Over the years I've performed over fifty SEO audits for news publishing websites, and these are the most common issues I find (that are worth fixing):

A #NewsSEO thread... (1/11) NewsArticle structured data is usually implemented the right way.

However, images defined in the SD - both the article featured image and the publisher logo - are often the wrong sizes and aspect ratios.

This can limit visibility, especially in Discover. (2/11)

Short thread:

In the last week two entirely different people have asked me if it's true that when an article is shown in a news box on Google SERPs, it does not show up anywhere else on the first page.

Basically they think Google filters Top Stories articles from regular SERPs. This is not the case. It can be easily disproven; look for recent articles published on a major news outlet (BBC, The Guardian, NYT, etc). Search for relevant keywords relating to that article.

Chances are, you'll see the article in the news box as well as on the regular SERP.

It's interesting to see how different types of websites have been affected by the Covid-19 lockdowns. Most search traffic shifts make sense but some surprise me a bit.

This is from a technology news site and shows a fairly typical graph for many publishers - strong uplift: This is a local (city-specific) news website, similar uptake: