Global News Agencies

Global News Agencies- the important role they play in news dissemination

There is a difference between news agencies and news channels which is not known to all. News Agencies are like those umbrellas or the canopies of the trees that provide shed to the person in requirement. A news agency basically gather pieces of news stories and sells them to the subscribing news channels, magazines, television broadcasters, radios, etc.  They are often called Newswires.

News Agencies can be government controlled or private. They might be independent corporations that sell news or might work with large media companies in order to share their news stories that might in turn be picked up by other news agencies for redistribution. However, news and information best work when transferred from one source to other since their essential characteristic is circulation.
There are some very important global news agencies that have their offices in most countries of the world.

1) Agence France-Presse

Though working as a government-chartered corporation, it is officially an independent business. It is somehow a descendant of Agence-Havas founded in 1835 which later came to be known as AFP in 1944.
It has its headquarters in Paris, its regional offices in more than 5 cities and its bureaus in more than 150 countries. It is the third largest global news agency and it communicates new in various languages including French, English, Arabic, Spanish, etc.

2) Associated Press

A not-for-profit news cooperative formed in 1846, with 240 news bureaus in more than 120 countries as of now. It is headquartered in New York City. AP is owned by its contributing television, radio and news channels in United States. All of these contribute news stories to AP, which is used by more than 17000 newspapers and 5000 radio/television broadcasters. Gary Pruitt is the present CEO of AP.

3) Reuters

Reuters was established in 1851 by Paul Julius Reuter. It has its headquarters in London, England, UK.
However, Reuters is no more an independent company owned by Reuters Group pIc. It was acquired in 2008 by Thomson Reuters. It transmits news in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and various other languages. It has a great network of newspapers and broadcasters.

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