World news (or sometimes international news or foreign news) is the term media professionals use for news stories that pertain to a global subject. At the dawn of modern journalism, when nation-states were still developing in 17th-century Europe, this was the main focus of newspapers; later, as telecommunication technologies enabled news to travel more quickly, specialized news agencies such as Reuters, AP and Wolff became established to provide global news to local newspapers, radio and television broadcasters.
In the United States, an ABC television news program, World News Now, airs in the early morning hours Monday through Friday. The show combines general and offbeat news stories, as well as repurposed segments and story packages from other ABC News programs; the tone is often lighthearted and irreverent.
Among other things, the program features the ‘Morning Papers’ segment, which features several offbeat or funny pictures found in papers around the world; it was replaced in 2012 by “The Mix”, a more modern version using online stories (some of which may come from a newspaper’s website). In addition, the show occasionally featured a short quiz show called “World News Knows”, in which anchors would try to stump viewers with a trivia question.
Until September 2011, three ABC stations owned by Citadel Communications (KCAU-TV in Sioux City, Iowa, KLKN-TV in Lincoln, Nebraska and WOI-DT in Ames, Iowa) preempted World News Now in favor of airing a syndicated home shopping network, Jewelry Television; they began clearing the program again after the expiration of those syndication contracts.