Wikinews

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Wikinews
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Logo
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Screenshot
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Screenshot of the home page
Type of site
News wiki
Available in31 languages
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List of languages
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  • Albanian
  • Arabic
  • Bosnian
  • Catalan
  • Chinese
  • Czech
  • Dutch
  • English
  • Esperanto
  • Finnish
  • French
  • German
  • Greek
  • Gun
  • Hebrew
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Limburgish
  • Norwegian
  • Persian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Serbian
  • Shan
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Tamil
  • Ukrainian
HeadquartersMiami, Florida
OwnerWikimedia Foundation
Created byWikimedia community
URLwikinews.org
CommercialNo
RegistrationOptional
UsersScript error: No such module "NUMBEROF".
LaunchedNovember 8, 2004; 21 years ago (2004-11-08)
Current statusRead-only since Script error: No such module "Date time".
Content license
CC-BY 2.5[1]

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Wikinews was a free-content news wiki and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation that gathered and reported news collaboratively through user-created content. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has distinguished Wikinews from Wikipedia by saying, "On Wikinews, each story is to be written as a news story as opposed to an encyclopedia article."[2]

On June 28, 2025, the Wikimedia Foundation's Sister Projects Task Force submitted a proposal for closing Wikinews. In March 2026, the WMF announced that Wikinews would be closed and made read only on May 4 of that year.

History

File:Wikinews logo.svg
The beta version logo, used until February 13, 2005

The first recorded proposal of a Wikimedia news site was a two-line anonymous post on January 5, 2003, on the Wikimedia community's Meta-Wiki.[3][4] Daniel Alston, who edited Wikipedia as Fonzy,[5] claimed to have been the one who posted it.[3][6] The proposal was then further developed by German freelance journalist, software developer, and author Erik Möller.[3] Early opposition from long-time Wikipedia contributors, many of them pointing out the existence of Wikipedia's own news summaries, gave way to detailed discussions and proposals about how it could be implemented as a new project of the Wikimedia Foundation.[7]

The domain name wikinews.org was registered on April 2, 2004.[8] In November 2004, a demonstration wiki was established to show how such a collaborative news site might work.[7] A month later, in December 2004, the site was moved out of the "demo" stage and into the beta stage under public domain copyleft.[9][10] A German language edition was launched at the same time. Soon, editions in Italian, Dutch, French, Spanish, Swedish, Bulgarian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Japanese, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Thai, Norwegian, Chinese, Turkish, Korean, Hungarian, Greek, Esperanto, Czech, Albanian, and Tamil (in that chronological order) were set up.[9]

In September 2005, the project moved to the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.[10] On September 7, 2007, the English Wikinews published its 10,000th article.[11]

Closure

On June 28, 2025, the Wikimedia Foundation's Sister Projects Task Force reviewed a proposal for closing Wikinews, followed by a three-month public consultation.[12][13][14]

On March 30, 2026, it was announced by the WMF that Wikinews would be closed and made read-only on May 4 that year.[15]

Interviews

File:David Shankbone and Shimon Peres.jpg
Wikinews reporter David Shankbone with Israeli president Shimon Peres in 2007

Wikinews reporters have conducted interviews with several notable people, including an interview in December 2007 with Israeli President Shimon Peres by Wikinews reporter David Shankbone. Shankbone had been invited to conduct the interview by the America-Israel Friendship League and the Israeli foreign ministry.[16][17]

Other notable interviews have included writers, actors, and politicians, such as Augusten Burroughs,[18] several 2008 U.S. Republican Party presidential primaries candidates like Sam Brownback and Duncan Hunter,[16] and others like British politician Tony Benn,[19] writer Eric Bogosian,[20] New Zealand politician Nick Smith,[21] former New Zealand prime minister John Key,[22] World Wide Web co-inventor Robert Cailliau,[23] drag queen RuPaul,[24] and former Wikimedia Foundation executive Sue Gardner.[25]

List

As of May 2026, Wikinews content pages have been created in Script error: No such module "NUMBEROF". editions, all of which were made read-only on the week of May 4 of that year.[9] The Wikinews sites had a total of Script error: No such module "NUMBEROF". articles.[26]

Notes

  • The "total pages" column refers to the number of pages in all namespaces, including both content pages and non-content pages (user pages, files, talk pages, "project" pages, categories, redirects, and templates).
  • "Users" refers to the number of user accounts, regardless of current activity – not the number of people or devices using (accessing) Wikinews.
  • "Active users" are registered users who have made at least one edit in the last thirty days.
  • "Files" is the number of locally uploaded files.
  • The statistics are derived from API:Siteinfo on MediaWiki and updated at Data:Wikipedia statistics/data.tab on Commons every six hours, and are displayed with Template:Tlx via Template:Tlx.

Edition details

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Statistics totals

Selected totals of assets and involved people for all Wikinews editions
Content pages Total pages Edits Admins Users Active users Files
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See also

References

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Siedlecki, Dariusz (September 20, 2005). "[Wikinews-l] The Wikinews Licensure Poll is closed". Wikinews-l (Mailing list). Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Glasner, Joanna (November 29, 2004). "Wikipedia Creators Move Into News". Wired. Archived from the original on June 7, 2007. Retrieved April 21, 2007.
  3. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Eloquence. "User:Eloquence/History - The history of Wikinews and my role in it". Wikinews. Wikimedia Foundation. Archived from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Talk:Wikinews/Archive". Wikimedia Meta-Wiki. Wikimedia Foundation. Archived from the original on July 15, 2022. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."User:Fonzy - Revision as of 08:16, August 1, 2003". Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. August 1, 2003. Archived from the original on August 5, 2022. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Wikinews: Difference between revisions - Revision as of 18:39, November 9, 2005". Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. November 9, 2005. Archived from the original on September 15, 2022. Retrieved February 5, 2023. Yes, I did make that anonymous post, I am not glory seeking, just getting the facts straight. Wikews was a terrible name I admit :p
  7. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Wikinews/Vote". Wikimedia Meta-Wiki. Wikimedia Foundation. Archived from the original on January 27, 2023. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."wikinews.org whois lookup". who.is. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  9. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Data:Wikipedia statistics/meta.tab". Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundation. Archived from the original on September 10, 2023. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  10. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Wikinews switches to Creative Commons license". Wikinews. Wikimedia Foundation. September 25, 2005. Archived from the original on May 12, 2013.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."English Wikinews publishes 10000th article". Wikinews. Wikimedia Foundation. September 7, 2007. Archived from the original on August 5, 2022. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  12. ^ "Public consultation about Wikinews", Wikimedia Meta-Wiki, Wikimedia Foundation.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Wikinews, a sister project to Wikipedia, faces imminent closure amid low web traffic". TheDesk.net. July 11, 2025. Retrieved January 13, 2026.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Proposal for Closing Wikinews - Meta-Wiki". meta.wikimedia.org. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Board of Trustees Approves Closure of Wikinews". meta.wikimedia.org. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  16. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jones, K.C. (January 14, 2008). "Wikinews Gets Big Interview: Israeli President Shimon Peres". Information Week. Archived from the original on October 22, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Rose, Adam (January–February 2009). "The Wikinews Ace: Why Shimon Peres sat down with David Shankbone". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on May 9, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Asper, Colleen (April 2008). "David Shankbone with Colleen Asper". The Brooklyn Rail. Archived from the original on April 23, 2008. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Wikinews interviews: Tony Benn on U.K. politics". Wikinews. August 12, 2007. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Eric Bogosian on writing and the creative urge". Wikinews. April 17, 2008. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Nick Smith responds to claims he is New Zealand's worst behaved politician". Wikinews. January 8, 2007. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Exclusive video interview with New Zealand Opposition leader, John Key". Wikinews. May 23, 2007. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Wikinews interviews World Wide Web co-inventor Robert Cailliau". Wikinews. August 16, 2007. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."RuPaul speaks about society and the state of drag as performance art". Wikinews. October 6, 2007. Archived from the original on January 5, 2024. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  25. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Interview with Sue Gardner of the Wikimedia Foundation". Wikinews. October 24, 2007. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  26. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Data:Wikipedia statistics/data.tab – Wikimedia Commons". Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundation. Archived from the original on March 30, 2023. Retrieved February 5, 2023.

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