Wire Service

Wire services are often called news-gathering agencies, a term that describes well the function of these agencies, which disseminate news that is generated and shared by subscriber or owner media. The Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) are two United States–based wire services; the former is member owned and far larger than the latter. Reuters, which is headquartered in Great Britain and which bills itself as the world's largest international multimedia news agency—with 2,400 editorial staff, journalists, photographers, and camera operators in 197 bureaus serving 130 countries—is one of several major wire services that evolved elsewhere in the world. Bureaus of these wire services send news stories and photographs to their subscribers, and wire services may offer specialized coverage (e.g., sports, financial, and feature services). Their broadcast wires offer news in a form appropriate for those media. Supplemental wire service syndicates are also formed by the major metropolitan newspapers, which may offer these services nationwide.

A public relations practitioner is indeed fortunate when a story she has placed in a local medium is “picked up” by a wire service, which disseminates [Page 899]it to other media regionally or nationally. Of course, public relations practitioners can also send releases directly to wire service bureaus.

In addition to these wire services, the public relations practitioner may elect to pay specialized public relations wire services to send news releases to news media. Such news wires available to public relations clients have the advantage of offering simultaneous transmission of news releases to regional and national news media. The public relations practitioner is charged for this service, but public relations news wires operate much as other wire service news bureaus do. They provide journalists with news releases as well as other information that public relations practitioners want sent to media (e.g., photos, graphics, spreadsheets, and audio and video, as well as advisories and invitations to news conferences). Many public relations wire services also supply basic news data banks for storing releases and published stories, which can give a news story a longer shelf life. The public relations news wire services also track media use, for example, as does a clipping service that provides clients with tear sheets of print media coverage.

Public relations wire services have increased credibility compared with news releases sent by public relations practitioners because news release copy is again checked by the public relations wire services, which value their reputation for reliability among the media they serve. Further, many large-circulation newspapers have public relations news wire computer feeds, and this electronic link to a newsroom can be an advantage over mailed news releases, which reporters and editors may never even open and which are vulnerable to weekend and holiday delays. Thus, many public relations practitioners consider the expense of public relations news wires to be worth the price when broad coverage and convenience are important.

A United Press International (UPI) Unifax machine was an early type of fax machine that used early photocopier technology, enabling the sending of picture data over phone lines and turning UPI into a “wire service.”

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