A clipping service is a company whose full time job involves reading, clipping, identifying and reporting about events, people, topics and businesses through not just dozens, but hundreds of national and international newspapers, magazines and journals.

This type of service provides the business person who subscribes current information as it relates to specific market analysis, competitive information, trend analysis, strategic planning, PR and information reports.

This same type of service, if targeted to other items of information, can be used by private individuals to pursue personal interests, or a person can try to do this on their own in the form of scrap-books.

Charles Fort's interest in news of the weird led to his compilation works that led to ther term, "Fortian" (or "Fortean"). Various fictional personalities, ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Doc Savage did the same. Journalists, authors and researchs commonly used such services in their work, and many libraries have file folders of such orgazined clippings.