Michael Reupke
Reuters Centenary Fund
Tuesday 18 October 2011
To echo Michael Reupke's comment [● The good old days], Reuters Centenary Fund is still going strong supporting colleagues past and present who are suffering financial hardship. Requests for support can be submitted by e-mail to
● centenary@thomsonreuters.com or by post for my attention to 30 South Colonnade, London, E14 5EP, UK. The Committee will then consider each request with the utmost confidentiality.
Julia Fuller
Chairman, Reuters Centenary Fund
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● centenary@thomsonreuters.com or by post for my attention to 30 South Colonnade, London, E14 5EP, UK. The Committee will then consider each request with the utmost confidentiality.
Julia Fuller
Chairman, Reuters Centenary Fund
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The good old days
Monday 17 October 2011
In my good old days, if a correspondent was killed we looked after and cared for the family, as a matter of practical operational management (not just through the laudable Centenary Fund whose scope is limited). Call that paternalism if you like. There is nothing wrong with that, is there? It would be reassuring to hear from Tom Glocer that in his good old days
[● The good old days, they’re now - Tom Glocer] the families of victims of unlawful killing or injury have been treated in the same way. No one joins Reuters to have his name inscribed in a roll of honour, list of the dead, however grandiose a name you might give it, leather-bound with gold lettering or not.
Michael Reupke
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[● The good old days, they’re now - Tom Glocer] the families of victims of unlawful killing or injury have been treated in the same way. No one joins Reuters to have his name inscribed in a roll of honour, list of the dead, however grandiose a name you might give it, leather-bound with gold lettering or not.
Michael Reupke
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Putting the customer first
Sunday 16 October 2011
Choosing a corporate slogan can be tricky. Former CEO Glen Renfrew, one day out at the Reuter facility at Hauppage saw on its wall “Quality comes first”. Bravo, he said and rushed back to London with it. Henceforth that was to be the slogan, and so it became. But the old ’uns under whom he had learned as a trainee shook their heads and muttered: “When was that not the case since the first pigeon flew out of Aachen?” It fell flat, but he had it used. It made no difference, quality continued to come first, unchanged.
Michael Reupke
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Michael Reupke
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The good old days
Thursday 06 October 2011
Even those of us who were once part of “the support team” would agree with Michael Reupke’s observation. We felt the same way.
My very first visit to the salt mines was when Britain was feeling it’s way into the EEC in the days when Bob Taylor reported from Brussels. A team went to Luxembourg for the negotiations and outcome. Team meant Bob Taylor, Jonathan Fenby, Mohsin Ali, Ron Cooper and others, I think. I was the support act helping to keep the “specials” at bay.
I can still see Mohsin Ali strolling nonchalantly into the comms area in the wee small hours with his snap – I’m sure it must have been a snap – that he/we wanted to get onto the wire before anyone else caught up with him. For my first working trip out of London I saw Brussels airport, the road to and from Strasbourg and the inside of the conference centre, and nothing else for three days and nights. But, as Sid Rice pointed out when I returned to London, I shouldn’t complain. After all, I got to ride in an airplane!
Michael Dunn
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My very first visit to the salt mines was when Britain was feeling it’s way into the EEC in the days when Bob Taylor reported from Brussels. A team went to Luxembourg for the negotiations and outcome. Team meant Bob Taylor, Jonathan Fenby, Mohsin Ali, Ron Cooper and others, I think. I was the support act helping to keep the “specials” at bay.
I can still see Mohsin Ali strolling nonchalantly into the comms area in the wee small hours with his snap – I’m sure it must have been a snap – that he/we wanted to get onto the wire before anyone else caught up with him. For my first working trip out of London I saw Brussels airport, the road to and from Strasbourg and the inside of the conference centre, and nothing else for three days and nights. But, as Sid Rice pointed out when I returned to London, I shouldn’t complain. After all, I got to ride in an airplane!
Michael Dunn
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The good old days
Tuesday 04 October 2011
It would be interesting to know what Tom Glocer means by “the good old days” [● The good old days, they’re now - Tom Glocer]. To say, as he does, that they are now is unhelpful. It does not tell us what he thinks makes now good for him. May I suggest you ask your readers to offer definitions? To start the ball rolling I offer one of mine: They were the days when we, the Reuters of the day, were the undisputed best at what we did. We worked hard and long. We dropped into bed exhausted at night. We knew we were the best. Our competitors and our customers knew we were the best. Money didn’t matter, because there was not much of it around. The only zeros in our salary figures were after the decimal point. We loved what we did. We were passionate about it. What Reuters said was fact. We left comment to the FT and the WSJ. We left opinion to The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Worker. Michael Nelson once famously called those the salt mine years. Well, what came out was a salt as clear as diamonds.
Michael Reupke
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Michael Reupke
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Moment of truth
Monday 15 August 2011
For all the talk of Reuter Trust principles, we have seen no sign of the Trustees, nor of their deliberations. Do they have a website? Do they publish their collegiate views or findings from time to time? If not one must ask who watches the watchman?
Michael Reupke
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Michael Reupke
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Reuters values
Thursday 04 August 2011
Before relapsing into paroxysms of rage I’d like to know what evidence Michael [Reupke] can command for this alleged deterioration [● Reuters values].
Assuming he’s right however: Thomsons either have no idea how to preserve their investments or they are looking for people to cull. Drivel of the kind cited by Humphrey Hudson reads like good candidate effluvia.
Peter Farrell-Vinay
Michael Reupke, former editor-in-chief and general manager, was referring to a change in Reuters editorial policy on the handling of errors [● Reuters changes kill rule after embarrassing error]. Humphrey Hudson was referring to another news item [● Reuters appoints news editors and bureau chiefs in Asia] which quoted an internal announcement – Editor.
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Assuming he’s right however: Thomsons either have no idea how to preserve their investments or they are looking for people to cull. Drivel of the kind cited by Humphrey Hudson reads like good candidate effluvia.
Peter Farrell-Vinay
Michael Reupke, former editor-in-chief and general manager, was referring to a change in Reuters editorial policy on the handling of errors [● Reuters changes kill rule after embarrassing error]. Humphrey Hudson was referring to another news item [● Reuters appoints news editors and bureau chiefs in Asia] which quoted an internal announcement – Editor.
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Reuters values
Wednesday 03 August 2011
“...the diamond clarity of true Reuter standards in journalism” – Michael Reupke said it all. Watching from the sidelines, we seem to be seeing a ship adrift, a cargo of “brands”, of jargon which add no value to the message that the old firm used to send repeatedly to the world, that this is Reuters and you can rely on it.
John Baggaley
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John Baggaley
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Reuters values
Wednesday 03 August 2011
I’m sure that many journalists can only whole-heartedly support Michael Reupke's recent remarks. I have also understood that accuracy, speed and integrity should be at the centre of editorial operations but the past few months have thrown up some serious doubts as to whether this remains the case, at least for some. Given the level and importance of errors which have been made public, there are presumably some we haven’t even been told about.
Some of the confusion, even internally, appears to have been created by apparently avoiding the use of plain English, as shown in an example from a recent internal announcement – “... and will run a team that will use expert editing, smart reporting and cool technology...”. So what were editors and reporters doing beforehand, while “cool technology” seems to be close to meaningless.
Humphrey Hudson
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Some of the confusion, even internally, appears to have been created by apparently avoiding the use of plain English, as shown in an example from a recent internal announcement – “... and will run a team that will use expert editing, smart reporting and cool technology...”. So what were editors and reporters doing beforehand, while “cool technology” seems to be close to meaningless.
Humphrey Hudson
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Reuters values
Tuesday 02 August 2011
They clearly don't care [● Reuters changes kill rule after embarrassing error]. They throw away the reputation for truth and accuracy! They throw away the name of Reuters and the values it represents, truth, honesty, accuracy and dependability. So what did Thomson buy? A fistful of irresponsible jotters? In the past we have always demonstrated our care for accuracy, the truth and reliability by admitting to mistakes immediately and correcting them. If I were the Thomson family I would be livid. Those responsible for this evident change in policy are as guilty as those who ruined the names of News International and the News of the World. I am sure most of my colleagues feel the same and would certainly have upheld the existing true Reuter standards if they were still running the show. Shame on you, Pulitzer Prizes by the million if you will. They are not worth the diamond clarity of true Reuter standards in journalism.
Michael Reupke
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Michael Reupke
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Ronald Farquhar
Thursday 21 April 2011
I fully subscribe to everything that has been said about Ronnie. He was an inspiration and an example to all of us who had the privilege of working with him, an example of the essence of true Reuters without fanfare, although he deserved much. In old fashioned terms: “They don’t make ’em like that any more!”
Michael Reupke
Michael Reupke
Killed correspondents
Monday 10 January 2011
To the names read out during the service in St Bride's [● Reuters people most numerous in roll of slain journalists] should be added correspondent ● Najmul Hasan (Indian) killed by a landmine in Iran and photographer ● Willie Vicoy (Philippino) killed in a militia attack in the Philippines. Let us not forget them. Let us also never forget that no story is worth the loss of a life. The loss of a journalist's life is not a sacrifice in any sense. It is a waste and is in no manner the slightest cause for celebration. To have lost more journalists than any other organisation is not glorious. It is rather a matter of shame and sadness.
Michael Reupke
Michael Reupke
Pensioners’ lunch
Friday 14 May 2010
The style is becoming ever clearer. Salaries of millions are easily paid. The cost of a lunch, a handful of peanuts, is portrayed as too expensive [● No more pensioners’ lunches - Tom Glocer].
Perhaps I am just too old-fashioned and European. Some might even describe me by that most damning of epithets, liberal or, horror of horrors, even socialist.
Yet, like Simlizissimus wandering a world in turmoil, I sometimes wonder at what I see. Communism failed and crashed in the 1980s amid symphonies of triumphalism from the Capitalist world, yet it spawned more millionaires than ever before. Capitalism failed without as much fanfare over about the same period in 2000-2010, and is spawning an equal cloud of millionaires, who likewise did not earn what they received.
Please let's have a handful of peanuts for the faithful workers who created the wealth that morphed into Thomson Reuters.
Michael Reupke
Perhaps I am just too old-fashioned and European. Some might even describe me by that most damning of epithets, liberal or, horror of horrors, even socialist.
Yet, like Simlizissimus wandering a world in turmoil, I sometimes wonder at what I see. Communism failed and crashed in the 1980s amid symphonies of triumphalism from the Capitalist world, yet it spawned more millionaires than ever before. Capitalism failed without as much fanfare over about the same period in 2000-2010, and is spawning an equal cloud of millionaires, who likewise did not earn what they received.
Please let's have a handful of peanuts for the faithful workers who created the wealth that morphed into Thomson Reuters.
Michael Reupke
Tom Glocer and Goldman Sachs
Thursday 06 May 2010
It seems Tom Glocer not only resides in the Ivory Tower; he now thinks he owns it, as well. Interestingly, he appears to stand alone as his sole supporter for his bizarre comments in support of Goldman Sachs against fraud charges. Of course, it did take him more than a week, no doubt after huddling with a bunch of high-priced lawyers, to decide his course of action was correct. Goldman Sachs may well be exonerated of the charges, but to paraphrase the earlier comments of Michael Reupke: Why are we not hearing from the Trustees about the behavior of the CEO? You have to wonder how long a Reuters journalist would survive a blog critical of their top executive.
Howard Luxenberg
Howard Luxenberg
Tom Glocer and Goldman Sachs
Monday 03 May 2010
I am not sure if there is a lot wrong with what the CEO set out to say. The news these days is now and again swept away on a tide of opinion. Yet Michael Reupke invokes the trustees.
An inquest in Reuters is wise to depend on the rules of sourcing. These suggest to me that any view about Goldman Sachs just now needs a quote. I feel for Tom Glocer on this. His own copy threw him a life belt there. He missed it. Reporters often do that too. For he says that he knows people in Goldman Sachs. So pin it on them. I may then as a sub even have let the pot shot at Gordon Brown go on the wire.
Nick Moore
An inquest in Reuters is wise to depend on the rules of sourcing. These suggest to me that any view about Goldman Sachs just now needs a quote. I feel for Tom Glocer on this. His own copy threw him a life belt there. He missed it. Reporters often do that too. For he says that he knows people in Goldman Sachs. So pin it on them. I may then as a sub even have let the pot shot at Gordon Brown go on the wire.
Nick Moore
Journalists' families
Tuesday 27 April 2010
Many of us who have been responsible for staff, and I expect many current members of staff, would like to know what the company did for the family of Ibrahim Jassam during his detention [● US military frees Reuters photographer in Iraq after 17 months], and what it is doing for the families of those two poor murdered men [● Video released showing US Army’s killing of Reuters news staff]. David Schlesinger's op-ed in The Guardian [● David Schlesinger: What I want from the Pentagon] had much more of the robust tone one would expect from an organisation of the stature of Thomson Reuters. Will the company now also be pressing for compensation for the families?
Michael Reupke
Michael Reupke
Tom Glocer and Goldman Sachs
Tuesday 27 April 2010
It is quite outrageous and inadmissible for any executive of Reuters, and now surely equally of Thomson Reuters, to express an opinion on the Goldman Sachs affair [● The New York Times raises an eyebrow at Tom Glocer’s blog]. Are the Trustees too sleepy to think of stepping in here? If this had happened in my day I doubt whether he could have survived in his job.
Michael Reupke
Michael Reupke
Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh
Wednesday 21 April 2010
Reuters journalists should thank Michael Reupke for justifiably taking the current editor-in-chief to task for a mealy-mouthed response to the video footage of the killing of Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh by US forces in Baghdad.
A robust public statement is not a matter of "sounding off" – as Tom Glocer calls it – but of holding the authorities in a democracy that purports to respect the work of journalists to account for their actions and, in this case, their unconscionable failure to follow through on their own commitments.
In August 2003, almost four years before Namir and Saeed were killed, Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana was shot dead in Iraq by US forces who said they mistook his camera for an RPG launcher. "We will do everything in our power to make sure things like this do not happen again," a US military spokesman, Lt. Col. Guy Shields, said at the time. In March 2004, after Reuters had pushed vigorously for a proper investigation of Mazen’s killing, a US military review exonerated the soldiers involved but made important recommendations to help make war zones less dangerous for journalists. One of the recommendations, which Reuters welcomed, was to "investigate better methods of identifying journalists in the theatre of war". It is questionable whether the US military ever did anything about its own recommendations, given that the helicopter crew who killed Namir and Saeed so readily concluded yet again that cameras were weapons.
Thomson Reuters needs to speak out before another journalist with a camera falls victim to the US military’s failure to take the steps it recommended in its own review into one of all too many needless killings. “Quiet engagement” without public accountability won’t work.
Paul Holmes
A robust public statement is not a matter of "sounding off" – as Tom Glocer calls it – but of holding the authorities in a democracy that purports to respect the work of journalists to account for their actions and, in this case, their unconscionable failure to follow through on their own commitments.
In August 2003, almost four years before Namir and Saeed were killed, Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana was shot dead in Iraq by US forces who said they mistook his camera for an RPG launcher. "We will do everything in our power to make sure things like this do not happen again," a US military spokesman, Lt. Col. Guy Shields, said at the time. In March 2004, after Reuters had pushed vigorously for a proper investigation of Mazen’s killing, a US military review exonerated the soldiers involved but made important recommendations to help make war zones less dangerous for journalists. One of the recommendations, which Reuters welcomed, was to "investigate better methods of identifying journalists in the theatre of war". It is questionable whether the US military ever did anything about its own recommendations, given that the helicopter crew who killed Namir and Saeed so readily concluded yet again that cameras were weapons.
Thomson Reuters needs to speak out before another journalist with a camera falls victim to the US military’s failure to take the steps it recommended in its own review into one of all too many needless killings. “Quiet engagement” without public accountability won’t work.
Paul Holmes
Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh
Wednesday 21 April 2010
Two small points in response to Hans Ouwerkerk's intervention. Firstly I am not English, secondly Hans should know me well enough to know that I am concerned not only for the welfare of journalists and that I would have made as much fuss for a technician, a salesman or an accountant. I was merely applying the conventional wisdom, reaffirmed many times when issues of murder by government forces, kidnap and unlawful detention have been discussed in the International Press Institute or the Inter-American Press Association which groups employers as well as editors. That wisdom says make a loud noise and keep the spotlight on the case, never let it off the front pages or out of sight until you have the desired result. An exception is if noise is likely to endanger the life of the victim further. If that has been the case I of course bow to Tom Glocer's and David Schlesinger’s knowledge of the situations. It is perhaps time I shut up. Let me cast one more small pebble: It is galling that the nation which purports to teach the world democracy, human rights, the rule of law and freedom, should so blatantly flout the principles it claims to uphold. Every American should be ashamed of the recent events on which we have touched in this column.
Michael Reupke
Michael Reupke
Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh
Tuesday 20 April 2010
Since 1984 Reuters PLC was motivated to provide shareholder value and not just governed by news or news people as Michael Reupke implies. It was then headed by a non journalist Australian CEO and an English Editor-in-Chief (Michael Reupke). Thereafter, by an English CEO and a Dutch Editor-in-Chief. Would any of these two preceding tandems have reacted differently? They probably might have, simply because they were different. Would their reactions have been "better" or "more appropriate"? We can only be left to speculate.
Hans Ouwerkerk
Hans Ouwerkerk
Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh
Sunday 18 April 2010
I am told that many people have found Reuters response to the murder of two Reuters staff shown in the video recently released by the website WikiLeaks to have been surprisingly low key and are keen to understand what might have motivated such a response and why Reuters current statement is so inadequate. I cannot answer that, never having worked with Thomson Reuters, a very different company from Reuters, nor with the individuals at the head of Thomson Reuters. Much has changed since my day, one may have to look for the reasons there. The company is now largely owned by a Canadian shareholder whose heartbeat is seemingly governed by money, not by news nor news people. The CEO and the Editor-in-Chief are American, but I would not speculate how far that might motivate them to refrain from irritating the Washington regime. I could see no direct link. The CEO is a lawyer, not a journalist. The new company is headquartered in New York. I left it to my interlocutor to speculate herself. I could offer no insight, indeed I would like to know the answers myself.
Michael Reupke
Michael Reupke
Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh
Wednesday 07 April 2010
The flabby response to the shameful murder of photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and driver Saeed Chmagh by reckless US forces is not reassuring. What of their families? Why do we leave it to others to make the running? Is this a Thomson effect?
Michael Reupke (outraged and angry!)
Michael Reupke (outraged and angry!)
The Promise of Yalta
Sunday 22 November 2009
I can fully endorse Michael Reupke's comments on The Promise of Yalta. Bernard has a great ability to bring his now-historical characters to life.
Adam Kellett-Long
Adam Kellett-Long
The Promise of Yalta
Friday 20 November 2009
Bernard Melunsky's The Promise of Yalta is very well researched. He gives a good overview of the various nations' positions as well as a nice insight into the personalities round the Yalta table. Through his history Bernard weaves a credible cold war romance. Bernard's easy flowing style makes this a compelling read. I thoroughly recommend it and hope that Bernard does not stop here.
Michael Reupke
Michael Reupke
Thomson Reuters' share structure
Tuesday 21 July 2009
There is a very interesting and immensely important statement in the management information circular about the changing share structure of Thomson Reuters. That statement is: “Thomson Reuters will seek to redeem and cancel the Reuters Founders share in the capital of Thomson Reuters PLC.” That share is the only tool the directors of the Founders Share Company, whom we used to refer to as the trustees, have to do anything whatever.
Michael Reupke
Michael Reupke
Afore ye go
Tuesday 28 October 2008
The slogan on the Bell's Whisky bottle has taken on a whole new meaning for me at this age and condition. I would like to hear more about friends and colleagues while I can sympathise and commiserate, rather than first reading a death notice and then sorely regretting not having kept in touch better.
Michael Reupke
Michael Reupke
