Google News has supposedly made it harder to become a Google News news source. John Mueller of Google said he knows that Google News applications have to go through a stricter process to get accepted these days. He said the bar has been set higher, which he thinks is a good thing.
He said this at the 5:57 mark into a video hangout from last week. He said "I know they have made, I believe they've [Google News] made the application process a little bit more strict."
Here is the full quote:
I also don't have any insight into Google News. I know they have made, I believe they've made the application process a little bit more strict.So that's something where I think it's kind of okay to have a high bar for something that's included in the new service like Google News.
If you're unsure about why you're not being accepted there when you're applying, I would also make sure they post in the Google News publisher help forum, there are lots of folks there who have experience with these kinds of issues and who can help you to figure out what you could do to improve.
Here is the video embed at the start time:
Forum discussion at YouTube.
