World News, also known as international news or foreign coverage is the news media jargon that refers to news events outside a country’s borders. This can be news sent by a correspondent working for a newspaper or news agency (originally delivered via telegraphy, then fax and now the Internet) or – more recently – information gathered or researched through distance communication technologies such as satellite TV or the Internet. It is a subfield of journalism that is often distinguished from national news, which covers events that directly affect a country or its government or those of other nations (like wars or summits).

In the 17th century when modern journalism began to emerge, much of the news in newspapers and magazines was foreign. This was particularly true of the courants and other mercantile publications that emerged in Western Europe: the Daily Courant (London), Nieuwe Tijudinger (Antwerp), Avisa Relation oder Zeitung (Strasbourg) and others. These papers were largely read by bankers and merchants who traded with the various regions, so their main focus was on the news from other countries, including their colonies.

Correspondents who work for news sources are usually stationed in a foreign city or country and regularly file stories to their editors that cover a region, a country or a global subject. They gather their material from local officials and citizens, local press and events that they witness themselves. They may also research subjects in the libraries of a number of different countries or through contacts with other reporters and correspondents on the ground. The major news agencies, like AP, Reuters and DPA (Germany), prepare articles that they sell in bulk to other newspapers, broadcasters, corporations, analysts or intelligence agencies.

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