Before the World War I, Havas, Wolff's, and Reuters agencies signed confidential agreements with several governments, promising to serve them in various ways. These agencies concluded contracts with any government that was willing to subsidize them, treated news as an ordinary commodity. To convince statesmen to sign agreements with them, the agencies took advantage of world politics and tensions between empires. By this way, Wolff's overcame its vulnerability to Havas and Reuters while Havas

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... fied competition in its home market and secured a large subsidy from the Russian Empire for more than a decade. Likewise, Reuters signed confidential agreements with the Japanese and the British empires and was subsidized by the Egyptian government for more than five decades. From the second half of the nineteenth century, until the World War I, the policy of the first and major news agencies of Europe, Havas, Wolff's, and Reuters was to maximize their profits by signing contracts with governments. Öz Birinci Dünya Savaşı öncesinde, Havas, Wolff's ve Reuters ajansları birçok farklı devletle gizli anlaşmalar imzalamıştır ve her birine farklı vaatlerde bulunmuştur. Bu ajanslar habere bir meta gibi davranmış ve kendilerine ödenek sağlayan tüm hükümetler ile anlaşma yapmıştır. Ajanslar, devlet yöneticilerini kendileriyle anlaşma yapmaya ikna etmek için mevcut siyasi durumdan ve imparatorluklar arasındaki gerilimden faydalanmışlardır. Bu şekilde Wolff's, Havas ve Reuters'e karşı güçlenirken, Havas iç pazarda rakiplerine karşı üstünlük sağlamış ve Rus İmparatorluğu'ndan on yıldan uzun bir süre ödenek almıştır. Reuters ise bu yöntemle, Japon ve Britanya