“Hi Russ! What was the first article in News-O-Matic about?” asked Hana. “Also, who wrote it?”
“Why did you make News-O-Matic?” wondered Gabriella.
“Are you actually ?” wrote Leilani.
Readers sent these questions in the News-O-Matic News Room. Kids have shared notes on the site since November 12, 2012. Today marks the 3,000th edition of News-O-Matic. By now, kids have nearly 1 million comments!
News-O-Matic has published more than 11 years. In that time, we’ve written 15,000 news articles! The first edition included a story about Malala Yousafzai. At the time, she was a 15-year-old from Pakistan. She stood up for the right to get an education. People celebrated “Malala Day” on November 10, 2012. Russell Kahn wrote the article. (That’s me!)
We made News-O-Matic for a simple reason. We believed that kids deserved to learn about their world every day. Many people thought that only adults should know the news. We disagreed! After all, this is your world too. So, we started sharing stories that were important (or interesting) for students. And we’ve kept going — now for 3,000 days in a row!
News-O-Matic has changed a lot over the years. We began writing each article at different text levels. We added videos, questions, and “Read to Me” recordings. We made sure readers could tap “Sources” to see where we got our information. And we hired translators to tell our stories in Spanish, French, Arabic, and Mandarin.
The world has also changed since the start of News-O-Matic. Today, many companies use AI to write stories. So, some readers don’t think I’m a real person. But I am! And real News-O-Matic reporters write every article.
News-O-Matic wrote about Malala because she inspired us. She was a symbol for education, girls’ rights, and bravery. Malala still works to make the world a better place. And News-O-Matic still publishes new stories to do that too.
And we promise to keep going!
Updated May 8, 2024, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Russell Kahn (Russ)
