Signal Types:
Structured Signals
from Global News
Where news becomes data — and data becomes insight. Signal Types in NewsAPI.ai automatically detect and classify 136+ kinds of real-world developments — from mergers and layoffs to protests and wildfires — transforming text into structured, sentence-level signals you can act on.
From Sentences to
Structured Signals
News doesn't arrive in clean data tables — it comes as a torrent of text. Signal Types change that.
Our AI reads every sentence of every article, detecting when something actually happens — a contract signed, a policy passed, a facility closed — and classifies it into a precise, machine-readable category.
Each signal is enriched with entities, locations, dates, sentiment, and topics, creating a structured layer of news intelligence you can query, filter, and integrate directly into dashboards, alerts, or analytical tools.
How it works
- AI scans text from 150,000+ global sources.
- Sentence-level detection identifies when a real-world event is described.
- Classification maps it to one of 136 predefined Signal Types.
- Enrichment adds metadata such as entities, sentiment, location, and topics.
- Output delivers clean, structured JSON ready for integration via REST API or SDKs.
- Trends & Insights
- Social Media Shares
HTML Response
"sentence": "Wallenius Wilhelmsen and ExxonMobil signed a contract for the delivery of sustainable biofuel." "Event Type": Business / Contract "Entities": Wallenius Wilhelmsen, ExxonMobil "Location": Texas, United States "Date": 20.06.2023 "Sentiment": +0.42 "Topics": Sustainability, Environment "Source": biofuelsdigest.com
Coverage & Taxonomy
The Signal Types taxonomy covers 136 categories of real-world developments across three key domains:
- Business (87) — M&A, contracts, layoffs, sanctions, product releases, executive changes, and more.
- Society (27) — protests, policy changes, labor strikes, regulatory decisions, elections.
- Environment (22) — wildfires, floods, droughts, earthquakes, emissions, climate initiatives.
The taxonomy evolves constantly — expanding as new signal types emerge. Enterprise clients can request new types of events, and our AI can be trained to detect them for domain- or industry-specific applications.
Why It Matters
Signal Types eliminate the noise of raw text.
They enable you to:
- Detect confirmed developments within minutes of publication.
- Filter events by factuality: • Fact • Opinion • Forecast — to match your risk appetite
- Integrate structured event intelligence into dashboards, risk tools, or analytics workflows.
- See how information evolves — from the first report to the confirmed outcome.
The difference between knowing what's said and what's happened starts at the sentence level.
Use Cases
Risk Monitoring:
Detect sanctions, policy shifts, cyber incidents, and environmental disruptions the moment they appear.
Sales Intelligence:
Spot new contracts, partnerships, or leadership changes in your target accounts.
Supply Chain Monitoring
Identify disruptions like factory closures, natural disasters, or regulatory delays before they cascade.
ESG & Sustainability
Track climate initiatives, emissions, regulations, sustainability commitments, corporate responsibility, and environmental events.
Output & Integration
Every Signal Type is delivered as structured JSON — complete with identifiers, sentiment, and source metadata.
Output includes
- Core identifiers (URI, article URL, title)
- Sentence-level extraction
- Event classification path (taxonomy)
- Sentiment + Facticity (Fact/Opinion/Forecast)
- Framework mappings (SDG, SASB, ESG)
- Source metadata and relevance score
Integration paths
- REST API for full flexibility
- Python & Node.js SDKs for quick setup
- Advanced filters by concept, market, source, or signal type
Built to Scale
Discover how sentence-level detection turns global news into reliable, actionable data.
Latency
Optimized for real-time delivery into dashboards, apps, and alerts.
Coverage
150,000+ news, blogs, and government pages worldwide.
Scalability
Designed for continuous event detection at enterprise scale.
Evolution
The taxonomy and models expand continuously and can be extended upon request.
Start Building with Signal Types
Signal Types are the foundation of structured news intelligence — powering everything from risk monitoring to ESG analytics and market insight.
