There is a nice number of SEOs in our space that focus on Google News and news publisher related SEO. But sadly, John Mueller and his team are not the best folks to ask at Google with Google News related questions. The Google News publisher support, is, well, to say the least, not super helpful.
There is a forum devoted to this, it is named the Google News Publisher Community but it is super rare to ever see a Googler come in and respond to any questions. I think Danny Sullivan came in most recently but that was ages ago around that those Google News indexing issues. There are a few individuals, non-Googlers, that help a lot in those forums, including Google Product Expert Viacheslav Varenia and Chris Andrews.
Mihai Aperghis did ask John Mueller about the news support and this is how that conversation went, it started at 6:10 mark:
MIHAI APERGHIS: They do have a support team, but unfortunately they are not very helpful.
JOHN MUELLER: OK, now that's unfortunate.
MIHAI APERGHIS: Do you know if there are any office hours? I'm not sure if--
JOHN MUELLER: I don't think so. No.
MIHAI APERGHIS: OK. So the support, you know, forum is probably the only avenue.
JOHN MUELLER: Yeah. That's usually the best approach. And every time I try to escalate News issues internally, they're always like, tell them to use the forum.
Here is the video embed:
So for now, it kind of seems like a lost cause. :(
Forum discussion at YouTube Community.
