The term world news refers to a mix of serious and offbeat news stories about events occurring in other countries. This type of news was once confined to newspapers printed only in Europe and the United States; however, innovations in communications such as the telegraph made it possible to broadcast world news to an audience much larger than the immediate geographic area served by a local newspaper. As a result, many major news agencies were founded to provide hard and soft news articles to newspapers, radio and television, as well as individuals, corporations and intelligence agencies. The bulk of these major news agencies’ reporting involves foreign news.
When a full-time anchor on WNN moved to another job (or to a new country), the newsroom crew would place cardboard cutouts of their heads in the rafters of the original set for the “Anchor Hall of Fame.” This tradition has been replaced by a graphics sequence featuring a head-shot of the anchor moving into a graphic of the old set’s rafters and monitors.
From time to time, an e-mail sound effect will be heard over the newscast and the anchors will read aloud a viewer’s message, sometimes in a light-hearted manner. This has become a regular feature on Good Morning America First Look, which is produced and anchored by the same team as World News Now.
Occasionally, ABC affiliates will run a local newscast instead of World News Now. For example, WDAY-TV in Fargo, North Dakota and its satellite WDAZ-TV in Grand Forks, North Dakota, will run their local early morning newscast before airing World News Now on their respective channels; meanwhile, WOAY-TV in Oak Hill, West Virginia will often choose to run the home shopping channel Jewelry Television instead of World News Now.