What Is Print Media?

Print media is the printed version of telling the news, primarily through newspapers and
magazines. Before the invention and widespread use of printing presses, printed materials
had to be written by hand. It was a painstaking process that made mass distribution
impossible.

At first, news was chiselled in stone. Later, it was handwritten and posted in a public area
much like today's posters or read from a scroll by a town crier. As early as 131 B.C., the
ancient Roman government produced daily news sheets and informed the public in this
way. Through the years, print media evolved to include entertainment, educational topics
and more, instead of only conveying news.

A Brief History of Printing

Around the year 932, Chinese printers adapted wood blocks, which had been used to print
illustrations and small amounts of text, and started producing popular books more easily.
Each page of text was one block that could be used repeatedly to make the books.

About 100 years later, China's Bi Sheng invented movable type by carving individual
characters onto small blocks of clay. Each small block was hardened by fire to become a
porcelain piece that could be used again and again. The pieces were glued to iron plates to
make a page. Using each page hundreds or thousands of times, he could mass produce news
quickly. When the printing was done, the pieces were removed from the plates to be used
again to make other pages.

Bi Sheng's invention had limited success in China because the Chinese alphabet's characters
are so large that they were difficult to put on movable type. His idea spread all over the
world, however, and others adapted it using other materials such as wood, tin and copper.
Still, the process was too cumbersome to mass produce a newspaper for the public.
Printing Press

In 1440, Johannes Gutenberg introduced his invention of a movable type printing press
with type that was much easier to change, making the mass production of news pages
possible. The invention spread throughout Europe, and printing and distributing sheets of
news became popular.

The World Association of Newspapers considers the first newspaper to be The Relation,
which was published in Germany in 1604. It was published regularly (weekly),
disseminated to the public and covered a range of news, from politics to entertainment.

The Oxford Gazette was the first English paper to be published, starting in 1665. It moved
to London the next year and was renamed the London Gazette. It is still published today as
the official publication of government news.

Although the early American colonies published news sheets, the first true newspaper was
published in Boston in 1690 called Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick, it
ran into trouble for publishing political criticism. The first successful newspaper in
America was the Boston News-Letter in 1702.

Ironically, the early mass-produced newspapers cost close to what most workers earned in a
week, so only the wealthy could afford to buy them. Wealthy people were more likely to be
literate at that time too. By the 1830s, though, publishers were able to print newspapers for
about one cent per copy, making them truly available to the masses.

By 1900, newspapers were very popular because more people were literate and papers were
affordable. They included the features we recognize today, including attention-grabbing
headlines, news, society pages, sports, comics and the occasional use of spot color in
special instances.

Four Main Types of Printmaking

It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Writers may beg to differ, but it can't
be denied that pictures grab attention and enhance the written word, whether in a book, in a
newspaper or on a billboard. Images have been used along with words since the early days
of printmaking. There are four ways to make prints from an original piece of art: relief,
intaglio, lithography and screen printing. Choosing which type to use depends on the
effect the artist and printer want to achieve.

Relief printmaking uses wood, plastic or metal that the artist cuts into, cutting away the
portions that won't be printed. When ink is applied to the surface, it highlights the raised
areas, much like a rubber stamp does when pressed into a stamp pad. Woodcut has been
used for centuries due to the availability of smooth hardwoods. Wood engraving uses wood
with no grain showing to achieve fine detail, and plastic is often used instead of the wood.

Intaglio works in a nearly opposite way. Instead of creating raised areas, the artist etches
grooves with an instrument or with acid. When ink is applied, it seeps into the grooves. The
printing press pushes paper against the surface and ink in the grooved areas is printed.
Different techniques can be used in intaglio to create soft lines, shading and detail.

Lithography uses a flat piece of material, such as limestone or aluminum. The artist
applies a greasy medium, like grease crayons, or a more liquid grease solution to the areas
to be printed. After treating the surface with a chemical solution, the ink adheres to the
greased areas.

Screen printing, also called serigraphy, uses silk or another fine mesh material which is
stretched tightly on a frame. Areas that aren't to be printed are blocked off with paper, glue
or specially made stencils. Ink is applied and pressed through the fabric with wood to which
a rubber blade has been attached. (Think of a squeegee pressed against a surface to push
water away.) The screen process is repeated for each color used, blocking out areas that
aren't to be printed in that color.

Types of Printing

Offset printing uses lithography to print on flat surfaces, like paper and plastic. When
color is used, printing presses have a separate unit for each color and typically apply black
ink first, followed by the colors one at a time. When mass quantities are needed, such as
when printing newspapers, a large roll of paper may be used instead of individual sheets.

Flexology can be used to print on other materials, like cellophane and plastic labels, but is
also sometimes used for newspapers. This process has a rubber plate that is inked and
applied to the printing surface.
 Rotogravure is a longstanding process that uses a cylinder instead of a flat plate. The
image is engraved onto this cylinder and ink is applied. It's been used for both newspaper
and magazine printing but is often substituted today by offset printing and flexology,
depending on the purpose.

Digital printing using inkjet or laser printers has replaced many other printing processes
because of the availability of accurate and affordable printers that can print on many
different materials.

Gutenberg's Game-Changer

Gutenberg's printing press brought him immortal fame, but no money. One of his backers
sued Gutenberg and won, taking possession of everything the printer owned. Gutenberg
died in poverty in 1468. By that time, the printing press had caught on and presses were
operating across Europe.

The impact of the printing press on society was due to the advantages of the printing press
over hand-copying.

 A printing press could create many more copies at a faster rate than even the best scribes.

 Printed copies are more accurate. With manuscripts copied by hand, errors creep in as
copyists misread the original, or put down the wrong words, letters or figures.

 Printing could reach more people, over a wider area, than having one person instruct or
teach others.

 Knowledge passed on orally, or from scribe to scribe, had grown increasingly fragmentary
and corrupted over time. The printing press made it possible to collect and organize
knowledge and pass it on intact.

Historians still debate whether the printing press's influence was felt immediately, or
gradually over the next couple of centuries.

Print Media in India

Newspapers were started in India during the British rule. In the early years it was confined to
the interests of the ruling class only. The East India Company was always suspicious of
journalists and intolerant of criticism. The press in India controlled by Englishmen drew its
strength from the power of the press in England. Hicky, Buckingham, Raja Ram Mohan
Roy, etc were the pioneers of newspapers in India. Their contribution to the field of press
was commendable and they set new standards for new journalists. They started many famous
newspapers which were used for protest against the alien rule. So, they had to face atrocities
of the British rulers.

Beginning of Language press

The first periodical in an Indian language was Dig Darshan started in April 1818 in
Bengali. It covered a large number of subjects like economics, politics, science, history,
trade, etc. A weekly paper ―Samachar Darpan was also started in 1818, both in English
and Bengali and survived till 1890. Both these papers were started by the Baptist Mission at
Calcutta for religious propaganda. These papers focused on women education also.

Afterwards, a number of newspapers came into existence in Bombay, Calcutta and

Madras. At that time, Bombay was a busy commercial centre and merchants were mainly
from Gujrat who were eager to know news about the rate of commodities and shipping
intelligence. So, the English newspapers started publishing advertisements in Gujrati from
1797.

Another paper, Bombay Samachar, which was a Gujrati weekly with news of
commercial interest was started by Marzban in 1822. It is considered to be the oldest living
Indian language newspaper of India. So, the birth of Indian Journalism could be traced to the
second and third decades of the 19th century. Most of the journals and papers were in Bengali
and Gujrati. The language press in its initial years focused on two fronts, i.e. Social reform
and political progress. With the entry of Gandhi in the Indian political scenario, language
papers sprang up all over the country. Due to lack of facilities, they suffered a lot in the hands
of the alien rulers. Many papers tried to survive because of their courage and sacrifices by
their leaders.

In the beginning, Hindi press focused more on social and religious questions. The
earliest Hindi newspaper was Oodunt Martand by Jooghul Kishore Sookool from Calcutta
in 1826. He was denied postal facilities by the government. The first daily Hindi newspaper
was Samachar Subha Varshan in 1854 with Shyam Sunder Sen as its editor. Other popular
Hindi papers were Benaras Akhbar, Sudhakar, Tathwa Bodhini, etc.

A paper named AJ was started from Benaras in 1920 and it played an important role
in the freedom struggle. By 1924, there were around 102 Hindi newspapers. Urdu newspapers
like Fawaid-ul-Nazarin, Kiran-us-Sadai and Akmal-ul-Akhbar were also very popular at
that time. Al Hilal marked a turning point in the history of Urdu Journalism and achieved
news heights within a short spam of time. The credit for language journalism in India goes to
Bengali papers. Many of the popular journalists were also from Bengal. It includes
S.N.Bannerjee, Aurobindo Ghosh, Bipin Chandra Pal etc. The Bengali papers suffered a
lot after the Mutiny of 1857. The most popular Bengali papers were Samachar Darpan,
Sambad Kaumudi, Banga Dharshan, etc. Another important paper in the history of Bengali
Journalism was Ananda Bazar Patrika. Malayalam papers like Malayala Manorama was
not only involved in the freedom struggle but it also fought against autocracy in a princely
state. Due to this, its publication was stopped for nine long years.

The Marathi and Gujrati papers were also very active in the latter half of the 19th
century. It includes Dynan Prakash (1849), Kesari and Lokmanya (1920). Sakal, a
Marathi paper which was published from Pune, occupied a place of pride. The Hitechu was
the first Gujrati daily which emerged in 1873. Similarly, Kannada Journalism is over 140
years old. The first Kannada newspaper was Mangaloora Samachara started in 1843 from
Mangalore. Tilak exercised a great influence on the Kannada Press in the fisrt two decades of
the 20th century. The most widely circulated Kannada daily is Prajavani started in 1948 as a
sister concern of the Deccan Herald. In Telgu, the first news weekly was Andhra Prakasika
in 1885 and it acted as a supporter of the National Congress. As compared to other languages,
Tamil Journalism was a little bit slow towards the end of the 19th century. The first Tamil
paper was Swadeshamitran which was stated in 1882.

Pioneers in Indian Journalism

The following were the pioneers of early newspapers in India:

1. James Augustus Hicky :

The credit for launching the first newspaper in India goes to James Augustus Hicky. His
paper, “Bengal Gazette” was launched on January 29, 1780 in Calcutta as a two sheet
weekly. It was popular as a weekly political and commercial paper open to all parties but
influenced by none. It mainly included printed items from English newspapers, letters
from local readers and scandal of interest to the European Community. It also had a
column through which Hicky used to talk to his readers directly. It soon became a witty
paper which was disliked by Warren Hastings, the Governor General. His fortunes began
to decline when a rival appeared i.e. Indian Gazette in the same year. It was a much better
newspaper with four pages, each 16 inches long with three columns and well printed. He
was very disappointed when postal facilities were denied to him but granted to his rival
paper. He was not popular with officials and merchants.

He used to hit people whom he disliked through his paper. Warren Hastings finally
took action against him for defamation in June 1781. He was convicted and sentenced to a
year‘s imprisonment along with a fine of Rs. 2000. When he was in prison, Bengal
Gazette continued to appear regularly and his column too. The paper had greater public
support. Another action was taken against him in March, 1782. As a result, the paper was
seized and it led to the end of Bengal Gazette which was popularly known as Hicky‘s
Gazette. This paper was the forerunner of many other journals and newspapers which
were started in Calcutta and other parts of the country. It includes Madras Courier,
Hurkaru, Bombay Herald, Indian Herald, Bombay Gazette, The Courier, etc.

2. James Silk Buckingham :

James Silk Buckingham was another pioneer in Indian press. He was born in England in
1786 and was popular as a man of principles in the country. Jawahar Lal Nehru described
him as the earliest champions of the freedom of press in India . He came to India in 1818
as the editor of the Calcutta Chronicle. He was a versatile editor and made his paper a
mixture of political, commercial and literary news and views. He was a scholar in
anthropology and literature. He was a keen observer of the customs and habits of the
people among whom he lived. He was truly the father of Indian Journalism. With his
advent, press started discussing questions of public interest. He considered a well
conducted press essential to promote knowledge and dispel ignorance. He had
revolutionary views about the press. The Calcutta Journal under his guidance was
considered to be the best produced newspaper in content and presentation. Objections
were raised to the publication and prosecution was started against him. The main
contribution of Buckingham to Indian Journalism is that he made newspaper the mirror of
the people. He was one of those journalists who were born rather than made.
 3. Raja Ram Mohan Roy :

He was considered as the father of Indian Press by Nehru. He was a linguist, scholar,
social reformer and liberal thinker. He was also the champion of the freedom of the press.
He used print media as a vehicle for propagating his liberal ideas. He launched a
campaign against sati and other social evils like caste system, idol worship, animal
sacrifice from the Hindu society. He published Brahmanical Magazine in English
(1821), Sambad Kaumudi in Bengali (1821) and Mirat-ul-Akhbar in Persian (1822).
Brahmanical Magazine ceased to exist after few issues. On the other hand, Sambad
Kaumudi was a news weekly dealing with political, social and religious subjects. It
encouraged liberal outlook and became a great champion of civil liberty and rule of law.
It stood against the racial discrimination on the part of the Britishers. The paper was of
the view that education was for social betterment and awakening and favoured spread of
western medical science, technical and women education. It became bi weekly in January
1830 and continued for 33 years.

4. Dyal Singh Majithia :

Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia was the founder of The Tribune. Dyal Singh was a great
philanthropist. He gave much in charity. He was accessible to all those who were seekers
after truth. He rendered financial assistance to the needy, irrespective of their religious
beliefs. He was the most important Brahmo leader of Punjab and the principal financier of the
Brahmo Samaj. The establishment of The Tribune was another noteworthy contribution by
him. The aim of the newspaper was to spread the doctrine of Indian nationalism and to bring
about unity in a society that was afflicted by differences on questions of religion, caste,
language and region. His nationalism was also reflected in his strong support for the
foundation of the Indian National Congress.

5. Kalinath Ray :

Kalinath Ray was the former editor of a popular daily The Tribune. He was a fearless writer
who bravely faced the risks involved in fighting an alien government. He emerged as an
undisputed leader for the press in Punjab. So when he was sent to jail for two years in 1919,
the whole of the Punjab and its people rose as one man in protest of his imprisonment. In the
face of determined opposition, he was released after three months. For him, Gandhiji said, ―
Long live Kalinath Ray. His articles now-a-days on the communal problem and on joint
electorates for Harijans bear witness to his deep knowledge and wide experience.‖ He had his
differences with Gandhi as he did not believe in non violence and the methods adopted by
Gandhi to achieve freedom. According to Amolok Ram, a former editor, ―Ray, who edited
The Tribune for 28 years was known for his uprightness, integrity, sobriety and
independence. He did not allow his judgement to be influenced by personal or sectarian
considerations. Although the Tribune was an uncompromising critic of British rule, Ray
commanded great respect even among the British bureaucrats of the day. He maintained the
highest journalist standards. He did not indulge in character assassination, nor in hitting
below the belt. Ray emerged with chronic asthma from prison and passed away in 1943. The
Tribune passed through many ups and downs until the final calamity in 1947 when on the eve
of independence, two of its staff members were stabbed and the publication in Lahore was
suspended.

6. S.N.Bannerjee :

S N Banerjee was one of the earliest politicians in the pre independence era of India. He
established Indian National Association which was later merged with Indian National
Congress. At a very young age, he cleared the British instituted ICS examinations, but was
dismissed due to racial discrimination. He whipped up a strong protest against this. Later on,
Banerjee became a senior member of the Indian National Congress. Born on 10 November
1848 at Calcutta in West Bengal, Surendranath Banerjee was intensely swayed by the liberal,
progressive thinking of his father, Durga Charan Banerjee. In the time to come, Banerjee
went on to launch 'The Bengali' newspaper and the Indian National Association in 1876. He
employed these forums to address political and social issues like the age-limit for Indian
students appearing for ICS. He rebuked the racial discrimination practiced by the British
officers through public speeches all over the country, which made him very popular. After the
Congress was set up in 1885 at Bombay, Banerjee merged his Indian National Association
with it owing to their common agenda. He served as Congress President in 1898 and 1904.

7. Sadhu Singh Hamdard:

Sadhu Singh Hamdard was a double barreled journalist who excelled in both urdu and
Punjabi. He was also an innovative poet. In 1944, Sadhu Singh entered the field of
journalism. He took up editorship of the Daily Ajit (Urdu) and retained this position until
1957. In 1955, he also became chief editor of' the Punjabi Ajit. The birth of the Ajit was an
entirely new phenomenon in Punjabi journalism. It marked a new era of change and
experimentation. In Sadhu Singh's hands, Punjabi journalism matured and reached new
heights. The Ajit and Sadhu Singh Hamdard became synonymous terms as he had nurtured
the paper very lovingly.

Sadhu Singh set its permanent seal on Punjabi journalism. He created a new taste in
Punjabi writing and introduced several new techniques. His services to Punjabi journalism, to
what he did to give it a new face and format, were widely acknowledged. In 1963, the Punjab
Government honoured him with the title of Shiromani Pattarkar (the journalist of the
year). He was chairman of the reception committee of All India Newspapers Editors
Conference held at Jalandhar in 1973. He also edited two monthly magazines Tasvir and
Drishti. Within his lifetime, he converted all his property and assets into a public trust for the
advancement of Punjabi culture and letters. As a poet, Sadhu Singh Hamdard will be
especially remembered for popularizing the ghazal form in Punjabi. His collection of Punjabi
poems in this genre, entitled Ghazal, won him a first. prize from the Punjab Government in
1963. He also wrote some novels built around heroic episodes from Sikh history as well as
some short stories.

News Agency

A news agency is an organization which deals with news coverage along with the
interpretation of the important political and economic events. According to UNESCO, a
news agency is, ―an undertaking of which the principle objective, whatever its legal
form, is to gather news and news material of which the sole purpose is to express or
present facts, and to distribute this to a group of news enterprises, and in exceptional
circumstances to private individuals with a view to providing them with as complete
and impartial a news service as possible against payment, and under conditions
compatible with business laws and usage. Therefore, news agencies were classically
defined as ‘wholesale media‘ gathering news for the purpose of distributing it to other
‗retail media‘, mainly newspapers and broadcasters, who packaged news agency news for
their own distinctive readers and audiences. It plays an important role in shaping public
opinion on crucial important national and international news. These agencies do not directly
deal with the public but works through other media like TV, Radio and Press.
 News agencies can be said to have been among the highly visible manifestations of
‗globalization in the 19th century, a process of the interlinking of different national
economics through the activities of transnational economic and financial trade. Its identity
has a variety of geographical markets. They gather news independently from most countries
of the world and sent it to its clients in most countries, each of these has a long established
national identity. Most celebrated global print news agencies are AFP, AP and Reuters. The
USA became the only country to have two global news agencies in the world‘s market.
Of these three big news agencies, Reuters has become spectacularly wealthy as a result of a
1970‘s redirection of core business towards computer used information and transaction
services for financial markets. The other two major agencies, AP and AFP, control
substantial worldwide human resource and communication assets, but they do not typically
generate substantial revenues in excess of operating expenditures, nor have they been
constituted for that purpose. Both these agencies derive the largest share of their revenues
from their domestic markets.

(i) Reuters : Its first bureau was opened at Royal Exchange, London, in 1851.
Reuters Economic Service is the largest International Commerce and business
news service. Reuters is the largest international multi-media news agency,
reporting extensively from around the world on topics ranging from financial
markets to general and political news. The world relies on Reuters journalists to
provide accurate, clearly sourced accounts of events as they occur, wherever they
occur, so that individuals, organizations and governments can make their own
decisions based on the facts.

(ii) Associated Press (AP) : It was founded in 1848 as a co-operative, non-profit

making cooperation and its entire source of revenue is subscription by members. It
is the only agency which has laid down its rules that it should not enter into any
bidding deals with and government or government institutions, for fear of having
its services utilized for propaganda purposes. Control of AP is vested solely in its
members. It gives the same type of service to its members in America and abroad.
It makes available to Reuters‘its news at New York; Reuters‘ make it available to
London but neither AP nor Reuters has access to the other‘s international file. It
 also has a strong digital network offering 1000 photos a day worldwide, and a 24-
hour continuously updated online news service.

(iii) Agence France Presse (AFP) : It was founded in 1835, under the name of
Agence Havas in Paris. In 1857, Havas signed a contract for distribution of news
with the Associated Press of America. Earlier, it signed contracts with Wolff and
Reuters also. Its website in August 2000 claimed that the agency had bureaus in
165 countries, and employed a full time staff of around 2000. It distributes 2
million words, 250 photos and 80 graphics each day in six languages and claims
to serve a total of 10000 media clients either directly or through national agencies.

Indian News Agencies :

National news agencies are often the largest domestic news gathering organizations,
connecting central and peripheral media in a network with the national agency at its centre,
collecting news from the different provinces, compiling a service of national and regional
news for national dissemination. The global agencies supply their international news services
to national agencies. In India, news agencies were started with a purpose to support
newspapers in order to cover a wide variety of subjects. Initially the agencies were meant to
provide the news items only to the newspapers but with the passage of time, the rapidly
developing modern mediums such as the radio, television and Internet too adapted the
services of news agencies. When India became free, the Associated Press of India, a
subsidiary of Reuters, dominated the news agency scene to an extent where it could insist
that no subscriber of API take any other news agency service. That was the power which the
API used to force the Free Press news agency out of business. The Free Press News Agency,
like the United Press of India, was formed by Indian nationalists who were dissatisfied at the
mear coverage given by API to the national struggle for independence.

All the news agencies like API, PTI, FPA, UPI and UNI were English language
news agencies. Indian language newspapers subscribed to their service, translated and edited
the copy and published it in their respective languages. The concept of an Indian language
news agency was still a distant dream. It was K.C. Roy who established the API. The credit
for setting up the first Indian language news agency- Hindustan Samachar goes to
S.S.Apte. In the beginning, its operations were limited to distribution of news through
Devanagari telegrams. With the introduction of Devenagari teleprinters, it began supplying
news to its Hindi and Marathi newspapers subscribers through teleprinters. The second Indian
language news agency, Samachar Bharti, was founded in 1966.

During national emergency in 1975, all the four agencies- PTI, UNI, Hindustan
Samachar and Samachar Bharti- were merged into one agency which was named
Samachar. The process of integration was still underway when in the Lok Sabha election of
1977, the Janta Party was returned to power. Though a committee appointed by the Janta
Government recommended that there should be two agencies, the government decided to
restore the status quo as existed before Samachar was formed. So, all the four news agencies
thus began operating as separate units from 1978 onwards. Introduction of higher pay scale
had imposed a heavy financial burden on the agencies. The government agreed at the time of
the break-up of Samachar to bear the burden of the extra expenditure for a few years. After
this period, the agencies were expected to absorb it themselves. While PTI and UNI were
able to do so, Hindustan Samachar and Samachar Bharti could not.

Following are the major news agencies of India:

1. Press Trust of India :

K.C. Roy , Father of Indian news agency journalism, was the first ho decided to
have an Indian news agency. The Associated Press of India was acquired by Reuters in 1915
and was established as a limited company in 1946. In 1948, Indian press formed the Press
Trust of India; a co-operative, non-profit making news trust. PTI concluded an agreement
with Reuters in September 1948, under which it took over the interest of API entirely.
Simultaneously, PTI became a partner in Reuters trust buying 12,500 of Reuters 90,000
ordinary shares. For the first three years PTI paid 30,000 pounds as its contribution towards
the general expenses in the collection and distribution of news. Functioning for three years as
a partner of Reuters, PTI annulled the partnership in 1953. It is the largest news agency in
India which is a non-profit sharing co-operative owned by the newspapers of India. Its
purpose is to provide efficient and unbiased news to its subscribers. It took over the
operations of the Associated Press from Reuters soon after India's independence on August
15, 1947. It provides news coverage and information of the region in both English and Hindi.
Its corporate office is located at Sansad Marg, New Delhi and registered office in D N Road,
Mumbai. It makes no dividend and no material benefits accrue to the shareholders except the
services of the agency. The small newspapers being larger in number, it is difficult for bigger
newspapers to control the agency. Since the newspapers being both the subscribers and
owners of the agencies there is a tendency in their part to pay less for the services but demand
a full and satisfactory service. They decide what the rates should be. The newspapers which
were using 60 to 70 percent of news supplied by news agencies did not pay even two to three
percent of their revenue to the agencies. It exchanges information and news with various
news agencies of the world. It had a staff of more than 1600 including 400 journalists. It has
over 100 bureaus across the country and 10 bureaus abroad. It has more than 300 stringers
around the various parts of the country. The news services are provided by satellite, data
channels and ticker lines. It has divided the country into 4 regions. There are different
bureaus for political, economic and sports coverage.

PTI has the largest news network. Its subscribers include 450 newspapers in India and scores
abroad. All major TV/ radio channels in India and abroad receive the PTI service. Overall it
has 2800 subscribers. With a staff of over 1600 including 400 journalists, PTI has over 100
bureaus across the country and foreign correspondents in major cities of the world. It also
distributes news and photo services to subscribers in USA, UK, UAE and Australia.

2. United News of India :

UNI is another popular news agency of India. It was born from the ashes of the
defunct United Press of India(UPI) on March 21, 1961 after UPI closed down. The
teleprinters against which an advance was made by the government of West Bengal were
taken over by the government, but the big newspapers in Calcutta, Madras and Delhi decided
to have another news agency so that the spirit of competition gets better performance out of
PTI and newspapers would have chance of qualitative choice. Funds came from newspapers
and UNI got the teleprinter facilities of the old UPI. The UNI was registered on November
10, 1959.