[instagraham]

Not too clued in on the specific API aspects for aggregators, but news publishers usually have individual subscriptions to the major wire agencies like Reuters, AP and AFP and then the national ones (In India these are PTI, ANI and UNI).

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.