Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

News agency

News agencies are bodies established to supply news to newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. News agencies can be either corporations that sell news (e.g. Reuters), cooperatives composed of newspapers that share their articles with each other, or government agencies (especially in Communist countries and other one-party states).

News agencies generally prepare articles that can be used by other news organizations with little or no modification, and then sell them to other news organizations. They provide these articles in bulk electronically through wire services (originally they used telegraphy; today they frequently use the Internet). Corporations, individuals, analysts and intelligence agencies often also subscribe to news agencies as sources of information.

Whether the news agency is a government entity or a commercial firm, dependence on official sources often results in systematic biases in the content of its news coverage. (See "Reporting a New Delhi Bias? A Content Analysis of AP Wire Stories on the Conflicts in Sri Lanka and Kashmir," by John Hickman and Sarah Bartlett in Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Volume 6, Number 3, (Spring 2002) at http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/jouvert/v613/sri.htm ).

US news agencies include:

Prominent international news agencies include: News agencies are distinct from news syndicates that distribute comic strips and other editorial material, such as columns and features, and also from PR services that distribute press releases. Sometimes news agencies have separate arms for such work, but many such organizations are completely separate.

Commercial PR services include: