News service is an organization that collects and distributes news. Many news organizations rely on news services for national and international news. Few newspapers and local broadcast stations can afford their own national and foreign correspondents. News services developed from organizations set up in Europe during the 1820’s and 1830’s to provide economic news to private clients. News services were once known as wire services because they sent their reports by wire to printing devices called teletypewriters.
News services have reporters stationed in major cities throughout the world. These companies transmit the news gathered by their reporters and others to newspapers and other news organizations that pay for this service. The news text and photographs are sent electronically. Television, radio stations, and websites also subscribe to news services for news summaries. 
In the United States, news services provide much of the foreign and national news reported by the press. Subscribers to a service receive national and international stories. In addition, subscribers may get regional news, weather, and sports items. The major news services include the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) of the United States, Thomson Reuters of Canada and the United Kingdom, ITAR of Russia (called ITAR-TASS in its bureaus outside of Russia), Agence France-Presse of France, and Xinhua of China.
Some large newspaper groups with their own staff of national and foreign correspondents operate a form of news service that is sometimes called a news syndicate. These papers sell subscribers stories that appear in the publications themselves. Other news services, called feature syndicates, provide a variety of materials, including columns of health advice, humor, and political opinion; editorial cartoons; and crossword and sudoku puzzles.
Television news services furnish visual world coverage for televised news. These companies send newscasts and filmed or taped segments of news events to member television stations and websites.
