News agencies offer editors value for money in hard economic times

By Keith Nuthall , International News Services

In tough recessionary times, publishers sensibly look to the bottom line. Agencies such as International News Services offer quality well-priced global coverage. Publications gain access to more than 40 experienced journalists worldwide, and the amount they need to spend can vary according to budgets and editorial demands.

They also can use our foreign desk to outsource managing a team of experienced journalists. Client editors need only tell one International News Services manager what articles they need and the demands of the readership, and we will do the rest, including copy editing to ensure a reliably high standard.To illustrate the costs, consider a possible low cost full-time staffer salary: for US$35,000 (or GBPounds ?23,300) at our standard rate of US$450/1,000 words (GBPounds ?300/1,000), International News Services can offer 77,600 quality words by top-class journalists with established track records of working for national newspapers, international trade journals and investigative magazines. To put 77,600 words into context, this means:Mixed news and features

*50 features of 1,000 words

*80 news articles of 300 words*1 special report of 3,600 wordsFeatures only*103 features of 750 wordsNews only*55 news articles of 450 words*100 news articles of 300 words*100 news articles of 150 words*100 news articles of 75 wordsFor a monthly publication, this could fill all your pages. For a weekly, your foreign section and more could be taken of, without having to recruit hard to find and control overseas stringers. For a daily, this amount of coverage would be the backbone of your foreign reporting needs.It’s worth considering when times are tough and contributing budgets are under pressure, just what can be gained by protecting news agency and freelance spending. Quite simply you get a lot of bang for your buck, quid and Euro with efficient agencies such as International News Services: 40 plus journalists and an editing team at your service. Our expenses are minimal; we don’t claim benefits or sick pay; and when our journalists go on holiday, we arrange cover.If you want to discuss our terms and conditions, we are flexible and open to negotiation. We will work our hardest to meet your publication’s needs. Contact us.keith@intnews.co.uk