Harold Evans
Police drop sources order
Tuesday 20 September 2011
London's Metropolitan police wanted a court order to force the newspaper's reporters to reveal confidential sources for articles disclosing that murdered teenager Milly Dowler's phone was hacked on behalf of the News of the World. They claimed a reporter could have incited a source to break the Official Secrets Act.
Tuesday’s Scotland Yard announcement came not long after hundreds of media people discussed the police initiative and other press freedom issues. The event, chaired by Reuters editor-at-large Sir Harold Evans, was attended by a top-level contingent from Thomson Reuters including chairman David Thomson, CEO Tom Glocer, pictured, editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, and other editors and executives.
Police left open the possibility the so-called production order could be applied for again, but a senior police source said: “It’s off the agenda. There will be some hard reflection. This was a decision made in good faith, but with no appreciation for the wider consequences. Obviously the last thing we want to do is to get into a big fight with the media. We do not want to interfere with journalists.”
Editors speaking at the Thomson Reuters event recognised Fleet Street had to mend its ways but appealed to the government not to crush Britain's cherished free speech with draconian laws. Top lawyers, editors and politicians agreed during the debate on “The Press We Deserve” that Britain’s existing Press Complaints Commission, a voluntary self-regulatory body, had failed in its duty to keep the press honest but differed sharply over the solution.
Evans said the British press was in its greatest danger since two journalists were jailed for not revealing their sources in 1963.
Editor’s note: The original version of this report headed “Police drop sources order after Thomson Reuters debate” erroneously implied that the police announcement was a consequence of the Thomson Reuters debate. It was not. It was a coincidence. Mea culpa.
Photo: Julie Mollins
● CLICK to view Reuters video
● SOURCE The Guardian | Reuters
Harold Evans on Rupert Murdoch 'the stiletto'
Monday 19 September 2011
Describing media ownership rivalry between Murdoch and Robert Maxwell, one-time owner of Mirror Group Newspapers, Evans writes: “Maxwell was the meat axe, a muddler, a volatile sentimentalist, a bully and a crook. Murdoch is the stiletto, a man of method, a cold-eyed manipulator.” Both media barons were directors of Reuters in the 1980s through their British newspaper interests.
Evans is a former editor of The Sunday Times and The Times, then owned by Murdoch who took over Times Newspapers in 1981 from the Thomson Organisation. Thomson was formed in 1978 as a holding company for the publishing, travel and natural resources empire founded by Canadian entrepreneur Roy Thomson, who became a British citizen in order to be ennobled in 1964 as first Baron Thomson of Fleet. The organisation joined Thomson Newspapers to become the Thomson Corporation in 1989.
Evans writes that he has come to regard the judgments he made in 1981, when Murdoch sought to acquire control of The Times and The Sunday Times, as the worst in his professional career.
He was appointed Reuters editor-at-large in June. “Editor-at-large means you're free to create as much havoc as they will tolerate,” he said at the time.
● CLICK to read Harold Evans’ new preface in full as published by The Guardian
● Harold Evans’ books
Reuters aims to become best in the world – Stephen Adler
Friday 16 September 2011
“Indeed, to be fully effective as a global organisation, we have to be as influential and as well known in the US – the world’s largest economy – as we are elsewhere in the world,” editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, pictured, said in an interview published on Friday. “Our mandate at Reuters is to become the best journalism organisation in the world,” he said.
Reuters’ recent hiring spree, including a handful of Pulitzer Prize-winners, has quickly attracted the media world’s attention, the US news website and blog Huffington Post reported. At the same time, it said, Reuters has relaunched its ● website to better showcase its vast reporting in a more consumer-friendly way, stepped up social media efforts and increased analysis, opinion and enterprise reporting.
Reuters is not giving up on breaking financial news that paying subscribers want or reporting international wire stories that cash-strapped newspapers, lacking foreign budgets, increasingly need, The Huffington Post said. However, deputy editor-in-chief Paul Ingrassia says the company wants to go beyond breaking news. “I think what we’re making a bigger effort to do is not only be first with events,” Ingrassia said, “but very quickly and analytically ... report the meaning and impact of those events.”
By giving Adler a mandate to make big moves, Reuters may hope to avoid being lapped by the Bloomberg behemoth, the website said. When asked whether Bloomberg is Reuters’ main competitor, Adler rattled off the many subscription platforms that Reuters offers its users, including traders, investment bankers, lawyers, tax specialists and pharmaceutical researchers. Reuters, he said, also reaches one billion people a day through the agency business used by newspapers, magazines and websites.
“Our audience base is thus quite different from anyone else’s, as is our revenue model,” Adler said. “The better we are, the more our journalism is worth to all of our customers. And we aim to be the best. And, yes, Bloomberg is certainly a leading competitor.”
As part of Reuters’ hiring spree, The Huffington Post noted that last week alone the agency hired former Slate media critic Jack Shafer, Pulitzer-winning Wall Street Journal veteran editor Alix Freedman, and Bay Citizen editor-in-chief and Industry Standard founding editor Jonathan Weber.
The website said that a year ago, media watchers wouldn’t have imagined such a slew of hires coming back-to-back. But Adler – a former deputy managing editor at the Wall Street Journal and Businessweek editor-in-chief just before Bloomberg’s acquisition of the magazine – started making big moves shortly after becoming Reuters editor-in-chief earlier this year.
Adler’s new editorial leadership team was looking like the Wall Street Journal in exile, it said. Ingrassia spent over three decades at the Journal and Dow Jones, where he won a Pulitzer for his coverage of the auto industry and later ran Dow Jones Newswires. Three other former Journal staffers are on board, too: former chief operating officer Stuart Karle, data editor Reginald Chua, and enterprise editor Michael Williams.
“Adler’s leadership team isn’t all Journal ex-pats,” The Huffington Post said. Adler hired Jim Gaines, a former Time Inc. executive most recently at News International’s iPad application The Daily and Harold Evans joined as an editor-at-large. “And some members of the team are old Reuters hands. Chrystia Freeland, who joined Reuters last year, became editor of Thomson Reuters Digital. In May, James Ledbetter moved from ● Reuters.com to become Reuters inaugural op-ed editor…
“When my position was created, there became a much stronger mandate from above to go out and get big names and put the full weight of Reuters behind it,” Ledbetter said. Since he took over, Reuters has hired not only Shafer but two former New York Times reporters with Pulitzers on their resumés: David Rohde and David Cay Johnston. “It’s getting to be quite a stable,” Ledbetter said.
While recent buzz may help raise Reuters’ profile outside, The Huffington Post said there has been some grumbling inside the company. Staffers say there are concerns that too much emphasis is being placed on big-name outside hires at the expense of cultivating talent within. Managers also worry about holding onto their positions in the newsroom amid editorial reshuffling and executives' shifting priorities.”
Staffers say other management changes have gone over well, including an emphasis on getting out of the office more to build deeper source relationships and the dismantling of the long-running beat system that only rewarded stories impacting stock prices. One staffer said it seems clear management wants to build a news organisation that creates a lot more buzz and prestige.
Some staffers believe that management expects to win Pulitzers in the coming years, following Reuters’ greater investment in enterprise and investigative reporting.
Both Adler and Ingrassia, however, balk at any suggestion that there’s a Pulitzer mandate. “Prize-hunting, per se, is not the objective here,” Ingrassia said.
“As I’ve said to the staff, we want to do work that is so memorable and so distinguished that it is recognised by our peers,” Adler said. “Winning awards is one measure of excellence but not an end in itself. We also want people talking about our journalism, sharing it with each other, and using it to make smart decisions and achieve fresh insights.”
● SOURCE The Huffington Post
Reuters hires Harold Evans as editor-at-large
Sunday 12 June 2011
Reuters has hired veteran journalist Sir Harold Evans, 82, as editor-at-large in its latest attempt to widen the agency’s reach and journalistic aspirations.
The Financial Times said on Sunday the former editor of The Sunday Times, founder of Condé Nast Traveler and publisher of Random House, would moderate events with political and economic figures, consult on new business travel and culture features on ● reuters.com, and advise editors on stories and newsroom issues.
“Editor-at-large means you’re free to create as much havoc as they will tolerate,” Sir Harold told the FT, saying that he would step back from a similar role at The Week magazine to focus on live events, debates about the media and highlight photojournalism at Reuters.
Stephen Adler, editor-in-chief, said the appointment formed part of Reuters’ efforts to build its reputation with consumers through the website and mobile applications.
“It’s partly about having a broad platform for our work where people can see the best of what we do. It’s also a way of connecting people to our brand. We want people on our paid site in the office but also want them taking us home with them,” he said.
The FT said rising pressure from Bloomberg and from print and online competitors had pushed Reuters to make several high-profile appointments in its search for greater influence.
Adler said Sir Harold’s extraordinary contacts would make his live interviews a way of engaging with clients. “Thomson Reuters has a community of people we write about and people who use our content. Bringing them together is a part of what contemporary news organisations do,” he said.
The FT said Adler would not disclose whether such hires had required an increased editorial budget, but said there was strong commitment from Thomson Reuters for changes such as his encouragement of long-form investigative reporting.
“The opportunity to work with Harry Evans, who is one of the greatest journalists of our era or any era, is just one I would never pass up,” Adler said.
Sir Harold said the job represented a return to his roots with the Thomson family, which owned The Sunday Times and The Times before selling them to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. His first event this week will feature Henry Kissinger, former US secretary of state, and John Huntsman, former US envoy to China and possible Republican presidential contender.
● SOURCE Financial Times
The Financial Times said on Sunday the former editor of The Sunday Times, founder of Condé Nast Traveler and publisher of Random House, would moderate events with political and economic figures, consult on new business travel and culture features on ● reuters.com, and advise editors on stories and newsroom issues.
“Editor-at-large means you’re free to create as much havoc as they will tolerate,” Sir Harold told the FT, saying that he would step back from a similar role at The Week magazine to focus on live events, debates about the media and highlight photojournalism at Reuters.
Stephen Adler, editor-in-chief, said the appointment formed part of Reuters’ efforts to build its reputation with consumers through the website and mobile applications.
“It’s partly about having a broad platform for our work where people can see the best of what we do. It’s also a way of connecting people to our brand. We want people on our paid site in the office but also want them taking us home with them,” he said.
The FT said rising pressure from Bloomberg and from print and online competitors had pushed Reuters to make several high-profile appointments in its search for greater influence.
Adler said Sir Harold’s extraordinary contacts would make his live interviews a way of engaging with clients. “Thomson Reuters has a community of people we write about and people who use our content. Bringing them together is a part of what contemporary news organisations do,” he said.
The FT said Adler would not disclose whether such hires had required an increased editorial budget, but said there was strong commitment from Thomson Reuters for changes such as his encouragement of long-form investigative reporting.
“The opportunity to work with Harry Evans, who is one of the greatest journalists of our era or any era, is just one I would never pass up,” Adler said.
Sir Harold said the job represented a return to his roots with the Thomson family, which owned The Sunday Times and The Times before selling them to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. His first event this week will feature Henry Kissinger, former US secretary of state, and John Huntsman, former US envoy to China and possible Republican presidential contender.
● SOURCE Financial Times
