Imagine someone you loved was in the hospital with a very serious illness. You phone their wife or husband and ask if there is any news; he or she answers, "No, but no news is good news." It means that a change is usually for the worse, so if nothing has changed that's probably a good thing.

That it is stupid. It is only the hearer who will know if the news has a positive meaning for him/her or a negative one. It is better to have any kind of news than no one, unless you don't care about the subject.

NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS = "The earliest version of this familiar saying was attributed to the English King James I, who wrote in 1616, 'No newis is bettir than evill newis.' Virtually the modern saying appeared some years later in James Howell's 'Familiar Letters' (c. 1645) with the line, 'I am of the Italians mind that said.no news, good news'." From "Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New" by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993). Page 135.