For quite a long time in the past, press agencies used to enjoy a dominant position in providing news and scoops. Recent developments on the Internet have put an end to that hegemony. Journalists as well as ordinary citizens can now keep abreast of events thanks to e-mails, Internet forums and weblogs. The archetypal task of press agencies is to collect (inter)national news and pass it on as newsfeeds to their subscribers, viz. newspapers, broadcasters and websites. In addition they function as alarm systems and put items on the editors’ agendas. In this connection, it is worth pointing out that the Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (the Dutch press agencyANP) is trying out an sms-service that reports news items even before they have been checked. Many believe that this approach sacrifices reliability and independence to speed. Press agencies would thus lose quality and therefore also their extra value, and their continued existence would become uncertain (Vermaas & Janssen 2009).
The journalists interviewed in the context of the present study list a large variety of news sources. even though nearly all of them mention the Dutch press agency ANP, it is striking that several journalists emphatically refer to the network of sources built up by domestic and foreign correspondents. other sources mentioned are the national and regional papers and the regional broadcasters, which often function as pointers to given issues. eighteen regional newspapers for their part use the Geassocieerde Pers Diensten (GPD or ‘Associated Press Services’) for their national and international reports. The papers of the Wegener group, among which is De Gelderlander, increasingly turn to their own central news service, which delivers regional news items to the seven papers making up the group. Nu.nl participates in a number of co-operation agreements with magazines belonging to the publisher, which also operates the news site. Apart from resorting to ANP, the large national media also subscribe to the services of foreign press agencies; financial-economic media turn to specialized press agencies and to their own colleagues from abroad. Most newsrooms receive newsfeeds on an ongoing basis from press agencies and/or always have NOS Teletekst or RTLZ Teletekst on their screens. one further source mentioned by a few journalists is the expertise of their own readers or viewers, who may even act as regular informants (De Telegraaf), and the expertise of police reports. It goes without saying that the editorial staff has also become dependent on the Internet. The use that they make of the Internet is not solely confined to the websites of divergent news media: news logs and social network media too are rapidly becoming interesting sources of information. one member of the editorial staff of De Volkskrant is in charge of browsing through social network sites such as hyves.nl and filtering them for useful news items. The Twitter website has become quite popular since the controversial elections in Iraq, even though it primarily serves as a mere signal that needs further checking. Sp!ts was among the first to resort to Twitter on the occasion of the visit that Geert Wilders, the right-wing politician, made to Britain to show his anti-Islam film Fitna. Finally, a few journalists explicitly state that they do not use press releases or other PR messages issued by the authorities or by companies.
