Channel PubDate Vs item pubdate

Question

I was wondering if when a new content is added/pushed, it has a pub Date. Does the channel pub Date matches with the pub Date of the item? In other words, Channel pub date is updated with the same pub Date when new is added?

Answer 1

First, it depends on the implementation so no guarantees can be made how the dates are set. Also according the spec both pubDates are optional.

In the specification there is a description on channel's pubDate:

For example, the New York Times publishes on a daily basis, the publication date flips once every 24 hours. That's when the pubDate of the channel changes.

I checked NYT's feed and channel's pubDate was "Tue, 09 Sep 2014 20:33:06 GMT" while the latest item's pubDate was "Tue, 09 Sep 2014 19:42:55 GMT" So in this case the channel's pubDate does not match the item's.