Today when you pick up a newspaper or turn to a news channel on your TV for that matter, most of the news you see actually comes from agencies to which they are subscribed. They are the trend in the last century in terms of journalism and many outlets have sought to use them to fill the pages of their newspapers.There are definitely advantages to using news from these agencies. Thanks to their extensive global network any news can circulate through various channels with a moments' notice. Also many newspapers that can't send their journalists around the world manage to get coverage with a subscription. Wire services are great. They are fast, versatile and manage to get the news no matter the location, not to mention they are economical.But here is the problem: How do we manage to find different sources and aspects if all the newspapers are reporting from same text that distributed from agencies?Also there is a great handicap for these news agencies as well. Among the biggest competition is when it comes to quickness and of course the amount of news they cover. But this can quickly evolve into a mindset where quantity resides over quality.Another thing I want to mention is the crisis situations where even a shred of accurate information is accompanied by tons of false ones. Wars and disasters, either natural or manmade, are the best examples that can serve as examples here.When using agencies while covering these events we should be extra careful to not blindly accept whatever we are spoonfed and investigate further to relay our readers accurate news.Nevertheless, as I said before, inevitably these news agencies became more and more dependable and unfortunately eyewitness journalism dies little by little. To make the picture clearer I would like to give you some numbers concerning these news agencies. These are taken from the studies of Dr. Muzaffer Şahin that were printed in the 37th issue of "İletişim Kuram ve Araştırma Dergisi." It says by the year 2012 there were a total of 50 news agencies active in Turkey with 16 of them local and the rest foreign. The local ones produce approximately 2,300 news articles per day while their foreign counterparts manage to whip up 3,100 of them concerning Turkey. With this extensive news coverage spanning over 5,000 articles daily, newspapers are filling 70 percent of their pages with agency news.No doubt these numbers have changed since 2012 in the favor of news agencies thanks to developing technology and ever-increasing competition.With İbrahim Altay we would like to remind our colleagues to be extra careful with the facts when they rely on agency news. They can definitely be "a" source but can't be "the" source. Also Daily Sabah should extend its network of correspondents through the world instead of depending solely on news agencies. After all, the reason for a reader to read any newspaper is its unique news and reports.