my teacher docked marks on my report writing. When I asked her to review it, she explained that we should not use removable adjectives, overly descriptive words, or include personal opinions.
If only she had seen the news lately. It is depressing, biased, opinionated, and the writer’s opinion may change the article completely. I was just looking for a news source that simply states the facts without any drama.
People have started avoiding the news altogether to protect their mental health. That is not a good state. That is where we are now, but it does not solve anything. The events still happen. Ignorance is not a solution; it only provides temporary bliss until those events impact you directly. Eventually, something will affect you, your family, or your surroundings.
I am not from a media background. All I wanted is a reliable news source that is straightforward and drama-free.
We aimed to create something that current news outlets are not. We do not have ads, we do not ask for subscriptions for reading, and we strive to minimise bias as much as possible without losing essential information. We remove or reduce sensational content, to get a “Mundane Read.”
What we are trying to do
Take a news report, publish a plainer telling of the same facts, and show the measurements beside it so nobody has to take our word for any of it. Every fact, number, name and direct quotation stays exactly as the outlet filed it. Quotations are never edited, because a quotation is evidence.
We hold ourselves to one rule above the rest: we never publish a version that reads worse than the report it came from. If our edit makes a story read as more loaded, or heavier, we publish the report unchanged and make no claim about it. That is enforced in code and checked every hour.
How it is paid for
Three ways, and none of them is advertising. The browser extension is a paid product. The API is sold to businesses. And readers who want to chip in can, for nothing in return on purpose.
There is no advertising anywhere on this site and there will not be. Advertising pays for attention, which rewards exactly the writing this site exists to measure and remove — we would be selling the disease and the cure.
Where we are going
Licences with the newsrooms whose reporting we measure, so we can pay properly for the work this is built on. Apps for iPhone and Android, and then macOS and iPadOS. And a long, unglamorous grind on the engine itself: plainer language, easier reading, more of the drama out and none of the facts with it.
Talking to us
Write to support@mundaneread.com. A person reads it. If you are a newsroom and you would rather we did not use your reporting, say so and we will stop — you do not have to explain why, and it takes effect within two days.
What the product does, and what it deliberately does not do, is on the about the product page. How each measurement is made is on the method page.