News in Levels

Wikimedia Foundation closes Wikinews after 21 years

World ·

Wikimedia Foundation closes Wikinews after 21 years

Photo: by David Vasquez · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Wikinews was a news website. Many people worked together to write news stories on it. It was part of the Wikimedia Foundation, the same group that runs Wikipedia. On March 30, the Wikimedia Foundation decided to close Wikinews. On May 4, people could no longer add new stories to the site. The Foundation closed it because not many people were reading it. Most visitors were not real people — they were computer programs called bots. About 700 people were still writing for the site when it closed. The website was in 31 languages. Some people want to start a new website called Wikinews Pulse to continue the work. Wikinews started in 2004. Before it closed, it had published interviews with many famous people.

Difficult words

multilingual
— involving or supporting many different languages
transition
— a change from one state or situation to another

Quiz

  1. 1. Who made the decision to close Wikinews?
  2. 2. In what year did Wikinews first launch?
  3. 3. What happened to Wikinews on May 4?