What is a wire service?

Have you ever come across the same news story in multiple places?

Like most media outlets, the Free Press runs news, features, opinion pieces and photos from news agencies that operate wire services, such as Canadian Press and the Associated Press.

These stories are commonly referred to as wire stories, and they appear in print and online.

Wire stories allow us to quickly and efficiently provide you with national and international news coverage, analysis and photojournalism from reputable sources.

Wire stories will share the same byline and body copy — as well as headline, though we tweak that for print and sometimes online if need be — regardless of where they are published, whether it’s CTV, CBC, Global or a daily newspaper such as the Free Press. The byline will also include the name of the news agency to clearly reflect the story comes from a wire service, and to distinguish it from the local stories we produce in our newsroom.