How do news wire services work?
 

How do news wire services, like the Associated Press, or Reuters, work? In my understanding, news stories get written and published by the wire service, based on the materials they get from their correspondents from around the world. I guess that if a newspaper wants to use any of the stories or pictures on the wire service, it has to pay some kind of a fee, right? Can the client, once he has paid the fee, take any story he likes from the wire service, and publish it on his own website? Can he edit it? I was wondering about this stuff for a while now…

You've pretty much got it right. While the terms of use differ per client, if a newspaper or TV station has paid the appropriate license fee, they can use the story both in print and online.

Also, provided credit is given (to the AP or Reuters, as well as the original writer), the piece can be used as a source for another, different piece. It's also my understanding that the end of a story can be lopped off, if space becomes an issue.

But you can't directly edit the peice, and, unless you're a paying client, you can't reprint it without permission from the wire service.