Social networking system users generate news stories including a link to news content external to the social networking system. The news stories may be filtered based on filter criteria allowing a viewing user to more easily identify news stories of interest. For example, the news stories may be filtered to identify news stories associated with a user connected to the viewing user, to identify news stories associated with a news source, to identify news stories associated with a key word, or based on previous interactions by the viewing user. The identified news stories may be ranked based on popularity of the identified news stories among other users, chronological data, and the viewing user's own interest and activity associated with a news source or news story.