The news sector is gearing up to showcase professional journalism through World News Day which takes place on 28 September 2026, with a campaign week running from 25 September to 2 October.
World News Day takes place on 28 September 2026, with a campaign week running from 25 September to 2 October. It is an annual campaign that asks news organisations across the world to show their audiences how their journalism is made: how stories are reported, how facts are checked before publication, and what that work is for.
The campaign started in 2018. It is presented by the World Editors Forum, the Canadian Journalism Foundation and Project Kontinuum. The World Editors Forum is the network for editors within WAN-IFRA, the World Association of News Publishers, which connects around 3,000 news publishing companies and is affiliated to 60 publisher associations. WAN-IFRA manages registration and produces the materials that participating newsrooms use.
For the day, newsrooms act together to carry the same message on the same day, in their own language and under their own masthead. The organisers argue that one day of shared voice carries further than a hundred separate ones, and the figures suggest the approach is working. Around 800 publishers took part in 2024. In 2025 the number passed 1,000, across 108 countries and 17 languages.
For 2026 the organisers point to the spread of AI-generated content and disinformation as the reason to widen the effort again. Newsrooms are asked to revisit their most consequential reporting, explain the care and rigour behind it, and remind audiences what changed as a result.
The upcoming 2026 edition will have four new features. Campaign materials will be available in more than 20 languages, rather than the 17 used in 2025. Regional coordinators will provide support on the ground in key regions. The global reach of the campaign will be measured for the first time. A report will follow the campaign, setting out its scale, which participating newsrooms can share with their own audiences, boards and stakeholders.
Newsrooms that want to take part register through the World News Day website. From the start of September, those registered receive advertising materials in several formats and languages, designed to be adapted to each brand and audience, together with editorial materials including op-eds, cartoons, video and images for social media.
WAN-IFRA has also published a list of ideas for organisations that want to do more than run the shared materials: explainer series on how reporters work, short videos of journalists discussing their own reporting, interactive features that ask readers to distinguish real reporting from AI-generated content, live sessions with editors, open newsroom days, and media literacy workshops with local schools and libraries.
Registration is open now at worldnewsday.org. Questions can be sent to worldnewsday@wan-ifra.org, and further detail is available on the campaign’s FAQ page.
