Stephen Adler
Not a feel-good story
Thursday 02 February 2012
Stephen Adler’s position as editor-in-chief is not a feel-good story. A year into his job, he has managed to eliminate a wealth of talent and shred a reputation that has been built on trust and integrity. In its place comes his award-winning crew, mostly with ties to The Wall Street Journal where Adler himself had spent 16 years before moving on to Business Week. Interestingly, his hand-picked team, which displaced a group of well-respected, long-time editors and reporters, is building its own reputation – none of it in the proud tradition of years past. Unfortunately, the errors mount and, worse, the corrections are cumbersome and attracting attention for all the wrong reasons. The announced reorganization of global news desk operations looks more like a cost-cutting measure rather than a step to address the inaccuracies flowing from his prized news team.
Howard Luxenberg
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Howard Luxenberg
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Another new era is beckoning
Thursday 15 December 2011
Amazingly, with every management change and abrupt staff dismissals there comes a new era. First, there was chief executive officer Tom Glocer, who only a few months ago painted a bright future and said he had no plans to leave. Well, he is out the door at year-end, replaced by James Smith, who even before taking the helm says Thomson-Reuters integration has been completed and “the company now enters a new era”. Editor-in-chief Stephen Adler says he has the full support of Smith and that he is “optimistic, energized, and eager to embrace the opportunities ahead”. Well, let’s hope so because recent blunders by Adler’s prize-winning staff additions are not a good beginning to a new era.
Howard Luxenberg
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Howard Luxenberg
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Predictions
Saturday 10 December 2011
A year ago on this rolling page I sagely predicted that Tom Glocer would be eased out of his job fairly smartish after the poor share price performance and his ridiculous hirings. I now predict that the hapless and prejudiced Stephen Adler will be gone next year and all his wishy washy US columnists will drift back into media obscurity. Chris Cramer will lose his useless sinecure as 'Editor at Large' within a few months. And in three years the news service will be floated off quite cheaply into the hands of an Emirati entrepreneur. Good news for some. Unfortunately I cannot predict the return of the UK pensioners lunch which Mr Glocer cynically curtailed.
Paul Booth
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Paul Booth
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Big names and bright lights
Thursday 08 December 2011
This is the season to be jolly, except, of course, when it comes to the mess that needs cleansing from the Tom Glocer era, whose dismissal was long overdue and certainly not without regret from long suffering shareholders and perhaps much of the Thomson Reuters staff, as well.
But is his ousting enough to right a ship that has wandered far off course? That may not be known for months, perhaps a year or so at least, although one thing is obvious: The organization, under the rein of Glocer and his editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, has gradually drifted away from what customers most expected – being first with the news and getting it right! Adler, rightly so, wanted more; he wanted award-winning journalists to enhance the company’s status. Well, he got his journalists, but right out of the box were a host of blunders, including errors from his award winners and a need to withdraw stories, all at great embarrassment to the company.
Surprisingly, Adler says he believes that newly appointed chief executive James Smith will continue to support Adler’s mission of making big name journalists the cornerstone of the company’s effort to push its brand forward. Well, that cannot be good news for a dedicated staff that has fought long and hard to keep TR the leader in financial news reporting against its most formidable competitor, Bloomberg, which has narrowed the gap considerably in recent years.
Big names and bright lights are wonderful, but not at the expense of what has long made the name Reuters one of the most respected news organizations in the world.
Howard Luxenberg
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But is his ousting enough to right a ship that has wandered far off course? That may not be known for months, perhaps a year or so at least, although one thing is obvious: The organization, under the rein of Glocer and his editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, has gradually drifted away from what customers most expected – being first with the news and getting it right! Adler, rightly so, wanted more; he wanted award-winning journalists to enhance the company’s status. Well, he got his journalists, but right out of the box were a host of blunders, including errors from his award winners and a need to withdraw stories, all at great embarrassment to the company.
Surprisingly, Adler says he believes that newly appointed chief executive James Smith will continue to support Adler’s mission of making big name journalists the cornerstone of the company’s effort to push its brand forward. Well, that cannot be good news for a dedicated staff that has fought long and hard to keep TR the leader in financial news reporting against its most formidable competitor, Bloomberg, which has narrowed the gap considerably in recent years.
Big names and bright lights are wonderful, but not at the expense of what has long made the name Reuters one of the most respected news organizations in the world.
Howard Luxenberg
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Thomson Reuters commitment to news
Wednesday 07 December 2011
Re ● New Thomson Reuters CEO backs editorial hiring plans - Stephen Adler, the jury is out whether Thomson Reuters managers will recognize the value of a news organization that is trying, as Jon Friedman puts it, to “maintain a strong position in the meat-and-potatoes work of covering the financial markets while making a name for Reuters in enterprise writing.” The Wall Street Journal’s parents know as well as anyone how difficult it is for the two to co-exist comfortably and profitably under one roof. For decades Reuters managers said the meat-and-potatoes variety, while it didn’t win seats on the US Sunday talk shows, was what paying clients wanted. Tom Glocer was not a journalist, but he put the company’s money where his mouth was when he spoke in favor of the value of Reuters news. Some Reuters journalists will disagree on Glocer, but the ranks grew under his watch despite hard times in most other news organizations. Although James Smith was once a journalist, are we sure he and the Thomson family have the same view and will make the same commitment over time?
Nelson Graves
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Nelson Graves
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Stick to standards
Thursday 20 October 2011
Stephen Adler’s need to again spell out the Reuters standards [● Stephen Adler spells it out: stick to Reuters standards] demonstrates he is not getting the message across, much to the embarrassment of the organisation and to the world at large. Long proud of our heritage, Adler and his new team of award-winning journalists, in a few short months, has done much to unravel an image of fairness in our reporting and one where honesty and integrity were beyond reproach. While he says “stick to the editorial standards,” his actions and those of his hand-picked editors show there is utter confusion among the staff on what the message is and where TR is headed.
Howard Luxenberg
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Howard Luxenberg
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Reuters Cultural Revolution
Wednesday 19 October 2011
This Soros-OWS incident – fiasco? – is not a matter of news co-existing with commentary in the same news organisation
[● Stephen Adler spells it out: stick to Reuters standards]. Some of the best newspapers in the world have proved for decades that the two can thrive together. The incident suggests something far more profound is under way at Reuters. We seem to be seeing a Cultural Revolution, with Reuters’ historic values and practices shelved in favour of a whole new approach, geared to the US media scene. At least that is the view from outside, and Adler sidesteps the issue. One would have hoped for a more vigorous condemnation and not an apology for opinion pieces, which this was not.
Nelson Graves
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[● Stephen Adler spells it out: stick to Reuters standards]. Some of the best newspapers in the world have proved for decades that the two can thrive together. The incident suggests something far more profound is under way at Reuters. We seem to be seeing a Cultural Revolution, with Reuters’ historic values and practices shelved in favour of a whole new approach, geared to the US media scene. At least that is the view from outside, and Adler sidesteps the issue. One would have hoped for a more vigorous condemnation and not an apology for opinion pieces, which this was not.
Nelson Graves
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Undercutting morale
Friday 16 September 2011
Just because your team is loaded with MVPs [most valuable players] doesn’t make you the very best team [● Reuters aims to become best in the world - Stephen Adler]. You don’t have to look much further than the Bronx, where a baseball team is stacked with future Hall of Famers at a team salary of $200 million. Certainly, that team is the best on paper, but not always in performance. Stephen Adler would do much better if he understood that the team concept with a very solid mix of in-house players would likely enable him to reach his goal much faster than some of his recently acquired Pulitzer Prize winners. In one short stroke, Adler has done much to undercut the morale of a dedicated staff, who has long worked to make the organization one of the most respected in the world.
Howard Luxenberg
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Howard Luxenberg
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Is Reuters US-obsessed?
Sunday 11 September 2011
Perhaps Stephen Adler, in his thank you note after the storm, mentioned the coverage outside the US. In the portions of the note on The Baron, it was all US, except for a tip of the hat to editing desks in London and Asia. In any case, to field more photographers on this story than any other in recent memory says a lot about either Editorial's priorities or one's memory.
Nelson Graves
Stephen Adler's note dated Tuesday 30 August 2011 follows - Editor:
Colleagues:
As we continue to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, I wanted to thank all of the text and visuals staff and stringers who worked so hard in the field, in the affected bureaus and on the editing desks over the last several days to make our coverage a success. A story like this one that is important to so many of our clients and has multiple angles provides a great opportunity to showcase Reuters breadth and expertise – and we seized that opportunity from start to finish as the storm emerged in the Caribbean and churned its way up the East Coast.
Some of our journalists hunkered down near Irene’s path to chronicle the storm’s destruction. TV put out 23 live signals over three days, totaling more than 20 hours of live cover. We had more photographers in motion on this story than any other in recent memory. Text reported on the human impact of the story, the effects on power companies and their customers, the mass transit lockdown in New York City, the likely impact on Wall Street trading, the corporate winners and losers, the flooding across New Jersey and Vermont, and the costs to federal and state government, the economy and the insurance companies.
Staff in Miami, Washington, New York and Boston, tracked the storm’s path, reported on Irene’s effects locally, wrote our trunk stories, blogged for Reuters.com, edited and filed to our clients, and directed our coverage. Many spent the weekend in local hotels to ensure they could get to the office, some returning home later to deal with flooded basements. Other U.S. bureaus not directly involved in coverage and editing centers in London and Asia volunteered to help if necessary. And the editorial technical and facilities staff worked with us every step of the way to ensure we had what we needed to cover the story.
My thanks to all of you for your efforts and your strong performance.
Regards,
Steve
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Nelson Graves
Stephen Adler's note dated Tuesday 30 August 2011 follows - Editor:
Colleagues:
As we continue to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, I wanted to thank all of the text and visuals staff and stringers who worked so hard in the field, in the affected bureaus and on the editing desks over the last several days to make our coverage a success. A story like this one that is important to so many of our clients and has multiple angles provides a great opportunity to showcase Reuters breadth and expertise – and we seized that opportunity from start to finish as the storm emerged in the Caribbean and churned its way up the East Coast.
Some of our journalists hunkered down near Irene’s path to chronicle the storm’s destruction. TV put out 23 live signals over three days, totaling more than 20 hours of live cover. We had more photographers in motion on this story than any other in recent memory. Text reported on the human impact of the story, the effects on power companies and their customers, the mass transit lockdown in New York City, the likely impact on Wall Street trading, the corporate winners and losers, the flooding across New Jersey and Vermont, and the costs to federal and state government, the economy and the insurance companies.
Staff in Miami, Washington, New York and Boston, tracked the storm’s path, reported on Irene’s effects locally, wrote our trunk stories, blogged for Reuters.com, edited and filed to our clients, and directed our coverage. Many spent the weekend in local hotels to ensure they could get to the office, some returning home later to deal with flooded basements. Other U.S. bureaus not directly involved in coverage and editing centers in London and Asia volunteered to help if necessary. And the editorial technical and facilities staff worked with us every step of the way to ensure we had what we needed to cover the story.
My thanks to all of you for your efforts and your strong performance.
Regards,
Steve
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The Reuters brand
Wednesday 15 June 2011
Well that’s it then. The secret is out. Reuters is no longer a news agency. It’s a “brand”, where it seems staff are hired solely for promotional purposes, according to the editor-in-chief Stephen Adler [● Reuters hires Harold Evans as editor-at-large].
I look forward to the not too distant future, I hope, when Reuters moves into the sportswear industry, or perhaps the liquor trade and we see advertisements with the Reuters logo tattooed across the rumps of young floozies in Reuter bikinis or on Reuters “Nightlead” whisky with the strap across the bottle, “The Baron’s first choice”. Branding, I am glad to learn, now seems to be Reuters destiny as it fulfils its new role as an international mixed-goods conglomerate selling anything the market will bear.
Pip, pip and tallyho.
Michael Fathers
PS: Tell Stephen Adler when you’re next in touch with New York that I could fix him with a good line in grass skirts in time for the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
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I look forward to the not too distant future, I hope, when Reuters moves into the sportswear industry, or perhaps the liquor trade and we see advertisements with the Reuters logo tattooed across the rumps of young floozies in Reuter bikinis or on Reuters “Nightlead” whisky with the strap across the bottle, “The Baron’s first choice”. Branding, I am glad to learn, now seems to be Reuters destiny as it fulfils its new role as an international mixed-goods conglomerate selling anything the market will bear.
Pip, pip and tallyho.
Michael Fathers
PS: Tell Stephen Adler when you’re next in touch with New York that I could fix him with a good line in grass skirts in time for the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
vbnbnbn
Editorial advancement
Wednesday 04 May 2011
The new recruitment by Steve Adler [● Reuters taps top WSJ editor for global role] suggests that Thomson Reuters will become a completely North American managed service. It would be hard to imagine a British editor-in-chief in the years ahead. Tom Glocer has cynically orchestrated profound changes which will see a great British institution disappear to be replaced by something most media people outside the United States and Canada don't want to see. Suddenly I found myself supportive of the ethos behind AFP. Vive la France.
Paul Booth
Paul Booth
Editorial advancement
Tuesday 03 May 2011
Reuters editors/journalists must be wondering about their prospects for advancement following the hiring of yet another former Wall Street Journal staffer, this time as global enterprise editor [● Reuters taps top WSJ editor for global role]. When will this love fest with the WSJ end? Injecting new, outside blood (editor-in-chief Stephen Adler's words) into the organization may be a good thing, but there also can be too much, when the “outside” comes from one place. Approval for what obviously is a large expenditure for putting together his new team at a time when Newspaper Guild of New York employees were grudgingly awarded salary increases of 1.5 per cent annually for the next three years sends the wrong message. From the new editor-in-chief's actions, one must assume that to climb the ladder at Reuters you need the WSJ on your résumé – not exactly a morale builder for current staff.
Howard Luxenberg
Howard Luxenberg
