A Newsreader or Newscaster is a radio or television presenter whose role it is to read the news. In modern times, technology enables journalists to broadcast from relevant locations, reducing the role of the central presenter to that of a news anchor.

The original newsreaders tended to be actors, employed on the basis of good diction. By the 1980s, journalists were increasingly being employed in the role, and the term newscaster was coined to draw some sort of line between the two. News presenter is another term that is used, and is largely synonymous with news anchor.

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Newsreaders are also computer programs that read articles on Usenet, either directly from a news server's disks or via the Network News Transfer Protocol. Examples of free software for both Unix-like and Microsoft Windows clients include BNR2, Mozilla Thunderbird and Pan. Other examples of such newsreaders are:

• For Microsoft Windows systems: Forté Agent, Microplanet Gravity, and Xnews; commercial products for Windows include Newsbin and Outlook Express.
• For Unix-like systems: Gnus, Sylpheed, Knode, tin, rn (and its subsequent versions rrn, trn and strn), slrn, nn, and xrn.
• Macintosh systems can use the Unix clients, plus NewsWatcher and OSXNews; shareware and commercial products include Unison, Hogwasher, MacSOUP and Microsoft Entourage.

Good newsreaders are certified by the Good Net-Keeping Seal of Approval (GNKSA (http://www.gnksa.org/)).

External links

• http://www.newsreaders.com/unix/clients.html
• Open Directory Project: Usenet Clients (http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Internet/Clients/Usenet/)

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