The Highlighted Content Web Part and the News Web Part in SharePoint can be used to display news on a page. Both webparts serve different purposes and have distinct features. One particular difference is the display of author in News Webpart and display of editor in the Highlighted Content Web Part. The Highlighted Content Web Part displays editing details like editor and last updated date with the news information. Unfortunately there is no option to change it to the author name.

SharePoint Online offers the useful feature of news links to avoid duplication of news articles and promote existing posts across different sites. This is especially beneficial when news creation is enabled for various departments or directorates, allowing them to share significant news organization-wide. However, the News WebPart might display both the news links and the original articles, resulting in duplicated content. To manage this, you can utilize the OriginalSourceUrl column, which stores the link to the source news article.