Historically, data journalists would spend several weeks manually compiling the information and statistics required for a special report. But now much of this work can be automated by pulling data from the Internet. At the same time, the sources became almost limitless from public databases or open data, freely available on the web.

Web scraping becomes the backbone of data journalism. The main benefits that a media outlet or a team of journalists obtain by hiring web scraping services are: Gain credibility, Find hidden patterns in the information, Increase transparency and access, Save time and energy and Find your audience.