Wikinews:Response to Proposal for Closing Wikinews

Response to Proposal for Closing Wikinews

Project pages

► Main response page
Notes from July 17 call

We acknowledge the value of external opinions in assessing the health and long-term viability of Wikimedia projects. The insights provided by the Sister Projects Taskforce (SPTF) offer important context for understanding how Wikinews is perceived within the broader ecosystem.

However, we are concerned that the framing of the SPTF report presents closure as a foregone conclusion. While many of the issues raised are valid and have been long acknowledged by our contributors, the report does not give sufficient space to alternative outcomes or paths forward.

We believe that individual language editions of Wikinews may be in need of closure, but that certain editions—including English—have sufficient activity and quality to justify continued existence. We believe that there is nothing extraordinary about Wikinews among the various Wikimedia Foundation projects that requires special action and that closing or opening individual editions of Wikinews should follow the standard policy.

We believe that a vibrant, effective, and organized revitalization effort is already underway on English Wikinews. In 2025, contributors launched the Wikinews:2025 Boost publication rate initiative, which has increased our publication rate, deepened collaboration, and attracted new contributors[1]. These efforts are volunteer-led, policy-grounded, and sustainable. We welcome external guidance and partnership to strengthen these efforts, particularly in areas such as:

identifying effective key performance indicators (KPIs),
evaluating successful models of collaborative journalism,
improving visibility and discoverability across the Wikimedia network and search engines,
and designing contributor pathways that support mentorship and retention.

We also note that new ideas, such as m:Wikinews Pulse, present promising avenues for extending Wikinews collaboration with Wikipedia. A project like Wikinews Pulse, especially under the proposed stewardship of m:Wikimedia New York City, could offer significant benefits to Wikinews simply through sustained partnership and coordination between English Wikinews and Wikimedia NYC.

We encourage the Task Force and Foundation to work with us in exploring these options before making any irreversible decisions about closure. English Wikinews remains committed to the Wikimedia mission, and we believe our project has a meaningful role to play in achieving it.

Endorsements

—Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 20:39, 7 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Don't close wikinews BigKrow (talk) 20:40, 7 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
+1 Gryllida 11:16, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I support the response. In addition to the points mentioned, I believe Wikinews would greatly benefit from receiving support, financial or logistical, from the Wikimedia Foundation to conduct workshops (both online and offline). These workshops could help explore different aspects of Wikinews, including how to get started, the basics of collaborative journalism, and navigating policies and workflows.

Further support for outreach on social media and organizing thematic editathons could play a key role in attracting and retaining new contributors. These initiatives would strengthen the community and ensure the long-term sustainability of the project. --Asked42 (talk) 15:46, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Rationale. Dsuke1998 AEOS (talk) 17:10, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I not only support in this proposal but also oppose to the request of the proposal for closing wikinews! Md Mobashir Hossain (talk) 16:47, 11 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Same. This proposal, while somewhat vaguely worded, seems to be fine. The proposal to close Wikinews outright, with no clear path forward, sounds atrocious. Previously, when they tried to close just English Wikinews, it was done differently: they were proposing to archive Wikinews into Wikimedia Incubator for inactivity, with automagical reopening as soon as it becomes active again. Which would have happened very quickly. That proposal failed. Wikiwide (talk) 18:55, 12 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Wikinews is a great platform of wiki foundation please don't close English wikinews it is needed for not biased news. BigKrow (talk) 21:39, 12 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I support the community response. While the challenges facing Wikinews are serious, the Monthly top article challenge shows there is still momentum to build on. It has helped refocus our efforts on publication and surfaced useful metrics for evaluating progress. A modest update to our WN:Archive policy, as proposed here, would give us flexibility to make iterative improvements post-publication. That in turn would allow us to revisit our review process, which many of us see as a key obstacle to wider participation. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 13:56, 17 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support, but even if parts of the SPTF could have been done better, I've seen some useful suggestions from the community that I haven't seen before. Leaderboard (talk) 15:16, 17 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I say this, write, write, and write!!! to save English WikiNews. BigKrow (talk) 21:09, 17 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
We can revitalize Wikinews into a strong complement to other parts of Project Wiki. Darkfrog24 (talk) 02:58, 19 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support I signed my name. --Sheminghui.WU (talk) 08:10, 20 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I totally agree, this long discussion requires a closing statement from the now-on Wikinews community, who wants continue contribute to this, in the future as the whole community. ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 03:21, 25 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support. Please don't close English and Portuguese wikinews. DARIO SEVERI (talk) 10:00, 20 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Neutral Here is my vote: Don't close WN! Yes, we could use a facelift and I'm not sure I hate the 'Pulse' idea -- but we just need more humans doing good work.--Bddpaux (talk) 18:05, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]