A study was conducted to assess the indications in print of news borrowing (reporting news distributed by second hand or government controlled sources) in the 1970s, and to examine the relationship between borrowed news and the restrictions and reductions in newspapers' overseas news staff. The "New York Times" and the "Chicago Tribune" were selected for study because of their extensive foreign news coverage and because of the widely documented reductions in the number of their foreign correspondents. Fourteen randomly sampled issues per year were selected for analysis, yielding a total sample of 154 issues from 1969 to 1980. All foreign items were coded for geopolitical focus, originating agent (correspondent or wire service), and media source. The "Tribune" showed a pattern of growth in the publication of borrowed news, despite overall reductions in international item publication and overseas staff cuts. Publication of Wire service borrowed news grew significantly for the "Times" during the study period. The study failed to identify a relationship between staffing level and overall incidence of borrowed news published. But a pattern of news borrowing of Third World items in the wire service stories suggests that wire service journalists are responding to a gradual reduction in the available news sources and may be choosing, or are forced, to rely on official or partisan news organizations in Third World nations, where government control of press activity is allegedly increasing. (HTH)