KrumetoName ____________________Date __________

Wikimedia Foundation closes Wikinews after 21 years

B2 · 518 words · ≈ 3 min

The Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation announced on March 30 its decision to close all language editions of the project. In the announcement, a representative from Wikimedia Foundation cited motivations such as "long-term sustainability, levels of community activity, and the availability of reliable news coverage on other platforms". The announcement stated that all Wikinews editions—referring to the multiple language sections of Wikinews—would "transition to read-only mode" on May 4. The announcement did not mention the time zone when the wiki would go in read-only mode; but Wikinews operated under the UTC timezone.
In the announcement message, WMF trustee Victoria Doronina said, "We thank all contributors who have participated in Wikinews over the years and helped build a unique experiment in collaborative journalism within the Wikimedia movement. We understand that some of them may be disappointed by this decision. To our regret, the project wasn't able to fulfil its promise, and many of its functions were eclipsed by the notable news coverage in Wikipedias."
According to the WMF, most traffic to Wikinews came in the form of web crawlers and bots, as opposed to humans. Per the Wikimedia Cloud statistics in the past one year, both, English and Chinese Wikinews received more traffic from humans as compared to crawlers. The foundation stated in its closure recommendation that it is "difficult to claim that it is disseminating educational content and, even more so, that it is doing so effectively and globally."
On March 31, users from different countries and regions started discussions regarding moving the Wikinews content and community to another website at Wikimedia's Meta-Wiki. Miraheze and Wikimedia NYC were in discussion of continuing the hosting as Wikinews Pulse, with a restructure to increase multilingual support and try new outputs, according to a note by a Wikimedia volunteer User:Pharos. However, at the time of publishing this report, they had not provided an estimated time the project would be restarted.
Wikinews was a sister project of other Wikimedia initiatives. Some of the other sister projects includes Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and Wikimedia Commons. All of these Wikimedia projects support the dissemination of free knowledge and media. The future of Wikinews was raised for consideration in June, with a WMF task force recommending the project's closure, followed by a period of public consultation about Wikinews. After this process, the Board announced in March that the 31 active editions of Wikinews would be placed in read-only mode indefinitely.
Wikinews was launched in November 2004. It was first proposed by an anonymous contributor in January 2003 and faced a community vote that ended 151 yea and 59 nay, leading to the first demo going live in October 2004. The English-language Wikinews was formally created December 2 of that year, with German following one day later.
The project's early development followed a series of community discussions and milestones in late 2004 and early 2005. A non-binding straw poll on content licensing began on October 26, 2004, alongside discussions on the project's scope and policies. The initial demo site, hosted at demo.wikinews.org, was later moved to the English Wikinews domain on December 2 of that year.

Words to know

sustainability: the ability to continue for a long time — Nachhaltigkeit — sostenibilidad — durabilité — sostenibilità — sustentabilidade — экологическая устойчивость, устойчивость — sürdürülebilirlik — сталість довкілля
coverage C1: the reporting of news by the media — Berichterstattung — cobertura — couverture — cobertura — освещение, зона действия, покрытие — висвітлення
trustee: a member of the board that manages an organisation — Treuhänder — fiduciario, fiduciaria — mandataire social — powiernik — попечитель, доверительный собственник, попечительница — kayyım — попечитель, опікун, опікунка
collaborative C1: done by people working together — collaboratif — wspólny — colaborativo — совместный
eclipse: made less important by something better — überschatten — eclipsar — éclipser — eclissare — zaćmiewać, zaćmić — eclipsar — затмевать — gölgelemek
crawler: programs that automatically visit and copy web pages
disseminate C2: spreading information widely — verbreiten, verteilen, ausbreiten — diseminar — disséminer — rozprzestrzeniać — disseminar — рассеивать, распространять, рассеиваться — yaymak, yayılmak — поширювати, розповсюджувати
restructure: a change in how something is organised
consultation C1: a process of asking people for their opinions — Beratung — consulta — consultation — consultazione — konsultacja — consulta — консультация — konsültasyon — консультація
indefinitely C1: for a period with no fixed end — unbegrenzt — indefinidamente — indéfiniment — indefinitamente — bezterminowo — indefinidamente — неопределённо, бесконечно, вечно

Text: Wikinews, “Wikimedia Foundation closes Wikinews after 21 years”, https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_closes_Wikinews_after_21_years · CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) · shortened · Translations: English Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) · Worksheet: https://krumeto.com/read/wikinews-closes

KrumetoWikimedia Foundation closes Wikinews after 21 yearsName ____________________

A. Choose the right answer

On what date was Wikinews to become read-only? B2
1. a) March 30
2. b) March 31
3. c) May 4
4. d) December 2
Which of these was NOT given as a reason for the closure? B2
1. a) Reliable news coverage on other platforms
2. b) A lack of money to pay journalists
3. c) Long-term sustainability
4. d) Levels of community activity
How does the article treat the WMF's claim that most traffic came from crawlers? C1
1. a) It confirms the claim for every language edition.
2. b) It says the claim came from a survey of readers.
3. c) It cites figures showing more human than bot traffic.
4. d) It says volunteers agreed with it completely.
What did Miraheze and Wikimedia NYC discuss? B2
1. a) Closing only the English-language edition
2. b) Restarting Wikinews on its original website at once
3. c) Merging all Wikinews articles into Wikipedia
4. d) Continuing it as Wikinews Pulse on another site
How many active editions were placed in read-only mode? B2
1. a) 59
2. b) 31
3. c) 21
4. d) 151
Put these events in order: (a) a task force recommends closing the project, (b) an anonymous contributor proposes Wikinews, (c) the first demo goes live. B2
1. a) a – b – c
2. b) b – a – c
3. c) c – b – a
4. d) b – c – a
How did the original community vote on Wikinews end? B2
1. a) 31 in favour and 21 against
2. b) 151 in favour and 59 against
3. c) 59 in favour and 151 against
4. d) It was never counted

B. Answer in full sentences

Wikinews was "eclipsed" by news coverage in Wikipedia. Do volunteer projects still have a place in journalism? Discuss.
Write a short reply to the announcement from the point of view of a long-time Wikinews volunteer.

KrumetoWikimedia Foundation closes Wikinews after 21 yearsAnswer key

Answer key

c) May 4 — Paragraph 1 says all editions would transition to read-only mode on May 4.
b) A lack of money to pay journalists — Paragraph 1 quotes the three reasons; money for journalists is not one of them.
c) It cites figures showing more human than bot traffic. — Paragraph 3 follows the claim with Cloud statistics showing more human than crawler traffic for English and Chinese.
d) Continuing it as Wikinews Pulse on another site — Paragraph 4 describes hosting it as Wikinews Pulse, with a restructure to increase multilingual support.
b) 31 — Paragraph 5 says the 31 active editions would be placed in read-only mode indefinitely.
d) b – c – a — Paragraph 6 gives January 2003 for the proposal and October 2004 for the demo; paragraph 5 places the task force much later.
b) 151 in favour and 59 against — Paragraph 6 says the vote ended 151 yea and 59 nay.