Meaning & use
wire service
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablebusiness
An organization that gathers news, photographs and reports and sells them to newspapers, websites and broadcasters.
Grammar: Countable: a wire service, several wire services.
Patterns
- a story from a wire service
- subscribe to a wire service
The story first appeared on a wire service before reaching local papers.
The small newspaper relies on a wire service for world news.
A wire service reporter was at the scene within an hour.
nouncountable or uncountableold-fashionedbusiness
The system by which such news is sent quickly to subscribers, historically by telegraph and now electronically.
Grammar: Often used in a general sense: it was carried by wire service.
Patterns
- carried by wire service
- wire service copy
The report went out over the wire service at noon.
Early wire service stories were sent by telegraph.
Editors check the wire service every few minutes for updates.
Word forms
| plural | wire services |
|---|
Common combinations
- international wire service
- The international wire service reported the election results.
- wire service report
- A wire service report confirmed the news.
- subscribe to a wire service
- Most local papers subscribe to a wire service.
- wire service photographer
- A wire service photographer captured the moment.
- according to a wire service
- The crash happened at dawn, according to a wire service.
Synonyms and how they differ
- news agency
- News agency is the more common British term and means almost the same organization.
- press association
- A press association is often a group of newspapers that share stories, so it is narrower.
- newswire
- Newswire stresses the stream of stories being sent, while wire service names the company.
- syndicate
- A syndicate sells columns, comics or features, not breaking news.
Word family
Commonly confused: wire service or news agency?
wire service vs news agency
News agency is the British phrase, while wire service is more common in the United States.
Practice
A small local paper often runs international stories supplied by a ____.
Choose one answer.
A wire service sells news to papers. A fire service and a post office provide other services entirely.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wire service”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.