Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the news media played a crucial role in disseminating information to the public and influencing public opinion, such as governmental responses to the outbreak. The way the pandemic and pandemic-related news were handled varied across different countries and regions. This study analyzes a random selection of newspaper articles from three different sources: the German Bild, the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun, and the American USA Today. The aim is to shed light on how these newspapers reported on COVID-19 during its initial stages, from January to March 2020. The study presents initial findings from comparing the coverage of these three newspapers with respect to (1) mentioned actors, (2) depicted regions, and (3) mentioned themes. In addition, we compare the results of our analysis with cultural values and discuss how the cultural context influences the coverage. Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun places more emphasis on the government’s response to the pandemic, while Germany’s Bild and America’s USA Today focus more on how the pandemic has affected the lives of citizens and the individual measures taken to deal with the virus. The results show the contrast between the cultural values of individualism and uncertainty in the media coverage of the pandemic.