Python Text Processing - Reading RSS Feed

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. In python we take help of the below package to read and process these feeds.

pip install feedparser

Feed Structure

In the below example we get the structure of the feed so that we can analyse further about which parts of the feed we want to process.

main.py

import feedparser
NewsFeed = feedparser.parse("https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/rssfeedstopstories.cms")
entry = NewsFeed.entries[1]

print entry.keys()

Output

When we run the above program, we get the following output

dict_keys(['title', 'title_detail', 'summary', 'summary_detail', 
'links', 'link', 'id', 'guidislink', 'published', 'published_parsed', 
'authors', 'author', 'author_detail'])

Feed Title and Posts

Reading Title and Head of RSS Feed

In the below example we read the title and head of the rss feed.

main.py

import feedparser

NewsFeed = feedparser.parse("https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/rssfeedstopstories.cms")

print('Number of RSS posts :', len(NewsFeed.entries))

entry = NewsFeed.entries[1]
print('Post Title :',entry.title)

Output

When we run the above program we get the following output

Number of RSS posts : 47
Post Title : Why Saturday? How Israel-US strikes targeted Khamenei and his inner circle

Feed Details

Based on above entry structure we can derive the necessary details from the feed using python program as shown below. As entry is a dictionary we utilise its keys to produce the values needed.

main.py

import feedparser

NewsFeed = feedparser.parse("https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/rssfeedstopstories.cms")

entry = NewsFeed.entries[1]

print(entry.published)
print("******")
print(entry.summary)
print("------News Link--------")
print(entry.link)

Output

When we run the above program we get the following output

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 12:15:06 +0530
******
Iran launched retaliatory strikes across key Gulf cities, including Dubai, Doha, and Manama, 
targeting areas hosting US military bases. These attacks followed US and Israeli strikes that 
reportedly killed Iran's Supreme Leader. Major airports experienced evacuations and flight 
suspensions due to the escalating regional conflict.
------News Link--------
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east
/iran-strikes-gulf-again-more-explosions-in-dubai-doha-and-manama-airports-targeted/
articleshow/128908100.cms