Associated Press (AP) - Thousands per month plus royalties
Reuters - Thousands per month plus royalties
United Press International (UPI) - Hundreds to housands per month plus royalties
All Headline News (AHN) - Hundreds to thousands per month.
Yellow Brix - Thousands per month plus royalties
ians.in - Unknown Doesn't seem significant, beware of English errors that I saw on the news items

The costs depend directly on what you get.. Of the list you provided only AP, Reuters, UPI and AHN are originating news agencies.. Yellowbrix is a reseller

Also worth noting that only AP and Reuters are real 'reporters on-the-ground' agencies. UPI do a have a bit on their features wire where they put people onthe ground but their general wire is re-writing. AHN is all re-writing of AP etc as far as I can work out.

Reuters charge (me at least) about £650 per month (3 months in advance) per subject. UPI can range form $400 to $2000 per month depending on how much content you are taking. AP I am not sure, similar to Reuters I imagine. IANS cahrge me about £400 per month, but really only good for India specific area of a site, would not use to lead as per poor copy sometimes (sort of cultural differences in style as well).

There are some official wires as well, but buyer beware of bias. RIAN, TASS etc.

I have found it is viable to have your own reporters in certain topics and better to have wires in others. Remember that when you buy a wire hundreds of other websites and newspaper are using exactly the same stories.

Putting your own people on the ground is expensive but can be worth it sometimes. But think costs - wages, travel, insurance...also responsibility. Much easier to cover entertainment this way than say world hot spots.

Oh a UK company called Adfero will do you custom reporting...pretty reliable, pricey...especially if you earn in $.

Photos - Reuters include in most stories, AP separate I think. I pay around E1000 per month for 30 photos per day from a global image wire (for breaking news coverage). Celeb photos I pay about $1000 per month for unlimited use of 2nd tier quality shots. Top quality celeb shots and pap stuff is more expensive. Likes of Wireimage and WENN can supply these.

Most of the above will provide FTP push or pull...some like Reuters have their own software you can install and hook up to your CMS.

[edited by: FattyB at 12:43 pm (utc) on April 16, 2007]

Associated Press (AP) - Thousands per month plus royalties
Reuters - Thousands per month plus royalties
United Press International (UPI) - Hundreds to housands per month plus royalties
All Headline News (AHN) - Hundreds to thousands per month.
Yellow Brix - Thousands per month plus royalties
ians.in - Unknown Doesn't seem significant, beware of English errors that I saw on the news items

The costs depend directly on what you get.. Of the list you provided only AP, Reuters, UPI and AHN are originating news agencies.. Yellowbrix is a reseller

I think with the copyright sums to pay, that are quoted above, you'd better think twice whether to use these agencies as sources at all. Unfortunately, I don't have any idea what else might work better for you, so I'll stay aside from any recommendations.

I'd say first to find a niche. Then look at hiring your own news writers and producing ORIGINAL CONTENT.

There are alot of sites out there with writers looking for work.

Or you could try Adfero. I am not sure how much they would charge you per article, but it may be cheaper than the others.

[edited by: Shimrit at 4:05 pm (utc) on April 24, 2007]

Doesn't Adfero just do rewrites of AP?

Yeah, but I think they charge less for it :)

I don't know about that... AHN has full text feeds in some categories that are $75

Is it worth paying the money?

To use News Agency content? absolutely!

Figure it this way... how much would it cost you to have 10-20 news articles a day written for you? Then how much time/money would it cost to edit, correct and post them? I think the answer is going to be expensive.

With a news agency you are accessing stories for a fraction of what you can do it for.

plus you have protection and insulation from libel and other legal issues