A news agency is an entity that collects and disseminates news reports to subscribing media organizations, including television, radio and newspaper publishers. The term ‘news’ is typically used in reference to news reports, while ‘press releases’ and ‘press release websites’ are more often used interchangeably. A news agency might also be called a newsroom, press release service or newsroom. A major part of any newsroom will be the news bureau, which functions as a primary distribution platform for news agencies.
In the United States, there are currently four national agencies that provide news services: the Associated Press, the National News Service, the New York Times and the Washington Post. Many other local and regional newspapers to publish news reports, but those services are not considered to be part of a national news agency. All of these news agencies have news bureaus that are accessible via the Internet.
All news agencies are required by law to disclose their advertising revenues and/or specific details regarding payment to members of the news media. They also must abide by certain guidelines that pertain to the submission of news stories and any other information they submit to the public. In the United States, the Fair Broadcast Act regulates all media owned by media corporations. While most third world countries do not have laws regulating the ownership and publishing of news, the rule of thumb is that foreign owned media is largely independent of their domestic competitors.
The four largest U.S. owned media conglomerates are Time Warner Inc., Disney-ABC Television Inc., Viacom International, Inc. and CBS Corporation. Although it would seem that the U.S. news service industry is dominated by the large and well-known broadcasting networks, in fact there are many small and struggling news agencies that are extremely creative and do an excellent job of covering local news. They are also very good at bringing in well-known celebrities and politicians to comment on their programs and provide platforms for social commentary. While smaller news agencies cannot compete with the wealth of big-name media companies, they can still be a profitable and successful business. There are also many small privately owned news agencies that do a very good job covering topics relevant to their communities, but are not as financially powerful as their larger cousins.
If you own your own small to medium-sized news agency, you will first need to establish yourself as an in-house marketing and PR company. This means hiring qualified staff members who can handle both print and web advertising. You will need to start looking for jobs that can help you find clients. As mentioned earlier, the best way to attract potential clients is to post classified ads on newspapers, direct mail services and through various Internet sources such as Craigslist and Monster.
One of the easiest ways to build up your news agency in India is to work with an established company in India or a local entrepreneur. You can always do a bit of networking to find if there are any companies in your area that would be interested in conducting an advertising or PR work for your news agency. Most large multinational companies have an office in India and a lot of them outsource their PR work to India. It is estimated that there are at least 10 American companies out there that outsource at least some of their PR work to India.