KNewsTicker is started like every other Kicker applet. You just have to add it to the panel (or any child panel of the main one). To do so, just right-click on the KDE panel and choose ->->.
Another good way to use KNewsTicker is to put it into its own child panel. Just add a new child panel by choosing ->-> from the panel menu;. Now you can simply right-click on the child panel and select KNewsTicker as described above.
A third, popular, way to run KNewsTicker is by selecting -> from the K menu. This will start KNewsTicker and make it run in its own window which you can then resize and move around as you wish.