Wires grow as newpapers die

Or so The Economist argues. Can newswires like AP, Reuters, AFP and Bloomberg survive the decline of the print industry?

High wires
Feb 12th 2009
From The Economist print edition

With newspapers in crisis, newswires may learn to live without them

WHERE does news come from? The answer, much of the time, is from newswires. Many of the stories in newspapers, on television, radio and online are based on dispatches filed by the big news agencies. The biggest international newswires, Associated Press (AP) and Reuters, date back to the expansion of the telegraph in the mid-19th century, when rapid newsgathering first became possible. The agencies have usually been wholesalers of news; newspapers, broadcasters and websites act as retailers, repackaging and selling news to consumers alongside material generated in-house. MORE