Google's John Mueller said in a video he recorded on October 2, 2020 but just uploaded to the Google YouTube channel this morning that the Google News team is backed up in accepting new sites into Google News.
He said this at the 36:52 mark into the video, "I have heard from other people that things are a little bit backed up in regards to getting new web sites into Google News. So maybe that is something that you'd need to be a bit more patient."
Here is the video clip embedded at the proper start time:
I am just not sure if it is still an issue almost two weeks later. I also thought new sites do not need to be accepted into Google News anymore. In December 2019, Google said submission is no longer needed to be in Google News. Since then there have been complaints about new content showing up in Google News. Maybe that is what John is referring to?
Forum discussion at YouTube Community.
