In Bangalore, India, journalists trudge into an office in the middle of the night to begin their day covering the New York Stock Exchange and other financial news for Reuters. Here's why.

An excerpt:

In a word: salaries.

These Indian financial journalists can be employed by Reuters for a fraction of the cost of employing a journalist at their New York office.

Reuters Editor-in-Chief, David Schlesinger, says that the move meant that they could broaden their coverage of US companies without incurring crippling costs.

Whatever the risks and benefits, outsourcing is here to stay. World Association of Newspapers

He was able to hire 100 new journalists in Bangalore without in any way reducing the size of his New York office.

"Now we can send our New York journalists out to do more interesting stories. This is good for our business and good for journalism," he told the BBC.

And some other wire services are now following Reuters' lead and beating a path to Bangalore, according to local journalists.

But Mr Schlesinger insists that this is not outsourcing.

"Bangalore is a Reuters bureau like any other in the world. And Reuters journalists there work to the standards as Reuters journalists anywhere."

Internet journalism

Such a system has only recently become feasible - as a result of the internet.

Getting ready for the working day in the Bangalore newsroom

Most US companies now put out their press releases on the internet, and they all use financial PR firms to release their profit figures just as the stock market opens.

So Reuters journalists in Bangalore can access the same basic information - in the same time frame - as their colleagues in New York.

And the reduced cost of telecommunications links means that the news written in Bangalore can be sent around the world as quickly as the news written in New York - of key importance for a wire service, which depends on speed for its competitive advantage.