Old news agency welcomes the heartless preferences (6)
I believe the answer is:
tastes
'preferences' is the definition.
('taste' can be a synonym of 'preference')
'old news agency welcomes the heartless' is the wordplay.
'old news agency' becomes 'tass' (I've seen this before).
'welcomes' means one lot of letters goes inside another (in sense of 'invites in').
'heartless' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'the' with its middle removed is 'te'.
'tass' going around 'te' is 'TASTES'.
(Other definitions for tastes that I've seen before include "Tries to determine the flavour of" , "Penchants or appetites" , "Likings as for food sensations" , "Savours with the palate" , "Savours, tests flavour" .)