About Us

Searching more than 75 years of world history

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Since 1931 Keesing’s has collected news reports on a daily basis from all over the world in a wide range of languages. Our editorial team, based in Cambridge, UK, takes this huge mass of raw data and refines and processes it into a series articles which we publish each month. These constitute a concise, accurate and unbiased account of important developments in each of the world’s countries, major international organisations and within selected thematic topics. Therefore, each monthly issue of Keesing’s Record of World Events accurately records, and objectively places within its immediate and historical context, the world’s most significant political, social and economic events by the end of the month following that in which they occurred.

Among the events covered are elections and changes of government; wars, treaties, appointments, and diplomacy; terrorism and issues of internal security; legislation, budgets, economic developments and international agreements; actions by the UN and other international organisations; natural disasters, environmental issues, and scientific discoveries.

Without the constraints of overnight deadlines we have the luxury of compiling a complete and comprehensive inventory of the world’s most important political, social and economic events, month by month. Without the pressure of having to sell a newspaper or broadcast each day, we can take time to research a story and authenticate its facts from a wide range of sources. In doing so we continue to expand an archive which has already endured for three quarters of a century and which will continue to have relevance for as long as there are those who want and need reliable information.

Keesing’s World News Archive is a web-based database comprising our full archive - more than 95,000 articles, first from 1931-87 as Keesing’s Contemporary Archives, and then as Keesing’s Record of World Events from 1987 to the present. We continue to publish and add to this archive at the rate of about 150 articles per month, thereby adding layer upon layer of recorded fact.

We do this by adhering to a six step editorial process:

1. Locate and authenticate a wide range of international news sources.
2. Examine and collate their news output on a daily basis.
3. Compare the facts and figures from different sources in a bid to distil the most accurate possible information.
4. Discard biased, speculative, misleading or inaccurate material.
5. Research and verify the remaining information.
6. Use this raw material to write lucid and digestible articles which accurately summarise world events, presenting them within an accessible narrative which highlights their immediate and historical context.

In researching the news and in writing our articles we are guided by four essential editorial principles:

1. Internationalism: we are committed to providing comprehensive information on all regions of the world, covering all major developments in all countries.
2. Accuracy: our reputation for accuracy, preserved and nurtured since Keesing’s was first published in 1931, is our greatest asset. We work with the benefit of greater hindsight than that enjoyed by newspapers or the electronic media and thus have more time for checking facts and authenticating information.
3. Objectivity: we aim to be as objective as is humanly possible. We do not editorialise and we do not pass judgement upon the events which we record. We are totally independent, with no political agenda to promote and no external commercial interests to placate.
4. Permanence: we are not producing disposable news. We are writing “for the record”, and thereby providing a “first take on history”. We do not sensationalise or distort for the sake of creating a eye-catching headline. Our aim is to establish the truth, to present it clearly, and to preserve it for future generations of researchers.

The result of this process is that the Keesing’s archive contains a wealth of hard information: news upon which you can rely.

More on Keesing's editorial policy

Keesing's aims to provide certain types of information (election results, Cabinet changes, details of economic affairs) of all the countries of the world, regardless of size. Speculation is avoided. Predictions and intentions are only recorded in special circumstances, e.g. a new government outlining its policy intentions, and it is always made clear who made the predictions or statements of intent and, if appropriate, where they were reported. Any analysis is clearly signalled (e.g. Many commentators suggested… Some analysts believed…) and the sources of information that may be controversial or simply unconfirmed are always given, e.g. 'According to reports in The New York Times of Aug. 17...'

KRWE tries to reflect the political stories that are most prominent in the media but aims to go further in creating a comprehensive and consistent record of political developments, even when these are overlooked by the mainstream media. We do not have to create attention-grabbing headlines every day and can, therefore, ensure quality coverage of small countries.

We achieve permanence by removing ephemera, speculation, and opinions. Newspapers can be collected and stored, but they are written quickly, read quickly, and discarded quickly. A collection of newspapers will never form an archive as KRWE does, because they are simply not created for that purpose. We consult dozens of newspapers every day and throw away a vast amount of information that is simply not factual. Unlike other web-based archives, the information in Keesing's is permanent and unchanging. We do not remove articles, re-write articles, or add articles that were not published at the time. This means that if you find an article in Keesing's today, it will still be there, unaltered, next week, next month, next year and on into the future. One of the most frustrating aspects of the Internet for the serious researcher is finding a useful article one day only to discover it has disappeared the next.

KRWE is primarily a political archive. Economics is only covered as far as is necessary to make sense of political developments, but all budgets and IMF loans are covered. Other themes that are not generally covered (except where there are major political repercussions) are crime; sport; celebrities; the arts; and culture.

In general, stories that affect two or more countries are filed under the smaller country and not mentioned at the larger country. In some cases, for example when a story that involves another country is also bound up with an internal political scandal, it is mainly treated under the smaller country and cross-referred to from the larger country.

KRWE was first published in 1931 as a weekly journal. In 1983 KRWE became a monthly, divided into 6 sections: Africa; Americas; Asia-Pacific; Europe; Middle East and the Arab World; and International. However, a country was often only covered when something major happened (elections, coups, etc.) and the articles tended then to catch up on what had happened since the previous article.

In 1987 it was decided that each country was to be covered at least once per year and in January 1989 KRWE was relaunched with a format aiming to cover all major political developments in all countries within the month in which they happen.

As well as the standard format articles, there were reference supplements and Month in Focus sections. These were produced during the 1980s and 1990s and appear in a different form to standard articles.

Now Keesing's contains on average 150 articles per month, ranging from short IN BRIEF items to longer articles on major events, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Keesing's Worldwide, Ltd. is a company registered in England and Wales with the registered number 03446379.

Registered address: 28a Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1LA

VAT number 740635445

In America: Keesing's Worldwide is a Limited Liability Company registered in the state of Maryland with Federal tax ID number 52 2054837