Public consultation about Wikinews

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The Sister Projects Task Force (SPTF) chose to review Wikinews among existing Sister Projects because it is the Project about which we observed the highest levels of concern. As part of the review, WMF staff were asked to compile an evaluation of Wikinews projects. The result was a proposal for closing Wikinews, posted on Meta for community consultation on 26 June. That proposal is to close and archive Wikinews, or to migrate it to an external project.

This community consultation, in line with the new procedure for evaluating sister project proposals, invites a community reevaluation of Wikinews, by Wikinews and other communities, to provide feedback on the proposal for closure. The outcome of the consultation may include (but are not limited to) recommendations to restructure how WN projects work, to merge with another sister project, to leave things as is (evaluating language proposals one at a time under current Langcom guidelines), or a mix of approaches based on language.

Background

Since the SPTF was convened in 2023, its members have sought the community's opinions during conferences and community calls regarding Sister Projects that have not fulfilled their promise in the Wikimedia movement (see Wikimania 2023 session "Sister Projects: past, present and the glorious future" and WikiConvention francophone minutes). Wikinews was the leading candidate for an evaluation because people from multiple language communities proposed it. (Wikinews was not included in the consultations; Wikinews was notified of the proposal outcome on June 2025.) Additionally, by most measures, it is the least active Sister Project, with the greatest drop in activity over the years.

While the Language Committee routinely opens and closes language versions of the Sister Projects in small languages, there has never been a valid proposal to close Wikipedia in major languages or any project in English. This is not true for Wikinews, where there was a proposal to close English Wikinews, which gained some traction but did not result in any action, as well as a draft proposal to close all languages of Wikinews.

Initial metrics compiled by WMF staff (see the proposal) also support the community's concerns about Wikinews.

Based on this report, SPTF recommends a community reevaluation of Wikinews. We conclude that its current structure and activity levels are the lowest among the existing sister projects. SPTF also recommends pausing the opening of new language editions while the consultation runs.

SPTF brings this analysis to a discussion and welcomes discussions of alternative outcomes, including potential restructuring efforts or integration with other Wikimedia initiatives. Your insights and perspectives are invaluable in shaping the future of these projects. We encourage all interested community members to share their thoughts.

Options

Options mentioned so far (which might be applied to just low-activity languages or all languages) include but are not limited to:

Restructure

Restructure how Wikinews works and is linked to other current events efforts on the projects.

Merge into Wikipedias

Merge content of Wikinews into the relevant language Wikipedias, possibly in a new namespace.

Find a new home

Merge content into compatibly-licensed external projects.

Other

Take no special action, let Wikinews follow the standard process for opening and closure.

Discussion

To share your thoughts, see the talk page.