Now correspondents can be just about anywhere and still have access to the wires as well as the entire Internet. Some papers like the Christian Science Monitor offer databases and wire services to its correspondents through a Web page. In some cases, having both a laptop and cellular phone obviates the need for correspondents to waste time by going somewhere unnecessarily. Paris-based Peter Ford of the Monitor said it would have been a waste of time for him to attend the failed Rambouillet peace conference that preceded the war in Kosovo because he could get what information he need from the press conferences on the wire and could talk to sources by phone. With the laptop, correspondents can send stories in closer to deadline.
Foreign reporters can also use the combination of their laptop and cellular phone to file stories.
Charles Truehart, Washington Post's correspondent in Paris said he e-mails his stories in through his cellular phone when he's travelling to save on the hotel charges for outside calls. But when that doesn't work, there's always dictation.