>Aside from emailing the editors of all these newspapers (we're talking 25-50 newspapers from at least 5 different countries), is there a way for me to gain the upper hand in this situation, without sacrificing my scruples?

Where is your competitor based? Which jurisdictions are valid wrt copyright infringement? How do you know they haven't applied for rights (eg via a clearing house)?

Note that there are still some places in the world that are not signed up to Berne/TRIPS and the like international treaties. A person (or presumably a web server) based there who (on which) compiles such would be untouchable on copyright infringement. Moreover, many places allow excerpts/snippets to be used and the definition of "commercial use" varies around the world.

I suspect all you can really do is improve your content or put money before morality.

>I suppose you can make a few hundred a month in advertising

A few hundred what? US Dollars, GBP, Euro, ... why is this important to you?