I'm looking for a service that can provide me with news articles across the web via an API call. There seem to be a lot of such services, all costing roughly similar amounts -- $100+ per month.
Makes me think they are all wrappers around some other service, but I can't find anything else. Does anyone happen to know how this works?
These wire agencies must cost more than the amount you mentioned. But they would be considered primary sources, a layer 1 for news and information. A lot of news websites essentially just repackage L1 facts, add some stories about tweets famous people made, and throw in a handful of original reporting.
A cheaper wire service that deals more with business plugs and PR would be businessnewswire and prnewswire - these are inherently promotional by nature.
I doubt this answers your question, but I'd be interested to knowing how accessible these essential L1 information would be to ordinary users (not companies). While you may end up paying for Reuters directly, another website that includes a Reuters feed could give you the same content for less.