Who started National Hug a Newsperson Day, and in what year?

The honest answer is that the record does not say. Four different years circulate without sources, and the oldest artifact anyone has located is a dated calendar listing from December 2001 that names no creator.

Why is it sometimes called Hug a Newsman Day?

That is the name the day carried in the earliest listing anyone has located. The site that ran that listing still uses it, and no source records when the wider name took over.

National Hug a Newsperson Day

Next celebratedSunday, April 4, 2027

Newsrooms hear plenty of opinions and not much thanks, and April 4 is set aside to even that out a little. Find the reporter whose work you actually used this week, and tell them so by name.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEApril 4

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYCareers

SUBCATEGORYMedia

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

~2006

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

Its earliest listing admitted it could not source the day.

No founder or establishing act has been documented for this day. The site carrying its earliest known listing published in 2006 that its own research could not find the creator or the origin, and it still says so.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday

INTRO

Four different years claim to have started this day

On April 4, American newsrooms are invited to accept a hug. Trace the invitation backwards and it comes apart in your hands. Four different starting years circulate as settled fact, and they cannot all be right.

One Nebraska station told viewers the day went back to 1988. Other listings put it at 1995. A third version says 1998.

A fourth version, 2005, is the only one that can be tested, and it does not survive the test. An April calendar archived on 24 December 2001 already carries the day, under the older name Hug a Newsman Day. It sits between Tweed Day and Walk Around Things Day, and it gives a date and a name and nothing else.

ORIGINS

Hug a Newsperson Day history

INTRODUCTION

Journalism is a trade that keeps records on itself. Gallup began asking Americans how far they trusted the news media in 1972. The Committee to Protect Journalists has kept its own prison files since 1992.

Reporters Without Borders has published an annual round-up every year since 1995. When the world set aside days for journalists, it did the same thing and wrote them down.

CHAPTER 01

The days that arrived with documents

World Press Freedom Day exists because the UN General Assembly proclaimed it in December 1993, on a recommendation from UNESCO's General Conference. Its date is not arbitrary either. The third of May is the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek.

A second journalism day on the UN calendar came from a General Assembly resolution of its own. It falls on the second of November to mark the killing of two French journalists in Mali.

CHAPTER 02

A creator who did not create it

One name attaches to April 4 more often than any other. Thomas and Ruth Roy invented a long list of novelty observances under the Wellcat Holidays banner, and are widely credited with this one as well.

Their own published inventory settles the question. The Roys claim trademark and copyright over every holiday they made, and this date is not among them. Their April runs from No Housework Day to Hug an Australian Day, and never once touches a newsroom.

CHAPTER 03

A name the first calendar never changed

The day now goes by Hug a Newsperson Day. Its earliest listing called it Hug a Newsman Day, and the site that ran that listing still does.

The 2006 version appended a note saying the day was also for hugging a newswoman, who would not want to be left out. The name moved on without a date attached, and so did the day itself, which newsrooms now mark without knowing who first asked them to.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Trust in the news peaks

Gallup's reading of American trust in the mass media reached 72%, the highest in a series it has run since 1972.

The day's earliest datable trace

An archived April calendar lists Hug a Newsman Day, giving no creator and no explanation.

The origin declared untraceable

The same site gave the day a page of its own and printed that its research had not found the creator or the origin.

Distrust overtakes trust

For the first time in Gallup's series, more Americans said they had no trust at all in the mass media than said they had a great deal or a fair amount.

A Houston newsroom opens up

KPRC 2 marked the day by inviting its audience to put any question to its reporters and journalists.

Public broadcasting loses federal money

Congress rescinded more than $1 billion previously allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Medill reported in its survey of the year in local news.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Hug a Newsperson Day by the Numbers

28%: Gallup, US adults trusting the news, 2025
212: Medill, US counties without local news, 2025
26%: Pew, US newsroom jobs lost 2008 to 2020
47,100: BLS, US reporting jobs counted in 2025
67: RSF, journalists killed, year to Dec 2025

AT A GLANCE

The reporting job, by federal count

Federal occupation code: SOC 27-3023
Median pay, 2025: $62,200 a year
Median hourly wage, 2025: $29.91
Typical entry-level education: Bachelor's degree
Projected change, 2025 to 2035: Down 6%, or 2,800 jobs
Projected openings a year: About 3,400, all replacements

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Hug a Newsperson Day Matters

COUNTING

Same date, two totals, two definitions, and both are correct.

On 1 December 2025 the Committee to Protect Journalists counted 330 journalists imprisoned, while Reporters Without Borders counted 503 detained. Neither figure is an error: CPJ counts only journalists it has confirmed were jailed for their work and leaves out the missing and those held by non-state actors, while the RSF total also takes in pre-trial detention beyond 48 hours and house arrest.

ACCESS

Local reporting has thinned out county by county

Northwestern University's Medill Local News Initiative reports that one in seven Americans, almost 50 million people, live with limited or no access to local news. A further 1,525 counties are down to one surviving source, usually a weekly paper.

HOME

The United States joined the list of jailers

The Committee to Protect Journalists recorded that the United States joined the list of jailers of journalists in 2025, over the months-long detention of journalist Mario Guevara. CPJ states that he was deported before the December census was taken, so his case sits outside the totals it published.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Hug a Newsperson Day

Subscribe to a newsroom in your own county

Almost 40% of local American newspapers have vanished over two decades, on Medill's count. A paid subscription to a surviving local outlet is the version of this day that pays a wage.

LEARN

Learn what a press freedom census actually counts

The CPJ census is a snapshot taken at one minute past midnight on 1 December, not a running tally of the year. Reading a method note before quoting a headline figure is the habit this day is really asking for.

CHECK

Check which body produced a figure before sharing it

Gallup, Pew, Medill and the Bureau of Labor Statistics all measure different things about the news business. Naming the body and the year turns a loose number into a checkable one.

THANK

Thank a named journalist rather than an outlet

The roles behind a broadcast include producers, meteorologists and photojournalists as well as the anchor. Pick the person whose work you actually used this week and say so.

FIND

Find out whether your county still has reporters

Medill's watch list names 249 counties judged at high risk of losing their last local news source within a decade. Looking up your own county takes a minute and changes what the day means.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Hug a Newsperson?

1 / 8

What is the earliest datable evidence that this day existed?

Answer

No. It has no legal standing, it is not a day off, and a full-text search of the US Federal Register returns nothing under either of its names.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

15sources

12primary records

12independently dated

Primary records

Internet Archive2001-12-24

Archived holidayinsights.com April calendar, captured 24 December 2001

The earliest datable appearance of the observance located anywhere, listed as Hug a Newsman Day in a dated April sequence with no origin claim attached.