A posting from David Allen announces the approval of the NewsML Version 1.1 specification by the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC). A revised XML DTD and XML Schema are available on the project website. The NewsML Schema Version 1.1 represents the same document structure as the NewsML DTD version 1.1; in addition it provides control over element and attribute content in accordance with the NewsML Specification. IPTC has also published an updated V1.1 NewsML Functional Specification and IPTC NewsML NewsAgency Implementation Guidelines document. NewsML is "a compact, extensible and flexible structural framework for news, based on XML and other appropriate standards and specifications. It supports the representation of electronic news items, collections of such items, the relationships between them, and their associated metadata. It allows for the provision of multiple representations of the same information, and handles arbitrary mixtures of media types, formats, languages and encodings. It supports all stages of the news lifecycle and allows the evolution of news items over time. Though media-independent, NewsML provides specific mechanisms for handling text. It allows the provenance of both metadata and news content to be asserted."

From the NewsML Functional Specification v1.1:

NewsML provides a framework for the interchange and management of news: NewsML is primarily intended as a format for the interchange of news. However, it may also be used as a format for news storage and as a support for the creation, editing, management and publication of news in a networked computing environment.

NewsML is based on XML: A NewsML document is an XML document, which must be valid with respect to the NewsML Document Type Definition (DTD) that appears in Appendix 1 of the specification. Like all XML documents, NewsML documents are logical rather than physical objects. They may be built up of the contents of multiple physical files through the use of entity references as described in the XML specification, or by the use of pointers within the NewsML document.

NewsML is media-neutral: NewsML makes no assumption about the media type, format or encoding of news objects. NewsML documents can contain text, video, audio, graphics, photos, or other media and combinations of media yet to be invented.

NewsML requirements summary. "The requirements can be briefly summarised as follows: NewsML is to be a compact, extensible and flexible structural framework for news, based on XML and other appropriate standards and specifications. It must support the representation of electronic news items, collections of such items, the relationships between them, and their associated metadata. It must allow for the provision of multiple representations of the same information, and handle arbitrary mixtures of media types, formats, languages and encodings. It must support all stages of the news lifecycle and allow the evolution of news items over time. Though media-independent, NewsML will provide specific mechanisms for handling text. It will allow for the authentication and signature of both metadata and news content. [from the v1.1 functional specification. The NewsML Requirements document completely describes the capabilities that NewsML is required to deliver.]