Ever wondered how newspapers get their news reports

Newspapers don’t disappoint you. Day after day they apprise you of the latest happenings. The result is that you are so used to them that you don’t think twice as to where the news is coming from. You take it for granted.

But, believe me, it is not easy for the newspapers to first gather information and then process it into news content that has value for the readers.

There are two main sources from where newspapers obtain their news reports.

Source 1
Newspaper’s own reporting team: The first is the news reports generated by the newspaper’s own team of reporters. The number of reporters or the size of the reporting team is directly proportional to the size of the newspaper.

A national newspaper like The Times of India or The Hindustan Times will have reporters based in all their publication centres as well as important cities and towns. This is a large pool of information gatherers.

Each reporter is given a specific area to cover, which in newspaper language is called a beat. The crime reporter collects all information related to crimes in the geographical location allotted to him, the political reporter focuses on political activities of parties that he covers, the sports reporter covers sports events and the business reporter covers business events. There are plenty of specialized beats like education, health, defence, civil aviation, culture etc.

The staff reporters are supported by part-time reporters who are called stringers. These part-time reporters collect news reports from small towns, and forward it to the publication centres. The stringers were earlier based on the number of columns of news reports that they filed every month. Today, newspapers may pay a small amount every month.

Language newspapers like Dainik Jagaran or Dainbik Bhaskar, whose circulation has boomed in the last two decades, appoint stringers in important localities of towns and even in villages. This has increased the news gathering basin enormously, and today you can expect news to be generated from small towns and villages.

The newspapers pay great attention to facts. Each report is checked for factual accuracy before it is handed over to the news desk for publication. The news desk works like a gatekeeper of all content flowing onto newspaper pages, and selects only those news reports for publication that have value for its readers.

Source 2
News agencies: News agencies, also known as wire services, have their own team of reporters. The news generated by these reporters is sold to newspapers. The important news services in India are Press Trust of India, United News of India, ANI and Indo-Asian News Service. Besides these, there are scores of international news services, the biggest of which are Associated Press, Thomson Reuters and Agence France Presse.

The wire services charge a monthly subscription fee which is based on the circulation of a newspaper. Newspapers that sell lesser number of copies pay much less as compared to newspapers that sell a high number of copies. This makes it possible for all newspapers to access a large volume of news content.

Like the newspapers, the news agencies too have an efficient filtration system. News reports generated in small towns are forwarded to news bureau in metros where they are checked for accuracy. For instance, the news bureau of a wire service based in Bangalore will screen all reports coming from different parts of Karnataka. After correcting them, the reports that are of interest to Karantaka alone, will be mailed directly to Karnataka newspapers. The reports that have national value are sent to the Delhi offices of the agency, where they are screened once again for newsworthiness and sent to newspapers across the country.

The Indian news agencies have one more responsibility. They screen and distribute news copy filed by international wire services. This is in accordance with Indian law under which international news agencies need Indian partners to distribute news reports to Indian media.