Many News Publishers have been expressing their frustration on the delay of getting in Google News especially since Google News started including new sites automatically without a submission form. 

Till recently Google didn't recognize there was an issue. Few days ago Google's John Mueller acknowledged in a video recorded on October 2, 2020 that the Google News team is backed up in accepting new sites into Google News.

Let's start by explaining the multiple places News will surface in Google; there are 2 main Google Surfaces that feature news: Google News (http://news.google.com) and Google Web (including News Tab). These are two different surfaces and follow complete 2 different algorithms.

Another thing to be aware of using "site:http://domain.com" to determine if you are indexed in Google News, it doesn't really answer this question. It searches ALL Google surfaces and is not limited to Web or News. So it can't confirm if your site is in Google News

1. The only way to confirm if your site is in Google News, is to find if your site is included as a "News Source" in Google News, here is how you confirm
   • search for your site:http://cnn.com 
   • mouse over the site name to get "more"
   • if you get your publication name "Go To ..", you are in G News
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
      
2. You "Publication" page should have "/publications/" in URL, you logo and publication name on Page.
   • To My knowledge this is the only way to confirm if you are in Google News via Google News. I heard some sites receive email notifications when their sites are included but haven't confirmed that yet.
3. You can also confirm via
   • Google Analytics: check your referral traffic from http://news.google.com 
4. Also to understand you overall performance go NewzDash Site Stats at https://www.newzdash.com/reports/single and search for your site

I hope this is helpful