Microsoft has moved the Bing News PubHub out of its own microsite and into the overall Bing Webmaster Tools console, the company announced this morning. This makes it easier for for publishers who have already verified their sites with Bing Webmaster Tools to access the Bing News PubHub features.
Bing News PubHub. Bing News PubHub first launched in June 2016 as a portal for news publishers to submit their sites, at pubhub.bing.com. While pubhub.bing.com is still live, it is now telling publishers “We have integrated with Bing Webmaster, please go to Bing Webmaster Tool.”
What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of my site, the Search Engine Roundtable, waiting to for approval in Bing News. Note, you can access Bing News PubHub on the left side navigation in Bing Webmaster Tools:
How Bing evaluates news sites. Bing News uses the following criteria to help evaluate the news websites:
- Newsworthiness – Reporting on timely events and topics that are interesting to the people using our services. Content that does not focus on reporting, such as how-to articles, job postings, advice columns, product promotions, is not considered newsworthy. Similarly, content that consists strictly of information without including original reporting or analysis, such as stock data and weather forecasts, is not considered newsworthy.
- Originality – This includes unique facts or points of view. Faced with numerous sources frequently reporting similar or identical content, originality or uniqueness becomes a critical way to determine the value to a user of an individual story.
- Authority –News sites with authority maintain the highest level of trust and respect from our users. Submissions must identify sources, authors, and attribution of all content.
- Readability –Content containing correct grammar and spelling and that keeps site design easy for people to navigate. Advertising should never interfere with the site experience.
Why we care. If you are a publisher and want to see the status of your approval in Bing News, you can now login to Bing Webmaster Tools, click on the Bing News PubHub and check your status there. If you have not yet submitted your site for approval, you can within that tool as well. If you were previously rejected, you can resubmit the site for an additional review.
