Why is news said to be "breaking"?

Solution 1:

The word breaking in this context means to

undergo a change or enter a new state, in particular ... of news or a scandal [NOAD]

Etymonline has this interesting tidbit to offer about break:

Meaning "to disclose" is from mid-13c.

That meaning is the flip side of the way you used it, and it is a transitive verb: "He broke the news to me that .." I believe that got modified to "breaking news" by extension.

Solution 2:

I worked in the Radio and TV industry as an engineer for over 30 years and have followed the evolution of the term "breaking". This is how I see it.

The term "breaking" refers to a technical procedure used inside a broadcasting studio. Also, it's used by CB radio operators when one keys open the microphone and says, "breaker, breaker or 10-50" to announce their entrance on the channel.

In the early days of radio broadcasting, some affiliate stations could interrupt a closed-circuit network feed by "Breaking In", using an electronic video/audio switching system. During normal operation, a station would be feeding out programs, either produced in-house or pulled in from the network main center. Prior to CNN, three major network centers (ABC, CBS, NBC) managed the network feeds, sending out programming like The Nightly News, Sitcoms and movies. When there's a major disaster, for example, the nearest affiliate feeds their story to their network headquarters who would, then, send it back out for distribution. All the affiliates would have access to the disaster story.

The "ABC Special Report" is an example of a true a break in. The announcer would say, "We interrupt our regularly scheduled program...". They don't have to say, "...breaking news" because it would be redundant. Interrupt means the same.

As TV stations grew in number, so did the competition for viewers. Around the late 70's, a new generation of broadcasters had no knowledge of what Breaking meant and some "bean-counter" thought that it would be a great word for alerting the audience. So, it went from being studio engineer jargon to an on-air declaration, so overused that it has lost its sting.

Now, we can receive a 24-hour feed, directly from FOX, CNN and other production centers. When a FOX News host says, "We now bring you breaking news....", it's all gratuitous because they are already on the network! In the traditional definition, they can't break into themselves!