Journalism
Iran’s female ninjas sue Reuters, Tehran bureau closed
Thursday 29 March 2012
Iran’s state-owned Press TV channel ran a television report in February about a group of women in Karaj, outside Tehran, dressing as Japanese warriors to practice the martial art Ninjutsu. Reuters television’s version said “Iran is training thousands of female ninjas as assassins,” ostensibly to defend the Islamic Republic from possible foreign attacks.
“The athletes say the Reuters journalist had asked them what they would do if their country came under attack. Reuters used the girl’s patriotic response as an excuse to call them assassins,” Press TV later reported. It said the journalist who conducted the interview left Iran after a court case was opened.
New York magazine said on Thursday: “Though the women toss shurikens and deliver crushing roundhouses, it’s all for practice and show – they don’t actually stalk and kill political targets under the cover of night.
“Unfortunately, the Reuters story called the ladies ‘assassins’ and alleged that they would be deployed to kill foreign invaders. Other British news outlets repeated the false claim. Realizing its mistake, Reuters quickly corrected the report, but the peaceful martial artists claim that the damage to their reputation has already been done. They’re now suing for defamation of character. As one of them put it:
“‘We are taking legal action because the ladies that train in Ninjutsu first and foremost enjoy it as a sport. It’s about working out and staying fit. Reuters has blatantly lied about us.’”
Press TV quoted a female Ninjutsu practitioner as saying: “The lady from Reuters asked me only one question which had a very obvious answer. I believe that anyone anywhere in the world would defend his country if it were attacked … but she twisted our words to make us look bad and described us as assassins in the headline of her story.”
Reuters corrected the story’s headline, “Thousands of female Ninjas train as Iran’s assassins”, to read “Three thousand women Ninjas train in Iran”.
The guidance ministry contacted Tehran bureau chief Parisa Hafezi about the video and its publication, as a result of which Reuters’ 11 personnel were told to hand back their press cards.
“We acknowledge this error occurred and regard it as a very serious matter,” editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said on Thursday. “It was promptly corrected the same day it came to our attention. In addition, we have conducted an internal review and have taken appropriate steps to prevent a recurrence.”
Adler said that Reuters was in discussions with Iranian authorities in an effort to restore the accreditation.
“Reuters always strives for the highest standards in journalism and our policy is to acknowledge errors honestly and correct them promptly when they occur,” he added.
All that survives of the erroneous video report online is a slideshow, below.
Postscript: The Reuters bureau in Tehran has been closed and correspondents have been expelled on several occasions since the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Shah. Barry May, now editor of The Baron, was ordered to leave in 1981.
● SOURCE Reuters | New York | Press TV
● SLIDESHOW
Thomson family affirms importance of Reuters news – Stephen Adler
Saturday 25 February 2012
Following a meeting with the company’s leadership team at which he was asked to report on progress, Adler said he had never been more optimistic about the opportunities ahead, the support Reuters News has from the company, or the significant impact everyone can make in 2012.
“No news organization is as well positioned as Reuters to excel in the coming months and years: We are global in a global economy and digital in a digital world, with a multi-talented team, a passion for great journalism, a strong business model, and the staunch support of the company’s leaders and its majority shareholders and board of directors,” he said in an internal message titled Our Path Ahead.
Adler, who became editor-in-chief in February 2011, said his presentation to editorial staff reflected conversations within Reuters News all year long, including as recently as his “Town Hall meetings” in London last week.
Summarising his remarks, Adler said: “Our goal at Reuters News is to achieve journalistic excellence, harness that excellence to benefit our users, and thereby strengthen Thomson Reuters’ individual businesses and the company as a whole.
“We aim to be the best journalism organization in the world – best at being fast, accurate, and fair and best at offering insight, originality, and depth.
“Being fast, accurate, and fair remains absolutely essential to Reuters coverage, and we are committed to preserving and extending our leadership in this area. As news providers proliferate and standards waver elsewhere, our rock-solid reliability becomes an even stronger competitive advantage for us. And of course it is mandated by the Trust Principles.
“While fast, accurate, and fair are absolutely necessary, they are no longer sufficient in a changing company and a changing world. Our users also seek ideas and deeper understandings, so they can make smarter business decisions, advise clients more intelligently, achieve fresh insights, and influence the global conversation. Meeting these needs has become a bigger imperative as Reuters News has come to serve all the company’s businesses – traders and Media clients to be sure but also investment bankers, investment advisers, wealth managers, lawyers, accountants, compliance officers, and the scientific and pharma communities, among others. Facts alone are not enough for this demanding customer base – insights that can spur actions are also essential.
“Our mantra of news AND insight also reflects external changes, as a flood of basic news and information becomes available free via the web and social media. In this environment, we must differentiate ourselves by adding value – through our trustworthiness and our insight – lest we fall victim to the commoditization that has undermined the businesses of other news providers. Hence, we are nourishing Breakingviews, op-ed commentary, enterprise journalism, data mining, innovative video programming, stronger financial graphics, and other ventures that provide differentiated value, while we bolster our training, desk strength, technology, and talent to enhance speed, accuracy, and fairness.”
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters wins five US journalism awards
Friday 24 February 2012
Reuters has won five Best in Business Awards presented by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
“These awards, which honor excellence in business and financial journalism across all platforms, reflect the success of our efforts in on-the-ground news coverage, investigations, and ground-breaking commentary,” said editor-in-chief Stephen Adler. He listed the winners as
● Reuters coverage of the Libyan revolution, which included scoops on Muammar Gaddafi’s death and the capture of his son, was selected as a winner in the Breaking News/International category.
● Scot Paltrow’s investigation into banks’ use of robo-signing won in the Explanatory/News Agency category.
● Paltrow also picked up an award in the Feature/News Agencies category for “The Congressman with Banks on the Side,” which exposed how Representative Phil Gingrey has flouted House ethics and financial disclosure rules for years.
● Jack Shafer’s “feisty and funny” media columns received an award in the Opinion & Column/News Agencies category.
● Breakingviews agenda-setting commentary won in the Opinion & Column/Digital category.
The awards will be presented on 17 March in Indianapolis.
● SOURCE Reuters | SABEW
“These awards, which honor excellence in business and financial journalism across all platforms, reflect the success of our efforts in on-the-ground news coverage, investigations, and ground-breaking commentary,” said editor-in-chief Stephen Adler. He listed the winners as
● Reuters coverage of the Libyan revolution, which included scoops on Muammar Gaddafi’s death and the capture of his son, was selected as a winner in the Breaking News/International category.
● Scot Paltrow’s investigation into banks’ use of robo-signing won in the Explanatory/News Agency category.
● Paltrow also picked up an award in the Feature/News Agencies category for “The Congressman with Banks on the Side,” which exposed how Representative Phil Gingrey has flouted House ethics and financial disclosure rules for years.
● Jack Shafer’s “feisty and funny” media columns received an award in the Opinion & Column/News Agencies category.
● Breakingviews agenda-setting commentary won in the Opinion & Column/Digital category.
The awards will be presented on 17 March in Indianapolis.
● SOURCE Reuters | SABEW
Reuters changes editorial priorities in quest for Pulitzers
Thursday 23 February 2012
This was the essence of a briefing for European chief correspondents given at a recent meeting in London called by editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, his deputy Paul Ingrassia and Stuart Karle, chief operating officer for Reuters news agency, according to various accounts of the session by people present.
Under the new dispensation correspondents will have to set themselves a minimum target for long-form investigative takeouts and keep to it.
During a recent visit to European bureaux Ingrassia contrasted what he termed “adrenaline journalism” – the traditional wire service story flow – with “aspiration journalism” – the new investigative writing at length that is now being pushed for editorial operations.
Spot news is still wanted but the benchmark should be set higher, chief correspondents were told. It is up to bureau chiefs to decide where that level will be and what stories can be ignored.
Asked about the business case for such a radical switch in journalistic priorities, the editorial chiefs said the chairman and majority owner David Thomson wants Pulitzers, and this is the only way Thomson Reuters can get them. He is a very rich man – the world’s 17th wealthiest billionaire according to the most recent Forbes magazine reckoning – and that is what he wants, chief correspondents were told.
Thomson admired what Sir Harold Evans, appointed Reuters editor-at-large last June, did with The Sunday Times and its Insight team of investigative journalists when he was the British broadsheet’s editor three decades ago. That is what he wants from Thomson Reuters journalists and that is how it has got to be, the new editorial leaders said.
Adler, appointed editor-in-chief a year ago, said Reuters often wins the newsbreaks and follow-up stories in the weeks and even months after an event but it is not very good at keeping after a story over the long term.
Not everyone can be an investigative reporter at the same time. Bureaux will have to cover day-to-day beats when a specialist reporter is busy on his special report.
Adler said the ● reuters.com website – re-designed in December 2009 and again last July to make it more “consumer-facing” – will be thoroughly revamped over coming months. It is intended to make the site a window attracting a much wider audience for the organisation’s paying services, partly with special reports. The aim is to make Thomson Reuters a better Financial Times – a “free newspaper on the site” in the words of one of the executives.
Reuters has been on an editorial hiring spree over the past year, attracting high-profile American editors and writers with a pedigree of Pulitzers and other US journalism prizes in their resumés. But the pace of staff turnover is too slow for new and better people to be brought in quickly enough. “We need to be much more strict on performance,” the chief correspondents were told. The new editorial leadership favours longer postings – five or six years and more – if staffers are performing.
The new leadership wants experts on their beats. Travel and entertainment costs linked to special reporting will not be cut. “Our specialists will need to cultivate their sources.”
International assignment packages, of which there are about 300, will be eliminated.
Reuters launches new safeguards for initiative journalism
Friday 03 February 2012
Reuters is instituting a new system of story proposals for initiative journalism. Reporters must tell editors in advance of writing what kinds of sources and statistics or data will be used and whether the story will need to be read for legal reasons or potential risk to the organisation’s reputation.
The new system comes just a week after Reuters was embarrassed by a story that required complex corrections to put right multiple factual errors. The episode became a journalistic talking point and dismayed old editorial hands.
No connection with what was described in-house as a fiasco and a disgrace was made by Paul Ingrassia, deputy editor-in-chief, in a note on Friday announcing the new system. The reason, he said, was to better focus journalists’ time and talent. “It will help the editors ensure that the time you are devoting to enterprising journalism is well spent,” he told staff.
“Reuters is the best real-time news organization in the world – and we intend to solidify our dominance as such,” he said. “Let me reinforce that crucial point: Our commitment to being the world’s best real-time news service isn’t changing. But the world is evolving. Our customers demand more of us than ever before – not only fast, accurate and fair real-time news, but also deep and proprietary insight into the companies, markets, governments, people, trends and ideas shaping our world. That means we need to do more initiative journalism – stories with original findings that wouldn’t see the light of day if we didn’t undertake them for our readers.”
Items that need to be proposed are any story tagged Analysis, Feature and Insight. Brief proposals are to be filed by a reporter’s manager, via e-mail, to regional special top-news distribution lists. The e-mail must explain what the story will say and why it matters.
“Very briefly describe the kinds of sources and stats or data that will be tapped. If the story will need to be read for legal or reputational-risk reasons, briefly flag that in the proposal. Run the idea by your manager. Your manager will vet and file the proposal.” Editors will reply to the e-mail quickly giving the idea a thumbs up or thumbs down and assign an editor who will work with the reporter to deliver the story in good condition, Ingrassia added.
● SOURCE Reuters
The new system comes just a week after Reuters was embarrassed by a story that required complex corrections to put right multiple factual errors. The episode became a journalistic talking point and dismayed old editorial hands.
No connection with what was described in-house as a fiasco and a disgrace was made by Paul Ingrassia, deputy editor-in-chief, in a note on Friday announcing the new system. The reason, he said, was to better focus journalists’ time and talent. “It will help the editors ensure that the time you are devoting to enterprising journalism is well spent,” he told staff.
“Reuters is the best real-time news organization in the world – and we intend to solidify our dominance as such,” he said. “Let me reinforce that crucial point: Our commitment to being the world’s best real-time news service isn’t changing. But the world is evolving. Our customers demand more of us than ever before – not only fast, accurate and fair real-time news, but also deep and proprietary insight into the companies, markets, governments, people, trends and ideas shaping our world. That means we need to do more initiative journalism – stories with original findings that wouldn’t see the light of day if we didn’t undertake them for our readers.”
Items that need to be proposed are any story tagged Analysis, Feature and Insight. Brief proposals are to be filed by a reporter’s manager, via e-mail, to regional special top-news distribution lists. The e-mail must explain what the story will say and why it matters.
“Very briefly describe the kinds of sources and stats or data that will be tapped. If the story will need to be read for legal or reputational-risk reasons, briefly flag that in the proposal. Run the idea by your manager. Your manager will vet and file the proposal.” Editors will reply to the e-mail quickly giving the idea a thumbs up or thumbs down and assign an editor who will work with the reporter to deliver the story in good condition, Ingrassia added.
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters extends journalism training to New York and Asia
Wednesday 07 December 2011
Reuters announced on Wednesday it will extend its journalism trainee programme from London to New York and across Asia.
The scheme offers nine months of training for university graduates with a proven interest in financial news and grasp of key economic trends. Working journalists and other professionals wanting to move into journalism can also apply. Applicants should exhibit a passion for journalism with evidence of editorial work experience, a competitive instinct, and speak and write fluently in English. Advanced skills in other languages, particularly Arabic, Russian, Mandarin or German, financial and data expertise, and multimedia will be given special consideration.
Editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said: “We are reinvesting in journalism through this highly competitive training program and, at the same time, strengthening our position as an industry leader. While other news organizations have discontinued similar efforts, Reuters has more than doubled the size of its program. This year, we are proud to offer 15 jobs for trainees who successfully complete the program.”
● SOURCE MarketWatch
The scheme offers nine months of training for university graduates with a proven interest in financial news and grasp of key economic trends. Working journalists and other professionals wanting to move into journalism can also apply. Applicants should exhibit a passion for journalism with evidence of editorial work experience, a competitive instinct, and speak and write fluently in English. Advanced skills in other languages, particularly Arabic, Russian, Mandarin or German, financial and data expertise, and multimedia will be given special consideration.
Editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said: “We are reinvesting in journalism through this highly competitive training program and, at the same time, strengthening our position as an industry leader. While other news organizations have discontinued similar efforts, Reuters has more than doubled the size of its program. This year, we are proud to offer 15 jobs for trainees who successfully complete the program.”
● SOURCE MarketWatch
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
Thomson Reuters rejigs journalist training for new security threats
Tuesday 07 June 2011
Thomson Reuters is adjusting its journalist security training and protocols because of a shift from battlefield hazards to civilian threats.
Photojournalist Larry Rubenstein, who recently became general manager for safety and logistics for editorial, said a sexual assault on former Reuters Television producer Lara Logan, now a CBS correspondent, at a Cairo demonstration earlier this year drove home the point that journalists must be prepared not only for the battlefield but also for all of the various new threats they face when covering the news.
“But we’ve been seeing it for some time and are continually reviewing our training,” he told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The CPJ issued new guidelines on the threat today.
Rubenstein said the changes in Thomson Reuters’ security training and protocols changes include more training in cultural skills to help journalists navigate chaotic crowds. Security professionals who train journalists say they are adjusting their curriculum to reflect the challenges.
For years, former military personnel – especially British Royal Marines who dominate firms such as Centurion and Tor International – have provided much of the security training for journalists, the CPJ said. But today civilian experts are taking a more prominent role in preparing journalists for risks that are particular to the field, including the threat of sexual aggression on the job.
In the past 18 months, more journalists have been killed covering violent demonstrations and other non-military events than at any time since CPJ began keeping detailed records two decades ago. For decades the overwhelming majority of all journalists killed worldwide, nearly three out four, were murdered outright, CPJ said. Most were local journalists murdered in direct reprisal for their work. Fewer than one in five were killed in combat and about one in 10 were killed covering violent demonstrations.
That seems to have changed, at least for the time being, said Frank Smyth, CPJ Washington representative and journalist security coordinator. The rise of street demonstrations and related violent clashes poses an emerging threat to journalists.
● SOURCE Committee to Protect Journalists
Photojournalist Larry Rubenstein, who recently became general manager for safety and logistics for editorial, said a sexual assault on former Reuters Television producer Lara Logan, now a CBS correspondent, at a Cairo demonstration earlier this year drove home the point that journalists must be prepared not only for the battlefield but also for all of the various new threats they face when covering the news.
“But we’ve been seeing it for some time and are continually reviewing our training,” he told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The CPJ issued new guidelines on the threat today.
Rubenstein said the changes in Thomson Reuters’ security training and protocols changes include more training in cultural skills to help journalists navigate chaotic crowds. Security professionals who train journalists say they are adjusting their curriculum to reflect the challenges.
For years, former military personnel – especially British Royal Marines who dominate firms such as Centurion and Tor International – have provided much of the security training for journalists, the CPJ said. But today civilian experts are taking a more prominent role in preparing journalists for risks that are particular to the field, including the threat of sexual aggression on the job.
In the past 18 months, more journalists have been killed covering violent demonstrations and other non-military events than at any time since CPJ began keeping detailed records two decades ago. For decades the overwhelming majority of all journalists killed worldwide, nearly three out four, were murdered outright, CPJ said. Most were local journalists murdered in direct reprisal for their work. Fewer than one in five were killed in combat and about one in 10 were killed covering violent demonstrations.
That seems to have changed, at least for the time being, said Frank Smyth, CPJ Washington representative and journalist security coordinator. The rise of street demonstrations and related violent clashes poses an emerging threat to journalists.
● SOURCE Committee to Protect Journalists
Thomson Reuters boosts investigative journalism effort
Tuesday 24 May 2011
Thomson Reuters has added Investigative News Network’s long-form investigative journalism to its media platform as part of its mission to create a one-stop news shop for publishers and broadcasters globally.
“Publishers are telling us investigative news is extremely valuable, but seems to be the first thing cut when resources get tight,” Chris Ahearn, president of media, said on Tuesday. “The new relationship with INN is another step towards addressing the market’s need and providing our clients with stories they won’t find anywhere else.”
A Thomson Reuters press release said INN is the newest component to the comprehensive coverage and delivery platform Reuters is building to meet the diverse needs of publishers and broadcasters around the world. It represents one additional step toward one stop fulfilment of its media client needs worldwide.
INN is a growing consortium of non-profit news organisations in North America that produces non-partisan investigative and public service journalism on a local, regional and national basis. It is composed of more than 50 news organisations that create long-form and ongoing stories that keep communities informed on the issues they most care about.
● SOURCE Reuters
● Investigative News Network
“Publishers are telling us investigative news is extremely valuable, but seems to be the first thing cut when resources get tight,” Chris Ahearn, president of media, said on Tuesday. “The new relationship with INN is another step towards addressing the market’s need and providing our clients with stories they won’t find anywhere else.”
A Thomson Reuters press release said INN is the newest component to the comprehensive coverage and delivery platform Reuters is building to meet the diverse needs of publishers and broadcasters around the world. It represents one additional step toward one stop fulfilment of its media client needs worldwide.
INN is a growing consortium of non-profit news organisations in North America that produces non-partisan investigative and public service journalism on a local, regional and national basis. It is composed of more than 50 news organisations that create long-form and ongoing stories that keep communities informed on the issues they most care about.
● SOURCE Reuters
● Investigative News Network
Armed men attack Reuters' Gaza bureau, beat staff
Saturday 19 March 2011
Armed men raided Reuters and other news bureaus in Gaza, assaulted journalists, and confiscated media materials on Saturday.
The men told Reuters journalists that they came from the internal security services of Hamas, the Islamist group which governs the Palestinian enclave, but they showed no documents. A senior official of Hamas condemned the violence and denied that the group was involved in the attack.
Following a demonstration in Gaza City, the men stormed the bureaus of Reuters, CNN and the Japanese news channel NHK, attacking journalists, confiscating tapes and destroying equipment, CNN and others reported. Security forces hit a Reuters employee with an iron bar, threatened to throw another out of a window of the high-rise building and smashed a television and computer keyboard, Crispian Balmer, bureau chief for Israel and Palestinian Territories, told CNN and The Associated Press. The group, which numbered about 10 men, smashed a television set and other equipment before leaving.
A senior official of Hamas condemned the violence and denied that the group was involved in the attack. “Initial information shows these men were not from the government. We have arrested some of them and we are going to interrogate them and see who they were acting for,” interior minister Fathi Hammad told reporters. He added that he had told all security services to treat journalists with respect and prevent attacks on them.
Editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said: “We are extremely concerned at this unwarranted assault on our staff and urge the authorities to ensure that journalists can work freely in Gaza.” The Reuters staff attacked were Palestinian.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the attacks and the efforts of authorities to prevent the world from seeing and reading about crucial international affairs.
“Today's attack on media offices and working journalists in Gaza is a brazen attempt to censor the news,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator. “Hamas must understand that violence against media, who are the eyes and ears of the people, will only erode its own legitimacy – both domestically and internationally.”
Following the raid journalists held a sit-in to denounce the government’s treatment of media. It was the second attack on media in Gaza in less than a week by Hamas security personnel. On Tuesday Hamas security forces attacked journalists as they were covering demonstrations. Many journalists were injured and one was stabbed.
● SOURCE Reuters | Committee to Protect Journalists
The men told Reuters journalists that they came from the internal security services of Hamas, the Islamist group which governs the Palestinian enclave, but they showed no documents. A senior official of Hamas condemned the violence and denied that the group was involved in the attack.
Following a demonstration in Gaza City, the men stormed the bureaus of Reuters, CNN and the Japanese news channel NHK, attacking journalists, confiscating tapes and destroying equipment, CNN and others reported. Security forces hit a Reuters employee with an iron bar, threatened to throw another out of a window of the high-rise building and smashed a television and computer keyboard, Crispian Balmer, bureau chief for Israel and Palestinian Territories, told CNN and The Associated Press. The group, which numbered about 10 men, smashed a television set and other equipment before leaving.
A senior official of Hamas condemned the violence and denied that the group was involved in the attack. “Initial information shows these men were not from the government. We have arrested some of them and we are going to interrogate them and see who they were acting for,” interior minister Fathi Hammad told reporters. He added that he had told all security services to treat journalists with respect and prevent attacks on them.
Editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said: “We are extremely concerned at this unwarranted assault on our staff and urge the authorities to ensure that journalists can work freely in Gaza.” The Reuters staff attacked were Palestinian.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the attacks and the efforts of authorities to prevent the world from seeing and reading about crucial international affairs.
“Today's attack on media offices and working journalists in Gaza is a brazen attempt to censor the news,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator. “Hamas must understand that violence against media, who are the eyes and ears of the people, will only erode its own legitimacy – both domestically and internationally.”
Following the raid journalists held a sit-in to denounce the government’s treatment of media. It was the second attack on media in Gaza in less than a week by Hamas security personnel. On Tuesday Hamas security forces attacked journalists as they were covering demonstrations. Many journalists were injured and one was stabbed.
● SOURCE Reuters | Committee to Protect Journalists
Saudi Arabia forces Reuters correspondent to leave
Wednesday 16 March 2011
Saudi Arabia has withdrawn the accreditation of a senior Reuters correspondent, obliging him to leave the country, after officials complained that a recent report on a protest in the kingdom was not accurate.
Reuters said it stood by its coverage and welcomed an assurance given by the Saudi government that it would begin the accreditation of a replacement for correspondent Ulf Laessing.
Saudi information minister Abdul-Aziz Khoja said on Tuesday: “We have been accustomed to exceptional precision from Reuters but its correspondent here in one of his reports lately did not relay the actual, precise picture we have been used to from Reuters.
“In any case, his limited work permit in the kingdom has expired. We welcome any correspondent the company appoints and we will help and facilitate the mission of Reuters in having a new correspondent appointed in the kingdom.”
Laessing joined Reuters in his native Germany in 1997 and has been based in Riyadh since 2009. He has also worked in Egypt and Kuwait.
Editor-in-chief Stephen Adler praised his coverage and said “Reuters is committed to accurate and unbiased reporting from Saudi Arabia. We are disappointed that Ulf Laessing must leave Riyadh but welcome the minister’s assurance that Saudi Arabia will now accredit a new correspondent.”
Reuters became the first major international news organisation to have a foreign correspondent accredited to work in Saudi Arabia in 2003.
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters said it stood by its coverage and welcomed an assurance given by the Saudi government that it would begin the accreditation of a replacement for correspondent Ulf Laessing.
Saudi information minister Abdul-Aziz Khoja said on Tuesday: “We have been accustomed to exceptional precision from Reuters but its correspondent here in one of his reports lately did not relay the actual, precise picture we have been used to from Reuters.
“In any case, his limited work permit in the kingdom has expired. We welcome any correspondent the company appoints and we will help and facilitate the mission of Reuters in having a new correspondent appointed in the kingdom.”
Laessing joined Reuters in his native Germany in 1997 and has been based in Riyadh since 2009. He has also worked in Egypt and Kuwait.
Editor-in-chief Stephen Adler praised his coverage and said “Reuters is committed to accurate and unbiased reporting from Saudi Arabia. We are disappointed that Ulf Laessing must leave Riyadh but welcome the minister’s assurance that Saudi Arabia will now accredit a new correspondent.”
Reuters became the first major international news organisation to have a foreign correspondent accredited to work in Saudi Arabia in 2003.
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters demands ‘full transparency’ over journalist’s killing
Monday 28 February 2011
Reuters has called for full transparency in apparently contradictory Thai reports into the killing of Japanese journalist Hiro Muramoto during “red shirt” anti-government protests in Bangkok.
Editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said on Monday it was imperative that full transparency be brought to the investigation.
Thai investigators earlier reversed a previous finding into the shooting of the 43-year-old Tokyo-based cameraman last April. Officials from the Department of Special Investigations said he was hit by a 7.62 mm round from an AK-47 assault rifle, a weapon not used by Thai soldiers. An earlier leaked report blamed the military for shooting him through his chest with a 5.56 mm M-16 rifle bullet fired from an army-held position. Witnesses at the scene agreed.
“The apparent contradiction between the preliminary investigation and these reports makes full transparency about the process and the findings imperative,” Adler said.
The military was unhappy with the result of the first investigation and army sources told reporters a military officer was assigned to help the DSI's investigation.
Critics say investigations into how 89 people died in the protests have been hurt by interference.
● SOURCE Reuters | BBC
Editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said on Monday it was imperative that full transparency be brought to the investigation.
Thai investigators earlier reversed a previous finding into the shooting of the 43-year-old Tokyo-based cameraman last April. Officials from the Department of Special Investigations said he was hit by a 7.62 mm round from an AK-47 assault rifle, a weapon not used by Thai soldiers. An earlier leaked report blamed the military for shooting him through his chest with a 5.56 mm M-16 rifle bullet fired from an army-held position. Witnesses at the scene agreed.
“The apparent contradiction between the preliminary investigation and these reports makes full transparency about the process and the findings imperative,” Adler said.
The military was unhappy with the result of the first investigation and army sources told reporters a military officer was assigned to help the DSI's investigation.
Critics say investigations into how 89 people died in the protests have been hurt by interference.
● SOURCE Reuters | BBC
Thai investigators say army did not kill Reuters TV’s Hiro Muramoto
Sunday 27 February 2011
DSI director-general Tharit Pengdith said on Sunday the bullet came from an AK-47 assault rifle, which did not match the weapon used by soldiers in the street in Bangkok that day.
That contradicts a preliminary finding in a DSI report leaked to Reuters in December, which indicated the bullet that killed Muramoto on 10 April 2010 came from the direction of troops.
“Now we know for sure the bullet that killed him was a Russian-made AK-47, which we do not have for military use,” Tharit told Reuters, adding there would be a news conference on Monday to outline the findings.
Muramoto, 43, was based in Tokyo and had gone to Bangkok to help cover anti-government “red shirt” protests that lasted from March to mid-May. He was among 91 civilians and members of the security forces killed during the unrest.
Army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd was quoted in Sunday's Bangkok Post as saying soldiers did not use AK-47s on the day in question. However, the daily also reported “claims that the army chief of staff paid the DSI head a visit to complain about an initial department finding” that blamed soldiers for the journalist’s death. “The DSI is likely to face questions about why it changed its stance,” it said. It added that Tharit had denied meeting the army chief of staff.
The Bangkok Post also quoted an unnamed army source as saying the army had imported about 20,000 AK-47s into the country two decades ago. “About 19,000 of them had been distributed for use at military camps nationwide, while the rest were kept at the army’s weapon storage site,” it said.
● SOURCE Reuters
Big Issue global network seeks ex-Reuters journalists
Saturday 22 January 2011
A web-based news interchange which links 115 Big Issue-type newspapers in 40 countries is seeking volunteer editors and correspondents with an international background to help select and create news and features of wide interest for global distribution and to help develop the network.
The ● Street News Service (SNS) is the news agency of the ● International Network of Street Papers, a Glasgow-based charity which supports street papers like the UK's Big Issues. Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger is honorary president and former managing editor Tom Thomson is honorary editor.
Street papers, with a global circulation of more than five million, exist to tackle homelessness and poverty. Vendors buy their street papers at cost price and sell them at the cover price – generating an income for themselves. Street papers offer homeless and marginalised people the chance to earn a living. At the same time they are a distinctive and quality independent media.
The news service is expanding. In particular, it wants to develop its English, Spanish, and German operations and is seeking editors either in the United States, Germany and Latin America or with a feel for current issues in these areas no matter where based. The role would involve:
● reading through a selection of street papers in each region, sent by pdf.
● picking the top three to five best articles from the region, appealing to an international audience
● editing them where needed for an international audience
● sending the edited story to the Street News Service Editor, ideally twice a month (but other periods negotiable)
● helping advise SNS on future developments on an ad hoc basis.
The SNS is also interested in hearing from any former Reuters journalists who might like to help with articles or high-profile interviews.
If anyone would like to help, SNS editor Danielle Batist would love to hear from you at ● d.batist@street-papers.org or +44 (0)141 225 8037. Tom Thomson can also answer any questions at ● tom_thomson@hotmail.com or +44 (0)7961 069307.
● The Big Issue
The ● Street News Service (SNS) is the news agency of the ● International Network of Street Papers, a Glasgow-based charity which supports street papers like the UK's Big Issues. Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger is honorary president and former managing editor Tom Thomson is honorary editor.
Street papers, with a global circulation of more than five million, exist to tackle homelessness and poverty. Vendors buy their street papers at cost price and sell them at the cover price – generating an income for themselves. Street papers offer homeless and marginalised people the chance to earn a living. At the same time they are a distinctive and quality independent media.
The news service is expanding. In particular, it wants to develop its English, Spanish, and German operations and is seeking editors either in the United States, Germany and Latin America or with a feel for current issues in these areas no matter where based. The role would involve:
● reading through a selection of street papers in each region, sent by pdf.
● picking the top three to five best articles from the region, appealing to an international audience
● editing them where needed for an international audience
● sending the edited story to the Street News Service Editor, ideally twice a month (but other periods negotiable)
● helping advise SNS on future developments on an ad hoc basis.
The SNS is also interested in hearing from any former Reuters journalists who might like to help with articles or high-profile interviews.
If anyone would like to help, SNS editor Danielle Batist would love to hear from you at ● d.batist@street-papers.org or +44 (0)141 225 8037. Tom Thomson can also answer any questions at ● tom_thomson@hotmail.com or +44 (0)7961 069307.
● The Big Issue
Reuters appoints Midwest bureau chief to head new US service
Tuesday 11 January 2011
Bohan, pictured, becomes editor of the fledgling domestic offering of local general, political, sports and entertainment news.
"In his new role, Peter will lead Reuters America Service in producing top local news of national interest in the US every day for newspapers and real time media," the company said.
Bohan was instrumental in setting up a deal between Reuters and Tribune, several of whose papers, including the Chicago Tribune, reduced their Associated Press subscriptions in order that Tribune could become Reuters America's first official client. He joined Reuters in 1983 and has done stints abroad as Hong Kong editor and Singapore bureau chief.
Reuters America will be served by staff journalists and stringers in about 100 US cities. It will include content supplied by other news organisations ranging from Sports Direct to US Presswire.
● SOURCE The Cutline
Reuters aims at AP with new domestic US news service
Monday 13 December 2010
In a break with tradition, Reuters America will include content from partners, starting with sports results and news from Sports Direct; sports photography from US Presswire; game reports and team analysis from Sports Xchange; and fans’ coverage from SB Nation. It will also feature professional and amateur local reporting from Examiner.com; and entertainment coverage from The Wrap.
“This is the beginning of Project Apollo; the transformation of our news agency business from being only about Reuters content to being about supplying clients with more of the content and services they need,” Chris Ahearn, president of Reuters Media, pictured, told the Financial Times.
“We’re still committed to covering the world, but we don’t need to be all things to all people,” he said, adding that Reuters America would also serve as “a platform of exchange”, distributing content from local newspaper and broadcast customers for the use of others around the country.
Ahearn would not say how many staff Reuters would add in its multi-million dollar investment in editorial and technology, but said the initiative would include significantly more freelance reporters.
“This is about transforming what a news agency can offer, to really be a partner to newsrooms and have our clients think of us as an extension of their newsrooms rather than just as a content provider,” he said. “So the way we’re engaging with clients now is much more on a kind of solutions perspective, to say: What matters for you? What coverage do you need?”
The initiative marks a shift from Reuters’ traditional focus on international and financial news for the US market, with a push into local political and general news and a drive to aggregate sports and entertainment coverage to fill gaps left by local newspaper and television newsrooms’ shrinking budgets.
Reuters America aims to have staff or freelance reporters in 100 cities across all 50 US states, and to offer an on-demand service by embedding Reuters journalists in some customers’ newsrooms to understand their requirements.
Its first client is Tribune, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun, which has signed a multi-year contract. Tribune said it will use less material from the AP and reduce its financial commitment to the US news cooperative. The new Reuters service will provide news, photo, digital, and graphics services for Tribune newspapers and all of its publishing and broadcast Web sites.
It comes as Reuters examines how to reach a larger consumer audience through Reuters.com, mobile applications and other platforms. Tom Glocer, chief executive, told a conference in Paris last week that Thomson Reuters was examining whether it could “aggregate a serious international audience” such as Americans who listen to National Public Radio, watch the BBC or read The Economist, through a new consumer offering.
● SOURCE Financial Times | The Wall Street Journal | Chicago Tribune
Are foreign correspondents redundant?
Saturday 11 December 2010
Sambrook introduced his 100-page analysis to an audience of news professionals at Thomson Reuters’ London headquarters at Canary Wharf on Wednesday and then took part in a panel discussion chaired by David Schlesinger, Reuters editor-in-chief. The other panellists were Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 News, John Owen of Al-Jazeera and City University, and Fran Unsworth, BBC head of newsgathering.
Three main factors have contributed to the gradual demise of traditional foreign correspondents, according to Sambrook:
● Economic – cost cutting as the old business model of Western news organisations has had to adapt to tougher commercial pressures
● Technological – the impact of rapid change in international communications, digital reporting techniques and the Internet
● Cultural – globalisation, familiarisation and the rise of local reporters and “citizen journalists”.
On balance Sambrook concluded that he found more reasons to be optimistic than pessimistic about the future of international reporting. Answering his own question, are foreign correspondents redundant, he replies in his paper: “By no means. But they will be very different from their predecessors and work in very different ways to serve the digital news environment of the 21st century.”
The panel agreed on the need for new business models and new operating methods, while insisting on the fundamental responsibility of the media to bear witness through professional reporting directly from the scene – what John Owen called “ground truth”.
They also agreed that the crisis in international news reporting was principally a Western phenomenon, with much greater growth expected in Asia and other rapidly developing societies around the world.
● CLICK to read more about the Reuters Institute at Oxford and Richard Sambrook’s research paper
Reuters’ Hiro Muramoto probably shot by Thai troops - report
Friday 10 December 2010
Muramoto, pictured filming in Bangkok shortly before he was shot, was killed by a high-velocity bullet wound to the chest while covering the “red shirt” anti-government protest movement in Bangkok's old quarter in April.
Leaked state documents seen by Reuters show the Thai military played a larger role in the killing of civilians during the two months of unrest than officials have acknowledged.
The report quoted a witness who said Muramoto, a 43-year-old Japanese national based in Tokyo, collapsed as gunfire flashed from the direction of soldiers. The Thai government has not released the report into his death despite intense diplomatic pressure from Japan.
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger called for the immediate public release of the full report. “The Thai authorities owe it to Hiro's family to reveal exactly how this tragedy happened and who was responsible,” he said in a statement.
Tharit Pengdith, director general of the Department of Special Investigation, said the DSI had concluded its preliminary investigation and passed the results to the police but had not publicly disclosed the contents.
“The investigation report is a sensitive issue to talk about or to confirm its authenticity,” he said. “It’s an official secret. To confirm the authenticity of the report sent to police would affect the rights of the people whose names were in it.”
He would neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of two reports seen by Reuters but said police will now investigate the case of three people believed to have been killed by Thai special forces at a Buddhist temple designated a safe zone for women, children, the elderly and the infirm, along with three others, including Muramoto, possibly killed by troops.
The results of the police investigation will be sent to the DSI and government prosecutors.
Ninety-one people were killed and at least 1,800 were wounded during the unrest in April and May. More than 30 buildings were set on fire. It was the worst political violence in modern Thai history.
● SOURCE Reuters
● Hiroyuki Muramoto memorial
Pink Floyd man remembers dead Reuters news staff on Wall tour
Tuesday 30 November 2010
The two-hour show is a harrowing journey through death, destruction and despair, Los Angeles correspondent Dean Goodman reported on Tuesday. Photos of victims of violence frequently flash across a wall.
Waters, 67, formerly the band’s bass player and lyricist, screened leaked US military video showing two Reuters news staffers being killed in an attack by Apache helicopters.
“Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh, we will remember you,” a banner read.
Noor-Eldeen, 22, photographer, and Chmagh, 40, his assistant and driver, were killed in Baghdad on 12 July 2007.
● SOURCE Reuters | Roger Waters | Memorial Book
Kurt Schork award winners honoured in London
Thursday 25 November 2010
They were Adrian Mogos of the Bucharest-based daily newspaper Jurnalul National who was recognised for an in-depth investigation into human rights violations on the illegal immigration trail from eastern to western Europe, and British freelancer Stephen Grey for a series of articles on Afghanistan.
A panel comprising Jeremy Bowen of the BBC, John Burns of The New York Times, Sir Harold Evans, former editor of The Times and The Sunday Times, Rana Husseini, author and human rights activist, and Michela Wrong, author and former Reuters correspondent, selected the two winners.
The judges said Mogos provided an excellent in-depth investigation into issues of compelling importance. They felt he showed great initiative, persistence and ingenuity, backed up with excellent research to expose human rights violations.
The judges were particularly impressed with the quality of Grey’s articles on Afghanistan, saying they represented some of the best coverage anywhere, combining maturity with excellent analytical skills, and making a complex war more understandable.
The awards are made by the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund, created in March 2001 in honour of Kurt Schork who was killed in a military ambush while on assignment in Sierra Leone for Reuters in May 2000. They are administered by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting and recognise fearless freelance news reporting and those journalists who report from their own countries at great personal risk and sacrifice. The awards were presented by Sean Maguire, Reuters editor, political and general news.
Bowen recalled Schork as "razor sharp, he was leader of the pack…a great guy, greatly missed". Schork's partner Sabina Cosic attended the event.
Photo: Stephen Grey (L) and Adrian Mogos with their 2010 Kurt Schork awards.
Reuters people most numerous in roll of slain journalists
Monday 22 November 2010
Samia Nakhoul, a Reuters correspondent who was wounded in Iraq, helped read the roll at a special memorial service at St Bride's, the journalists' church in Fleet Street, London.
Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin delivered the address and insisted that war reporting must continue despite the dangers. "Despite all the videos you see from the Ministry of Defence or the Pentagon, and all the sanitised language describing smart bombs and pinpoint strikes… the scene on the ground has remained remarkably the same for hundreds of years. Craters. Burned houses. Mutilated bodies. Women weeping for children and husbands. Men for their wives, mothers children,” she said.
"Our mission is to report these horrors of war with accuracy and without prejudice. We always have to ask ourselves whether the level of risk is worth the story. What is bravery, and what is bravado?
“Journalists covering combat shoulder great responsibilities and face difficult choices. Sometimes they pay the ultimate price. It has never been more dangerous to be a war correspondent, because the journalist in the combat zone has become a prime target."
She added: "Today we must also remember how important it is that news organisations continue to invest in sending us out at great cost, both financial and emotional, to cover stories."
The Reuters people whose names were read out at the 10 November service were: Harry Burton, Saeed Chmagh, Mazen Dana, Azizullah Haidari, Waleed Khaled, Adlan Khasanov, Hiro Muramoto, Dhia Najim, Namir Noor-Eldeen, Taras Protsyuk, Kurt Schork and Fadel Shana.
Photo: Samia Nakhoul (left) with the rector of St Bride's the Venerable David Meara, and television journalist Mark Austin.
● SOURCE Press Gazette
Thai forces may have killed Hiro Muramoto - investigators
Tuesday 16 November 2010
“Since there was possible involvement by government officers, we have to start from square one by letting police investigate further,” Tharit Pengdith, director general of the Department of Special Investigation, told a news conference.
Muramoto, 43, a Japanese journalist based in Tokyo, was killed by a high-velocity bullet that hit his chest while he was covering clashes between anti-government protesters and troops.
“I hope the investigation can be completed swiftly so that all who care deeply about Hiro Muramoto’s death can have clarity about what precisely happened, David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, said in a statement. “His family and colleagues need to know who was involved and what the circumstances were that led to this tragedy.”
Twenty-five people, mostly protesters, were killed and hundreds wounded on 10 April. Television footage showed Thai troops opening fire on protesters, while soldiers came under attack from grenades and black-clad gunmen moved among the demonstrators.
The DSI said Muramoto was among six people whose deaths will be further investigated because it was unclear if he was shot by security forces, protesters or unidentified “armed militants”.
A senior police official who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue told Reuters on Tuesday that Muramoto was likely caught in crossfire and there was a “high possibility” that he was shot by the security forces although the case remained inconclusive. “Given the line of fire and eyewitness accounts, there is a high possibility but this is in no way conclusive which is why we need further investigation,” the official said.
● SOURCE Reuters
Commentary service ends probe into staff share trading
Monday 25 October 2010
Reuters Breakingviews, the financial commentary service in the spotlight over its columnists’ potential conflicts of interest, has concluded its investigation and Reuters as a whole is reviewing its own procedures and training to minimise the chance of anything like it recurring, the editor of the service said on Monday.
Hugo Dixon said that, where necessary, appropriate action had been taken.
Columnist Neil Collins resigned recently after multiple breaches of the Thomson Reuters code of conduct on dealing in shares he wrote about.
“Reuters Breakingviews is more used to commenting on other organisations' behaviour than to having its own actions put under the microscope,” Dixon wrote in an online letter to subscribers. “But in the last week, as a result of retroactive disclaimers we made to a series of articles in order to clarify potential conflicts of interest, we have rightly been under scrutiny.”
He noted that Reuters' ● Handbook of Journalism forbids journalists from dealing in "securities about which they have written recently or about which they intend to write in the near future". It also requires them to notify their manager before writing about a company in which they have a financial interest. The purpose of these rules is to avoid actual or apparent conflicts of interest.
“Late last month, a journalist told one of our editors that he had acquired BP shares near their trough following the Gulf of Mexico blow-out. The columnist had written about BP around the time he bought the shares. After further inquiries, it emerged that he had traded in six other stocks (of which four involved taking up his rights in rights issues) within one month either side of writing about them. He also disclosed that he had written about another eight stocks in which he had a significant financial interest. In total, 15 stocks were affected and 39 stories were re-filed with disclaimers. Although we found no evidence that the columnist had abused his journalistic position for financial gain, we view this as a serious matter. The journalist resigned.”
All other Breakingviews columnists have been asked whether there were any potential conflicts of interest, Dixon said. As a result, stories by two columnists were re-filed with disclaimers. “In one, the journalist dealt in securities once within a month either side of writing about them, although the size of the investment was not significant. In the other, disclosure was made to the journalist's then-manager – complying with Reuters policy – but an inconsistent approach was taken in disclosing this to readers.”
The process is now concluded and, where necessary, appropriate action has been taken, Dixon said, adding: “Reuters as a whole is reviewing its own procedures and training to minimise the chance of anything like this recurring. In the meantime, Breakingviews will enforce the existing code vigorously.”
● SOURCE Reuters Breakingviews
Hugo Dixon said that, where necessary, appropriate action had been taken.
Columnist Neil Collins resigned recently after multiple breaches of the Thomson Reuters code of conduct on dealing in shares he wrote about.
“Reuters Breakingviews is more used to commenting on other organisations' behaviour than to having its own actions put under the microscope,” Dixon wrote in an online letter to subscribers. “But in the last week, as a result of retroactive disclaimers we made to a series of articles in order to clarify potential conflicts of interest, we have rightly been under scrutiny.”
He noted that Reuters' ● Handbook of Journalism forbids journalists from dealing in "securities about which they have written recently or about which they intend to write in the near future". It also requires them to notify their manager before writing about a company in which they have a financial interest. The purpose of these rules is to avoid actual or apparent conflicts of interest.
“Late last month, a journalist told one of our editors that he had acquired BP shares near their trough following the Gulf of Mexico blow-out. The columnist had written about BP around the time he bought the shares. After further inquiries, it emerged that he had traded in six other stocks (of which four involved taking up his rights in rights issues) within one month either side of writing about them. He also disclosed that he had written about another eight stocks in which he had a significant financial interest. In total, 15 stocks were affected and 39 stories were re-filed with disclaimers. Although we found no evidence that the columnist had abused his journalistic position for financial gain, we view this as a serious matter. The journalist resigned.”
All other Breakingviews columnists have been asked whether there were any potential conflicts of interest, Dixon said. As a result, stories by two columnists were re-filed with disclaimers. “In one, the journalist dealt in securities once within a month either side of writing about them, although the size of the investment was not significant. In the other, disclosure was made to the journalist's then-manager – complying with Reuters policy – but an inconsistent approach was taken in disclosing this to readers.”
The process is now concluded and, where necessary, appropriate action has been taken, Dixon said, adding: “Reuters as a whole is reviewing its own procedures and training to minimise the chance of anything like this recurring. In the meantime, Breakingviews will enforce the existing code vigorously.”
● SOURCE Reuters Breakingviews
Crossing the line at Reuters
Tuesday 19 October 2010
Reuters crossed a line when it started running comment on its news wire, a financial commentator said on Tuesday.
The blurring between fact and opinion undermines the credibility of the wire service, Daily Mail City editor Alex Brummer wrote in a commentary on Monday’s disclosure that columnist Neil Collins had resigned from Reuters Breakingviews over his share dealings ● [Reuters columnist quits after ‘multiple breaches’ of trading code].
“The big question which arises from the share dealing disclosures at Reuters Breakingviews is for the news agency itself,” Brummer wrote.
“Newspapers and broadcasters worldwide have long looked to Reuters and the other major news wires as a reliable sources of verifiable information.
“When Reuters started running comment on its news wire – mixed up with actual news reporting – it crossed a line.
“It deepened the error when it opted to buy Breakingviews and bring all the comment, including that by Neil Collins – one of Britain's respected financial wordsmiths, under one roof. The line between fact and comment was blurred.
“There was a clear case of this muddle last week when a Breakingviews journalist wrote a report suggesting that Barclays was looking at a new form of debt issue to augment its capital.
“Because this appeared on the Reuters wire it was taken as reliable information even though there was no verification from Barclays. This kind of blurring between fact and opinion undermines the credibility of the wire service.”
It was right that Reuters enforced its own disclosure code on share ownership and dealings, Brummer said. As soon as Collins became aware that he might have breached the code he did the honourable thing and resigned.
Brummer added that if Reuters' excursion into the world of comment were to be used as an excuse to bring the curtain down on the free exchange of information between journalists, financial firms and other actors in the markets that would be a serious misjudgement.
In the London Evening Standard, Simon English said Collins had paid a high price for ignoring his own advice to Daily Telegraph reporters about a decade ago about how not to fall foul of rules regarding journalists buying shares in companies they might find themselves writing about.
English added: “It would have been braver and more honourable of Reuters to have decided whether the journalist had done anything actually wrong (as opposed to something that infringes their awkward rules) before they hung him out to dry, but this was apparently beyond them.
“The idea, proposed by some, that financial journalists should be entirely banned from any share-dealing, seems absurd. The test for wrongdoing ought to be whether the editorial might move the share price.”
English said it was important that the Financial Services Authority, which should quickly satisfy itself that there was no wider case to answer, did not use the incident as an excuse to force through new rules regarding the passing of information between journalists and people in the City.
“One of the premier financial journalists of the age is paying a high price for a minor misdemeanour,” he added. “He needed to listen to his own advice more closely.”
● SOURCE Daily Mail | Evening Standard
The blurring between fact and opinion undermines the credibility of the wire service, Daily Mail City editor Alex Brummer wrote in a commentary on Monday’s disclosure that columnist Neil Collins had resigned from Reuters Breakingviews over his share dealings ● [Reuters columnist quits after ‘multiple breaches’ of trading code].
“The big question which arises from the share dealing disclosures at Reuters Breakingviews is for the news agency itself,” Brummer wrote.
“Newspapers and broadcasters worldwide have long looked to Reuters and the other major news wires as a reliable sources of verifiable information.
“When Reuters started running comment on its news wire – mixed up with actual news reporting – it crossed a line.
“It deepened the error when it opted to buy Breakingviews and bring all the comment, including that by Neil Collins – one of Britain's respected financial wordsmiths, under one roof. The line between fact and comment was blurred.
“There was a clear case of this muddle last week when a Breakingviews journalist wrote a report suggesting that Barclays was looking at a new form of debt issue to augment its capital.
“Because this appeared on the Reuters wire it was taken as reliable information even though there was no verification from Barclays. This kind of blurring between fact and opinion undermines the credibility of the wire service.”
It was right that Reuters enforced its own disclosure code on share ownership and dealings, Brummer said. As soon as Collins became aware that he might have breached the code he did the honourable thing and resigned.
Brummer added that if Reuters' excursion into the world of comment were to be used as an excuse to bring the curtain down on the free exchange of information between journalists, financial firms and other actors in the markets that would be a serious misjudgement.
In the London Evening Standard, Simon English said Collins had paid a high price for ignoring his own advice to Daily Telegraph reporters about a decade ago about how not to fall foul of rules regarding journalists buying shares in companies they might find themselves writing about.
English added: “It would have been braver and more honourable of Reuters to have decided whether the journalist had done anything actually wrong (as opposed to something that infringes their awkward rules) before they hung him out to dry, but this was apparently beyond them.
“The idea, proposed by some, that financial journalists should be entirely banned from any share-dealing, seems absurd. The test for wrongdoing ought to be whether the editorial might move the share price.”
English said it was important that the Financial Services Authority, which should quickly satisfy itself that there was no wider case to answer, did not use the incident as an excuse to force through new rules regarding the passing of information between journalists and people in the City.
“One of the premier financial journalists of the age is paying a high price for a minor misdemeanour,” he added. “He needed to listen to his own advice more closely.”
● SOURCE Daily Mail | Evening Standard
Reuters columnist quits after ‘multiple breaches’ of trading code
Monday 18 October 2010
Reuters did not identify any of the journalists involved but the Financial Times said Neil Collins, pictured, former City editor of The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times and the London Evening Standard, had volunteered his resignation after realising he had breached the company’s rules guiding journalists’ conduct.
"While we have no evidence the journalist was abusing his position for financial gain, we take such breaches extremely seriously and that journalist resigned with immediate effect during our investigation," editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said in a note to staff on Monday.
He added that several other cases had come to light as a result of questioning Reuters Breakingviews staff where disclosures to readers or managers could or should have been made. Investigations continue.
“A fundamental foundation of our principles is that we avoid conflicts of interest in our reporting and that we are honest and transparent with our readers when those conflicts occur,” Schlesinger’s e-mail said, according to The Guardian.
Thomson Reuters’ ● code on disclosing financial conflicts forbids journalists from writing about shares they own unless they notify their interest to their manager and from dealing in shares about which they have written recently or intend to write in the near future.
Schlesinger said it was vital that everyone looked to their own market participation to be sure they complied with the spirit and the letter of the rules. “This is about our compact with our readers; it is about our individual reputations; and it is about ensuring that Reuters and Thomson Reuters live up to the standards set both by our long, proud history and our Trust Principles,” he added.
The FT said Thomson Reuters had identified 37 articles published between February 2009 and July 2010 in which columnists wrote about companies in which they held shares, and 16 articles in which journalists wrote about companies before or after trading in their shares.
Schlesinger said the columnist wrote commentary about companies in which he had a financial interest and made trades shortly afterwards. The code of conduct forbids journalists from writing about shares they own unless they notify their interest to their manager and from dealing in shares about which they have written recently or intend to write in the near future.
Breakingviews will be adding a disclaimer to all relevant archived columns to say whether the commentators held shares in the companies at the time and if they traded them shortly before or after publication. For example, on 25 May Collins wrote a column headed “Time for BP to share the pain”. According to the refiled version of the article, he owned shares in BP when he wrote the piece and bought shares shortly before and after.
The FT said that in an e-mail to Hugo Dixon, editor of Breakingviews, Collins said he had made no attempt to conceal his activities from his colleagues, and had voluntarily contacted Reuters as soon as he realised he might be in breach of the company’s rules.
“I am saddened and embarrassed by my breaches of the rules and hope that you will shortly be able to draw a line under this unfortunate episode,” he wrote.
Collins was hired by Reuters in the spring of 2009 to join its original commentary team. Thomson Reuters acquired Breakingviews for £12 million last December and the two teams were merged.
● SOURCE Reuters | Financial Times | The Guardian | Breakingviews | The New York Times
Reuters and IHT launch new Mideast supplement
Wednesday 29 September 2010
The first four-page issue of Middle East with Reuters, to be published on Thursday, will contain regional news, opinion and coverage of culture.
It will draw on the output of more than 200 Reuters journalists who cover the Middle East at a local and international level. Over the last 18 months, Reuters has recruited dozens of new journalists to its Middle East bureaus, doubling the amount of original Arabic-language news it produces.
IHT publisher Stephen Dunbar-Johnson said: "We are excited to be expanding our collaboration with Reuters to provide even more analysis and fresh insight for our readers in the Middle East. There is a thirst here for the IHT's brand of high quality, independent journalism as reflected in our growing circulation numbers." The IHT has a new regional headquarters in Dubai.
● SOURCE The Guardian
Peter Millar spills the beans on secrets of Berlin
Tuesday 24 August 2010
Quoting excerpts from his highly-regarded book 1989 The Berlin Wall: My Part in its Downfall, he spoke in the Pepper Theatre about the realities of life in a society where surveillance of the individual was the norm, though he did point out that not all was gloom and doom.
“Of course, people were poor,” he said. “But there was pretty general acceptance of that because everyone was poor.”
One example of the surveillance he endured exposed the attention the Stasi secret police gave to his movements. After the fall of the wall Millar obtained access to his Stasi records which gave details of the watch on the flat where he lived and which also served as the Reuter office. One day’s Stasi report showed that a car with two occupants parked outside the flat at 7 am. An initial complaint that Millar and his wife were late risers was followed by an almost minute by minute account of their activities, including such minute details as that his wife carried a bag when they left the flat, that they went to a store and returned to the flat with packages. The final report was timed at 7 pm when the car left.
“This left us free to go to the neighbouring pub for an evening drink without being followed,” Millar said.
After the fall of the wall, Reuters had the flat scanned for “bugs” and found 37 microphones buried in the walls. They also found that the adjoining flat was not a residence but a Stasi listening post.
East Berlin was the first assignment for Millar after completing Reuters’ graduate training course. He was unmarried and awaiting the arrival of his fiancée, a fact that enabled him to escape the “honey trap” familiar to almost every foreign correspondent in Eastern Europe at that period.
“The staff, supplied by the authorities, included a very dishy young blonde cleaner,” he said. “She collared me one day and said: “Your predecessor. We lived together like man and wife.”
It was noteworthy, Millar said, that after my fiancée arrived and we married that the enticing blonde was replaced by a considerably older cleaner. Millar refused to name his predecessor but under pressure from the chairman said: “He went on to become head of ITN. You can work it out.”
Photo: Peter Millar c1983
● REVIEW 1989 The Berlin Wall: My Part in its Downfall
CPJ calls for Thai government action on slain TV cameraman
Thursday 29 July 2010
Hiro Muramoto, pictured shortly before he was killed, was one of two journalists who died during armed confrontations between security forces and "red shirt" anti-government protesters over nine weeks in April and May. The other was Fabio Polenghi, an Italian freelance photographer. Nine other reporters and photographers were injured.
Both sides claimed to have exercised restraint in the clashes, in which at least 90 people were killed and more than 1,800 injured. The Thai government has done little to bring anyone to account, the CPJ said on Thursday.
The New York-based journalist safety watchdog said that in several instances troops fired in a random manner into crowds of apparently unarmed demonstrators, frequently in areas where reporters were present. Journalists’ news reports and interviews with CPJ also highlighted the presence of heavily armed, black-clad protesters who fired gunshots and launched grenades at troops deployed in areas where journalists were positioned.
"Preliminary government investigations into the violence have been incomplete and opaque, as have the autopsies of the two journalist victims, CPJ has found. Private investigations launched by concerned news organizations, foreign embassies, and family members of the deceased have been obstructed or denied access to key information in the government’s possession. Thus far, no one has been brought to account for the killings and the other critical injuries."
The CPJ said a recently completed private investigation commissioned by Reuters has moved more swiftly despite official obstruction, according to people familiar with the situation.
Muramoto, 43, based in Tokyo, was shot and killed while covering the first armed clashes on 10 April. "While positioned with the military that evening, Muramoto had captured on film a grenade attack that had killed and severely wounded a number of troops,” the CPJ said. “He was later seen on the side of the protesters, four of whom were photographed by the local Daily News newspaper carrying his limp body away from the frontlines at around 9 p.m.
"Reuters’ investigation, which drew on information from two unnamed eyewitnesses, found that Muramoto 'was shot almost certainly by a high velocity bullet fired at street level while standing in a street between Thai troops and red shirt protesters.’ A summary reviewed by CPJ said that Muramoto 'was not shot at close range' and that 'both troops and protesters had high velocity weapons at the time of Hiro’s death and there were casualties on both sides that night'."
The CPJ said those findings contradict earlier government suggestions that Muramoto may have been shot from above by a sniper positioned on a nearby rooftop. What remains unclear, however, is which direction the fatal bullet was fired, according to Reuters’ Bangkok bureau chief Jason Szep.
"An initial government autopsy revealed only that a bullet fired from a high velocity rifle entered under Muramoto’s right armpit and exited through his back. The veteran reporter most likely died from massive internal bleeding and his pulse had already stopped when he arrived at the hospital, according to Szep,” the CPJ said.
"The bullet, which if found would carry important clues in determining whether Muramoto was shot by troops or protesters, has not been recovered – or least not made available for inspection to outside investigators, according to people familiar with the situation.
“'Our initial concern was that he was targeted,' Szep said, referring to his bureau’s original fear that Muramoto may have taken footage perceived as sensitive by one side. 'Now, we don’t think he was. All signs point to him being at the wrong place at the wrong time at a very dangerous moment.'"
A CPJ source familiar with one private investigation into Muramoto’s death claimed that the government is “dragging its feet” in finalizing the results of its forensic investigation. He noted that a Bangkok Post report published in late April quoted a forensics official saying that Muramoto was most likely killed by a soldier’s bullet. As of July, the government still had not released the full results of the official autopsy.
Among a series of recommendations the CPJ called on the government of Thailand to complete the official autopsy and police investigation into the death of Muramoto. Where criminal liability is found, file charges and prosecute the perpetrators. Where military forces acted outside accepted standards, subject the individuals to military discipline. It also urged the government to cooperate with independent investigations probing the circumstances surrounding the killing and wounding of journalists. Where no legal impediments exist, disclose the results of official autopsies and police investigations. Make available all closed circuit television footage and other relevant forensic evidence now in the government's possession.
● SOURCE CPJ
US charges soldier over leaked video of killings in Iraq
Wednesday 07 July 2010
The US military has charged a soldier in connection with the leak of a classified video showing a helicopter attack that killed two Reuters news staff and ten other people in Baghdad.
Bradley Manning, 22, faces two criminal counts including allegations he disclosed classified national defence information, exceeded his authorised access to US computers and transferred classified data onto his personal computer, the military said in a statement on Tuesday. The charges were brought under the military code of justice and could result in a trial by court martial.
Manning, a US Army specialist, was deployed to Baghdad and was held in pre-trial confinement in Kuwait, US officials said when they announced a month ago that he had been detained.
The gunsight video, which shows an attack by an Apache helicopter on a group of men in a square in Baghdad, was made public in April by WikiLeaks, an Internet group that promotes the leaking of information to fight government and corporate corruption.
Photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40, were among those killed in the attack.
The leaked video showed an aerial view of men moving through a square in Baghdad. The helicopter opened fire, killing several people and wounding others. A military spokesman said the helicopter crew mistook a camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. The video also showed the helicopter opening fire on a van carrying unarmed civilians who tried to help those wounded in the first burst of fire.
WikiLeaks said at the time it had obtained the video from military whistleblowers and had been able to view and investigate it after breaking an encryption code.
● SOURCE Reuters
Bradley Manning, 22, faces two criminal counts including allegations he disclosed classified national defence information, exceeded his authorised access to US computers and transferred classified data onto his personal computer, the military said in a statement on Tuesday. The charges were brought under the military code of justice and could result in a trial by court martial.
Manning, a US Army specialist, was deployed to Baghdad and was held in pre-trial confinement in Kuwait, US officials said when they announced a month ago that he had been detained.
The gunsight video, which shows an attack by an Apache helicopter on a group of men in a square in Baghdad, was made public in April by WikiLeaks, an Internet group that promotes the leaking of information to fight government and corporate corruption.
Photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40, were among those killed in the attack.
The leaked video showed an aerial view of men moving through a square in Baghdad. The helicopter opened fire, killing several people and wounding others. A military spokesman said the helicopter crew mistook a camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. The video also showed the helicopter opening fire on a van carrying unarmed civilians who tried to help those wounded in the first burst of fire.
WikiLeaks said at the time it had obtained the video from military whistleblowers and had been able to view and investigate it after breaking an encryption code.
● SOURCE Reuters
CNN drops AP, resumes using Reuters
Monday 21 June 2010
The Cable News Network’s president Jim Walton, in a memo to staff, said that starting immediately CNN itself would be the "primary source of all content for all of our platforms and services". He said CNN had entered into a new deal with Reuters to supplement its breaking news coverage. A Thomson Reuters spokeswoman confirmed the arrangement, which re-establishes some ties after CNN and Reuters ended a long-term partnership in 2007.
CNN's decision to drop AP's pictures, articles and video came after the two organisations failed to reach a new licensing agreement. "It is unfortunate that CNN's viewers will no longer have access to the breaking news and worldwide reporting resources of The Associated Press," AP spokesman Paul Colford said.
CNN announced in 2008 that it planned to distribute its own content, its first step in pulling back from its reliance on wire services. Walton said in Monday's memo that CNN is launching an aggregation and distribution service called CNN Share for its editorial content.
● SOURCE Reuters
David Schlesinger: What I want from the Pentagon
Wednesday 21 April 2010
The editor-in-chief wrote in The Guardian about a growing furore over a recently leaked video of the deaths of Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh in Iraq three years ago. His article, published under the headline “War journalists have a right to safety”, follows in full:
When Wikileaks published the harrowing video of the deaths in Iraq of my colleagues Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, the world finally had the transparency it should have had about this tragedy.
It was impossible for me to watch and not feel outrage and great sorrow – but this is not about trying to tell anyone else what to feel. This is about trying to find out exactly what happened and how to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
What I want from the Pentagon – and from all militaries – is simple: Acknowledgment, transparency, accountability.
Acknowledgment means both understanding at headquarters and training in the field that journalists have a right to be on the battlefield, and not just those embedded with a military unit. A journalist’s mission is to provide understanding, provide context and provide the reporting that citizens deserve. That mission requires journalists cover the story from multiple angles, including ones that potentially put them in harm’s way. A war prosecuted in darkness is a war without accountability. The journalist’s role is vital for a democracy and it must be acknowledged.
Then, there must be acknowledgment that true journalists come in every race, both sexes and a multitude of nationalities. Within Reuters, our 2,800 journalists come from 80 different nationalities. They all have a right to safety.
As too many tragic deaths, including those of Namir and Saeed, have proven, soldiers in tense warfare repeatedly mistake cameras and tripods for weapons. They’re not. There must be a way of training soldiers to distinguish the forms. It is imperative to have the consciousness that the shape in the scope might not be a threat.
Transparency is vital. This is the honesty for all to learn lessons from what has transpired. Soon after the incident, Reuters editors were shown only one portion of the video. We immediately changed our operating procedures – the first portion of the video made clear that anyone walking with a group of armed people could be considered a target. We immediately made it a rule that our journalists could not even walk near armed groups.
However, we were not shown the second part of the video, where the helicopter fired on a van trying to evacuate the wounded. Had we seen it, we could have adjusted our procedures further.
Transparency saves lives.
We have been trying for more than two and a half years to get this video from the military through formal legal means without success and in fact have an appeal to their last denial of our request still pending; now it transpires that officials who repeatedly told us that what the video contained was important enough for security reasons to withhold it from us, made no efforts to secure it and weren’t even clear where it was. It took a whistleblower to make sure the world had the transparency it needed and deserved.
I want the Pentagon to join me in a search for thorough and complete transparency.
Finally there is accountability. There are rules of war as there are in peace. The lack of transparency has meant there’s been absence of accountability.
Let’s dig behind the video. Let’s fully understand the rules the military were operating under. Let’s have a complete picture of what was going through the fliers’ minds. Let’s hear the Pentagon explain its interpretation of the rules of engagement and the Geneva Convention and how the actions either did or did not accord with them in its view. And importantly, let’s keep in mind that while we focus on this particular tragedy, it is the rare circumstance that when a journalist is injured or killed in a conflict area, there is a video of the death, and even more rare as this case demonstrates, for the public to see such a video.
And then let’s have the debate. Seeing the hundreds of articles and thousands of comments in the wake of the video’s release, it’s clear that people on every side of the issue have strong feelings. Let’s have a debate based on fact and not on emotion.
Acceptance, transparency and accountability – these add up to true justice. And that, in the end, is what I am after. I want justice for the journalists who lost their lives.
Justice is not vengeance. Justice is about holding all to account to make sure that proper lessons are learned, that mistakes aren’t repeated and that tragedies don’t happen again.
● SOURCE The Guardian | Reuters Editors
Funeral of Hiroyuki Muramoto
Sunday 18 April 2010
"We never want such a tragedy to occur again," editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said at the service, pictured, adding that seven minutes of video recorded before Muramoto was shot in the chest on 10 April had shown his sense of mission.
In Facebook postings, Schlesinger said it was an extraordinary funeral – “the Reuters family was never more in evidence as friends and colleagues from around the world gathered with his family”. A wake on Saturday evening was “sad, dignified, special”, he said.
A compilation of news footage shot by Muramoto during his 15-year Reuters career was screened at the service.
● SOURCE MSN News/Agence France-Presse
Reuters boycotts Cannes film festival launch
Wednesday 14 April 2010
Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Getty Images have agreed to boycott the launch, considered critical to gaining worldwide profile for the event as the film line-up is revealed. Hundreds of media clients rely on feeds from the agencies.
News agencies are protesting against restrictions on coverage, access and usage of video linked to a contract between the Cannes film festival and French broadcaster Canal Plus and pay-TV service Orange.
"Reuters will not cover the Cannes press conference tomorrow because of the unfair restrictions being placed on coverage," said Christoph Pleitgen, global head of news agency for Thomson Reuters, pictured. "We invite the rights holders and organisers to clearly spell out the suggested terms and look forward to a constructive discussion."
The festival runs from 12 to 23 May. The news agencies have told clients they may be forced to suspend their presence at the festival altogether if agreement cannot be reached.
● SOURCE The Guardian
Pentagon chief hits back over leaked attack video
Tuesday 13 April 2010
US defence secretary Robert Gates criticised the Internet group WikiLeaks on Tuesday for releasing a video showing a helicopter attack that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff, in Baghdad.
Gates, who said on Sunday that the video was painful to see, said today there was no context explaining the situation. "These people can put out anything they want, and they're never held accountable for it. There's no before and there's no after."
The Reuters people killed in the attack were photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40.
Images in the US Army Apache helicopter gunsight video of the 12 July 2007 attack and recorded crew conversation have caused shock since its release on 5 April. Some international law and human rights experts say the crew may have acted illegally.
The US military said an investigation shortly after the incident found American forces were unaware of the presence of news staff and thought they were engaging armed insurgents, mistaking a camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
Referring to civilian casualties, Gates said "We take these things seriously".
WikiLeaks promotes leaks to fight government and corporate corruption. It said it obtained the encrypted video from military whistleblowers.
The website disputed Gates' contention the video failed to provide context. In an e-mail, it accused the US military of making "numerous false or misleading statements," including the contention there was an active firefight between US forces and those killed.
"Classified records which we will shortly release show that there was a report of small arms fire at 9:50 a.m., somewhere in the suburb of New Baghdad, shooter and location UNIDENTIFIED. There is no reference to U.S. forces having been hit by the fire. The same records report that at 10:18, 28 minutes later, the crowd was seen and the killing commenced."
● SOURCE Reuters
Gates, who said on Sunday that the video was painful to see, said today there was no context explaining the situation. "These people can put out anything they want, and they're never held accountable for it. There's no before and there's no after."
The Reuters people killed in the attack were photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40.
Images in the US Army Apache helicopter gunsight video of the 12 July 2007 attack and recorded crew conversation have caused shock since its release on 5 April. Some international law and human rights experts say the crew may have acted illegally.
The US military said an investigation shortly after the incident found American forces were unaware of the presence of news staff and thought they were engaging armed insurgents, mistaking a camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
Referring to civilian casualties, Gates said "We take these things seriously".
WikiLeaks promotes leaks to fight government and corporate corruption. It said it obtained the encrypted video from military whistleblowers.
The website disputed Gates' contention the video failed to provide context. In an e-mail, it accused the US military of making "numerous false or misleading statements," including the contention there was an active firefight between US forces and those killed.
"Classified records which we will shortly release show that there was a report of small arms fire at 9:50 a.m., somewhere in the suburb of New Baghdad, shooter and location UNIDENTIFIED. There is no reference to U.S. forces having been hit by the fire. The same records report that at 10:18, 28 minutes later, the crowd was seen and the killing commenced."
● SOURCE Reuters
Newsrooms fall silent in honour of slain cameraman
Monday 12 April 2010
Based in Tokyo, he had arrived in Thailand on Thursday. He was shot in the chest while covering clashes in the Thai capital between anti-government "red shirt" protesters and security forces. The bullet passed through him and exited his back. The picture shows him working on Saturday only hours before he was shot.
Muramoto, 43, had worked for Reuters since 1992, first as a freelance cameraman before becoming a full-time employee in 1995.
His wife Emiko and other family members arrived in Bangkok late on Sunday night and on Monday were taken to the hospital where Muramoto's body lies. A note written by her during the flight from Tokyo was read by a Reuters colleague on her behalf. It said: "It is a great shame that Muramoto could not come home with his usual smile. It happened all of a sudden, and I am at a loss as to what to do. In the eyes of our family, he was the best husband and father.”
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger, in a message to staff, linked the death of Muramoto to the newly leaked video of the 2007 deaths of Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh in Iraq and said he was devastated.
Japan bureau chief Rodney Joyce told staff: "This is a time to support each other and grieve. Our thoughts are with Hiro and his family. Yes, there are many questions and efforts are being made to answer them. We will keep you informed as best we can."
Muramoto’s camera was returned to Reuters by the protesters. Seven minutes of footage shot by him show how a scrappy street protest turned lethal. The footage starts behind army lines, with soldiers framed by the Democracy Monument, scene of Bangkok's worst street violence in 1992 near the Phan Fah Bridge in the city's old quarter. Soldiers in full riot gear are standing with their rifles pointing in the air. There is the continuous sound of gunfire. One soldier glances at Muramoto twice in a nervous but non-threatening way. Then an explosion just yards in front of where Muramoto is standing sends at least four soldiers to the ground in a spray of sparks and smoke. Two get up and limp away. Another television cameraman runs frantically into Muramoto and past him. Soldiers carrying riot shields jostle into him as they, too, get away. Muramoto, walking slowly backwards, keeps filming.
The camera focuses on a soldier lying on the ground with a bloody wound to the neck. Colleagues undo his flak jacket. In the next frame, troops drag a soldier, obviously in pain, by the arms, his rifle scuffling along the road alongside him. Another motionless body is dragged away. The camera focuses on a trail of blood on the tarmac that shines in the street lights under the banners celebrating this week's Songkran festival, one of the happiest holidays in the Thai calendar. The soldiers retreat and suddenly the camera angle changes to show the red shirt ranks. Most are carrying sticks and some are wielding shields apparently taken from the soldiers. Many are waving, beckoning someone from behind the camera.
Some are frantically talking to soldiers, others are throwing objects in the air, one of which catches bunting overhead and falls harmlessly to the ground. No one in sight is paying any attention to the camera, which keeps rolling. But it is around this point, at an intersection, that TV footage from other sources show gunmen on the run, dressed not in red shirts or green army fatigues, but in black and dark civilian clothes.
The Thai government has talked of a "third force" involved in the protests and has promised to investigate the circumstances surrounding Muramoto's death.
Muramoto was active in charity projects and in 2008 and 2009 participated in an event that entails walking 100 kilometres of mountain trails in two days in areas surrounding Mount Fuji to raise money for impoverished communities in Africa. He had planned to return to Japan on 22 April to take part in this year's event due to begin the following day.
The entire Thomson Reuters group is to observe a minute's silence on Tuesday.
Schlesinger, in his e-mail, said Muramoto died for the story. "That is not a price we ever want to pay.
"There is no more important cause for us as a company and for us as professionals than journalistic safety.
"To have Hiro die just after we watched on the newly leaked video the 2007 deaths of our colleagues Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh is devastating to me; I’m sure most of you feel similar emotions.
"We know that covering the story forces us to rush towards danger when others rush away. We know that death can come from anywhere. We know how dangerous the places we cover are.
"Yet, we’re never prepared for the dreadful reality when a colleague loses his life. Nor should we be. Nor should we ever just accept it.
"If death is caused by military action, then we must work tirelessly to influence the generals and the civilians who command them to recognise the vital work journalists do, to provide full investigations and transparency whenever tragedies occur, and to enable true justice and accountability.
"If death occurs in the midst of chaotic rioting, then we must strive to review our procedures and training again to make sure we are doing absolutely everything we can to make the dangerous work safe.
"Our mission as journalists is to tell the story.
"Our mission as a company is to make sure our journalists can tell that story safely.
"This is a time of great sadness. But it is also a time of great resolve to redouble our efforts for journalist safety throughout the world."
● SOURCE Reuters | Global News Journal | David Schlesinger
Attack video painful to watch, Pentagon chief admits
Sunday 11 April 2010
Video showing US Army helicopters killing two Reuters news staff and 10 other people is painful to watch but a military investigation into the attack was very thorough, US defence secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.
"It's unfortunate. It's clearly not helpful. But by the same token, I think – think it should not have any lasting consequences," Gates said. The US forces involved were in combat and were operating in split-second situations, he said in Washington on the ABC News television programme This Week.
The Reuters people killed in the 12 July 2007 attack were photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40.
The graphic helicopter gunsight video of the attack has been viewed around the world on the Internet since its release on Monday by WikiLeaks, a website which promotes leaks to fight government and corporate corruption. WikiLeaks said it obtained the encrypted video from military whistleblowers.
Some international law and human rights experts say the Apache helicopter crew may have acted illegally. Many have been shocked by the images and some of the fliers' comments on the video. Amnesty International called on Wednesday for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the incident.
"It's obviously a hard thing to see. It's painful to see, especially when you learn after the fact what was going on. But you – you talked about the fog of war. These people were operating in split-second situations," Gates said.
The US military said an investigation shortly after the incident found that US forces were unaware of the presence of news staff and thought they were engaging armed insurgents, mistaking a camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
"We've investigated it very thoroughly," Gates said. The military's central command said last week it had no plans to open a new investigation.
David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, said: "I urge the secretary of defence to meet with me to help ensure a tragedy like this never happens again. We need to have transparency, accountability and an acknowledgment of the vital role journalists play in telling the story of war."
● SOURCE Reuters
"It's unfortunate. It's clearly not helpful. But by the same token, I think – think it should not have any lasting consequences," Gates said. The US forces involved were in combat and were operating in split-second situations, he said in Washington on the ABC News television programme This Week.
The Reuters people killed in the 12 July 2007 attack were photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40.
The graphic helicopter gunsight video of the attack has been viewed around the world on the Internet since its release on Monday by WikiLeaks, a website which promotes leaks to fight government and corporate corruption. WikiLeaks said it obtained the encrypted video from military whistleblowers.
Some international law and human rights experts say the Apache helicopter crew may have acted illegally. Many have been shocked by the images and some of the fliers' comments on the video. Amnesty International called on Wednesday for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the incident.
"It's obviously a hard thing to see. It's painful to see, especially when you learn after the fact what was going on. But you – you talked about the fog of war. These people were operating in split-second situations," Gates said.
The US military said an investigation shortly after the incident found that US forces were unaware of the presence of news staff and thought they were engaging armed insurgents, mistaking a camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
"We've investigated it very thoroughly," Gates said. The military's central command said last week it had no plans to open a new investigation.
David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, said: "I urge the secretary of defence to meet with me to help ensure a tragedy like this never happens again. We need to have transparency, accountability and an acknowledgment of the vital role journalists play in telling the story of war."
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters journalist killed in Bangkok street clashes
Saturday 10 April 2010
"I am dreadfully saddened to have lost our colleague Hiro Muramoto in the Bangkok clashes," said David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief.
"Journalism can be a terribly dangerous profession as those who try to tell the world the story thrust themselves in the centre of the action. The entire Reuters family will mourn this tragedy."
Tokyo-based Muramoto, 43, had been covering fighting between troops and protesters in the Rajdumnoen Road area where soldiers opened fire with rubber bullets and tear gas, as well as live rounds into the air, in Bangkok's worst political violence in 18 years.
He was shot in the chest and arrived at Klang Hospital without a pulse. The hospital's director, Dr Pichaya Nakwatchara, said the bullet had exited his back.
An army spokesman said protesters were armed with guns and had been throwing petrol bombs and grenades at troops.
At least 521 people, including 64 soldiers and police, were wounded in the fighting near the Phan Fah bridge and Rajdumnoen Road in Bangkok's old quarter, a protest base near government buildings and the regional UN headquarters.
Four civilians and four soldiers were killed, deputy governor of Bangkok Malinee Sukavrejworakit said.
After the shooting all Reuters staff covering the violence were taken off the streets pending a reassessment of the situation on the ground.
Muramoto, pictured, had worked for Reuters in Tokyo for more than 15 years. He was married with two children.
● SOURCE Reuters
No new probe into killing of Reuters news staff - US military
Wednesday 07 April 2010
The US military's Central Command said on Wednesday it has no current plans to reopen an investigation into a helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.
The two Reuters staff killed in the 2007 attack were photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40.
The graphic helicopter gunsight video of the attack has been widely viewed around the world on the Internet since its release on Monday by the group WikiLeaks. The footage includes an audio track of the conversation between the helicopter crew. Many who have seen it have been shocked at the images and at some of the fliers' comments.
International law and human rights experts who have watched the leaked video – obtained from military whistleblowers – say the Apache helicopter crew in the footage may have acted illegally.
Two US military officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity that lawyers at Central Command have been reviewing the hitherto secret video, which was revealed on Monday by a group that promotes leaking to fight government and corporate corruption.
"We're looking at a reinvestigation because of a question of the rules of engagement. Were all the actions that are depicted on that video in parallel with the rules of engagement in effect at the time?" one of the officials said.
But Rear Admiral Hal Pittman, director of communications at Central Command, said in a statement to Reuters: "Central Command has no current plans to reinvestigate or review this combat action."
Other officials said Central Command was seeking to play down its role in determining whether to reopen the case because the unit involved was no longer based in Iraq, shifting the onus to Army and Pentagon leaders to make the decision.
Detailed rules of engagement are generally kept classified to avoid tipping off adversaries about tactics on the battlefield, Pentagon officials said.
David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, said: "I would welcome a thorough new investigation. Reuters from the start has called for transparency and an objective inquiry so that all can learn lessons from this tragedy."
The US military has said an investigation of the incident shortly after it occurred found that US forces were not aware of the presence of the news staffers and thought they were engaging armed insurgents, mistaking a camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
Human rights lawyers and other experts who have viewed the footage say they are concerned about how the helicopter fliers operated, particularly in opening fire on a van that arrived on the scene after the initial attack and whose occupants began trying to help the wounded.
Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British army officer who has conducted war zone investigations, said knowing what rules of engagement the pilots were operating under was critical to understanding whether they had acted appropriately.
But firing on those who came to help the wounded appeared to be a breach of the laws governing military conduct in war, he said. "That is the element that is blatant. That is against all humanitarian law and the rules of conflict – most definitely and without a doubt," he told Reuters.
Amnesty International called on Wednesday for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the incident.
● SOURCE Reuters
The two Reuters staff killed in the 2007 attack were photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40.
The graphic helicopter gunsight video of the attack has been widely viewed around the world on the Internet since its release on Monday by the group WikiLeaks. The footage includes an audio track of the conversation between the helicopter crew. Many who have seen it have been shocked at the images and at some of the fliers' comments.
International law and human rights experts who have watched the leaked video – obtained from military whistleblowers – say the Apache helicopter crew in the footage may have acted illegally.
Two US military officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity that lawyers at Central Command have been reviewing the hitherto secret video, which was revealed on Monday by a group that promotes leaking to fight government and corporate corruption.
"We're looking at a reinvestigation because of a question of the rules of engagement. Were all the actions that are depicted on that video in parallel with the rules of engagement in effect at the time?" one of the officials said.
But Rear Admiral Hal Pittman, director of communications at Central Command, said in a statement to Reuters: "Central Command has no current plans to reinvestigate or review this combat action."
Other officials said Central Command was seeking to play down its role in determining whether to reopen the case because the unit involved was no longer based in Iraq, shifting the onus to Army and Pentagon leaders to make the decision.
Detailed rules of engagement are generally kept classified to avoid tipping off adversaries about tactics on the battlefield, Pentagon officials said.
David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, said: "I would welcome a thorough new investigation. Reuters from the start has called for transparency and an objective inquiry so that all can learn lessons from this tragedy."
The US military has said an investigation of the incident shortly after it occurred found that US forces were not aware of the presence of the news staffers and thought they were engaging armed insurgents, mistaking a camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
Human rights lawyers and other experts who have viewed the footage say they are concerned about how the helicopter fliers operated, particularly in opening fire on a van that arrived on the scene after the initial attack and whose occupants began trying to help the wounded.
Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British army officer who has conducted war zone investigations, said knowing what rules of engagement the pilots were operating under was critical to understanding whether they had acted appropriately.
But firing on those who came to help the wounded appeared to be a breach of the laws governing military conduct in war, he said. "That is the element that is blatant. That is against all humanitarian law and the rules of conflict – most definitely and without a doubt," he told Reuters.
Amnesty International called on Wednesday for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the incident.
● SOURCE Reuters
IFJ urges Obama to probe US killing of Reuters news staff
Wednesday 07 April 2010
The International Federation of Journalists has called on President Barack Obama to open a fresh investigation into the actions of the US Army, which has been implicated in killings of journalists in Iraq.
It follows the release on Monday of graphic video footage showing a US helicopter attack on civilians, including two Reuters news staffers, photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and driver Saeed Chmagh.
"This is evidence of calculated, cold-blooded and horrifying violence," said Jim Boumelha, IFJ president. "The United States cannot ignore this atrocity and the killings of unarmed civilians. We insist on a completely new review of these and all the killings of journalists and media staff in the Iraq conflict."
The July 2007 attack was filmed from an Apache helicopter flying over Baghdad. The video was released by WikiLeaks, a US website, which decrypted a version obtained from military whistleblowers.
The IFJ said it reignites the controversy over American military attacks on journalists during the conflict, which were highlighted on 8 April 2003 when US forces fired on Baghdad's Palestine Hotel killing Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian cameraman working for Reuters, and José Couso of the Telecinco network in Spain. Earlier that day US forces attacked the offices of Al-Jazeera in Baghdad, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub.
“Altogether there have been 19 unexplained killings of media staff at the hands of US soldiers,” said Boumelha. “The administration of Barack Obama cannot duck its responsibility to set aside the white-wash of self-exonerating reporting by the US army. Justice requires that there is no impunity and that the US military is held to account for its actions in Iraq.”
The Brussels-based IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 125 countries.
● SOURCE International Federation of Journalists
It follows the release on Monday of graphic video footage showing a US helicopter attack on civilians, including two Reuters news staffers, photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and driver Saeed Chmagh.
"This is evidence of calculated, cold-blooded and horrifying violence," said Jim Boumelha, IFJ president. "The United States cannot ignore this atrocity and the killings of unarmed civilians. We insist on a completely new review of these and all the killings of journalists and media staff in the Iraq conflict."
The July 2007 attack was filmed from an Apache helicopter flying over Baghdad. The video was released by WikiLeaks, a US website, which decrypted a version obtained from military whistleblowers.
The IFJ said it reignites the controversy over American military attacks on journalists during the conflict, which were highlighted on 8 April 2003 when US forces fired on Baghdad's Palestine Hotel killing Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian cameraman working for Reuters, and José Couso of the Telecinco network in Spain. Earlier that day US forces attacked the offices of Al-Jazeera in Baghdad, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub.
“Altogether there have been 19 unexplained killings of media staff at the hands of US soldiers,” said Boumelha. “The administration of Barack Obama cannot duck its responsibility to set aside the white-wash of self-exonerating reporting by the US army. Justice requires that there is no impunity and that the US military is held to account for its actions in Iraq.”
The Brussels-based IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 125 countries.
● SOURCE International Federation of Journalists
Thomson Reuters seeks Pentagon meeting over slayings
Tuesday 06 April 2010
Namir Noor-Eldeen, photographer, and Saeed Chmagh, driver, died in a burst of cannon fire from a US Army Apache attack helicopter over Baghdad on 12 July 2007.
A classified military video recording of the killings as seen through the helicopter gunsight was released on Monday by the website WikiLeaks, which said it obtained the encrypted footage from military whistleblowers. The Pentagon confirmed its authenticity. WikiLeaks called it a case of “collateral murder”.
The video shows a US Army Apache repeatedly opening fire on a group of men that included Noor-Eldeen, 22, and Chmagh, 40, and then on a van that stopped to rescue one of the wounded men. None of the members of the group were taking hostile action, contrary to the US Defence Department’s initial cover story.
Schlesinger told staff there was no better evidence of the dangers each and every journalist in a war zone faces at any time.
"We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the men and women of Reuters news who put themselves on the front line to tell the story; we mourn and remember each of our colleagues who has died – our books of remembrance that we keep in our main offices are grim reminders of the sacrifices too many have made over the many decades and many conflicts."
It is impossible to watch and listen to the video dispassionately, Schlesinger said. "I struggle with my emotions the way I’m sure many of you struggle as well," he added.
"I believe that we as an organization and I as an individual must fight for journalists’ safety. I will continue to campaign for better training for the military – to help as much as possible to teach the difference in form between a camera and an rpg or between a tripod and a weapon. I will continue to press for thorough and objective investigations. I will continue to insist that governments the world over recognize the rights of journalists to do their jobs. I will continue to ensure that our rules and operating procedures are the safest in the industry.
"In this particular case, Tom Glocer and I want to meet with the Pentagon to press the need to learn lessons from this tragedy.
"These stories are not easy for us to report or to be involved in. They test our commitment to viewing events and actions objectively.
"What matters in the end is not how we as colleagues and friends feel; what matters is the wider public debate that our stories and this video provoke."
● Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh Memorial
● Staff tributes
● Namir Noor-Eldeen tribute | SLIDESHOW
Video released showing US Army's killing of Reuters news staff
Monday 05 April 2010
The classified military video depicting the killings on 12 July 2007 was released by the website WikiLeaks, which called it a case of “collateral murder”. It said it obtained the video as well as supporting documents from military whistleblowers.
Julian Assange, editor of WikiLeaks, unveiled the video at the National Press Club. He said the crew of the attack helicopter approached its job as if it were a video game, not something involving human lives. Their desire was simply to kill, he said. "Their desire was to get high scores on that computer game."
Video of the incident from two Apaches and photographs taken of the scene were shown to Reuters editors in Baghdad on 25 July 2007 in an off-the-record briefing. Reuters had been seeking release of the video, shot from a helicopter gun-sight, through the US Freedom of Information Act. After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own rules of engagement.
The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how two young children were wounded.
The video shows a US Army Apache repeatedly opening fire on a group of men that included photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, pictured, both Iraqi, and then on a van that stopped to rescue one of the wounded men. None of the members of the group were taking hostile action, contrary to the Pentagon's initial cover story. They were milling about on a street corner.
Crew members can be heard celebrating their kills. "Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards," says one crewman after multiple rounds of 30 mm cannon fire left nearly a dozen bodies in the street. A crewman begs for permission to open fire on the van and its occupants, even though it has done nothing but stop to help the wounded: "Come on, let us shoot!" Two crewmen share a laugh when a Bradley fighting vehicle runs over one of the corpses. And after soldiers on the ground find two small children shot and bleeding in the van, one crewman can be heard saying: "Well, it's their fault bringing their kids to a battle."
The New York Times reported the military's official cover story as follows:
The American military said in a statement late Thursday that 11 people had been killed: nine insurgents and two civilians. According to the statement, American troops were conducting a raid when they were hit by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The American troops called in reinforcements and attack helicopters. In the ensuing fight, the statement said, the two Reuters employees and nine insurgents were killed. "There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force," said Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a spokesman for the multinational forces in Baghdad.
Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer said in a statement after the slayings: “Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh’s outstanding contribution to reporting on the unfolding events in Iraq has been vital. They stand alongside other colleagues in Reuters who have died doing a job that they believe in.”
David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, said in a statement today: “The deaths of Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh three years ago were tragic and emblematic of the extreme dangers that exist in covering war zones. We continue to work for journalist safety and call on all involved parties to recognise the important work that journalists do and the extreme danger that photographers and video journalists face in particular. The video released today via WikiLeaks is graphic evidence of the dangers involved in war journalism and the tragedies that can result."
● SOURCE Collateral Murder | Reuters | The New York Times
● Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh Memorial
Tom Glocer: it's not just about money
Wednesday 31 March 2010
“We want incredible, high-performing, successful people but within the boundaries where the company matters more than I. There'll be another chief executive. There've been nine before me at Reuters and, if you think in longer terms, it puts a bit of perspective just on how bright is your candle power,” the CEO said in a radio broadcast.
“It's not just about money, but there is a market out there for talent. People are more aware of it than they think. To pretend that it's no issue at all and that people will just stay for the joy of it, I think, ultimately, is insulting but, conversely, if you believe you can bribe people to stay in a hostile environment or money's the only thing that motivates them, all of the research, all of my experience, shows differently. In fact what the best research show is that the single highest correlating factor to retaining employees and job satisfaction is: my manager understands me, cares about me, maybe knows the names of my children and is interested in my work and helps me achieve my goals. But don't try and pay me half the market rate, 'cos you'll just, you know, you'll diss me.”
Glocer described a cycle which he said was true for human beings, for companies and for governments where success and high achievement breeds pride, “that's OK, then breeds arrogance, not OK, then breeds complacency, egotistical behaviour, and then the downfall, and you see that cycle over and over again.
“And it is the rare individual and the rare company that can stay when it's at the top of the game. How paranoid are you? … You need to keep that humble questioning, otherwise eventually you'll just believe your own PR.”
Glocer was speaking in a panel discussion on BBC Radio 4 programme The Bottom Line, first broadcast on Sunday 28 March.
Interviewer Evan Davies also asked Glocer about the motivation for Thomson’s 2008 takeover of Reuters. Was it that Reuters suddenly found itself facing the most intense competition in the most lucrative bit of the market from players like Bloomberg? Was Reuters getting a bit desperate?
Glocer’s reply: “No, Reuters went through – I arrived in the UK and took on the job as chief executive in the summer of 2001 and the period 2001 to 2003 was the near-death experience for Reuters, and it was really difficult. You know, we had to do some very unpopular things. I had to do some things that I still find hard to this day. We let a lot of people go which substantially restructured the company, we sold a lot of units, but until the time we agreed to the Thomson acquisition we had come through that hole and were growing nicely again. The fit with Thomson was just so good, and their willingness to come at the right moment and pay a substantial premium for Reuters was there, that we jumped.”
Asked about the decline of newspapers, Glocer said: “At the margin, the traditional Reuters news agency selling to media customers is now about two per cent of the $13 billion annual revenues of the firm… It's very visible, we care about it a lot, it's still a profitable business but, you know, the shift in our revenues reflects where we find profitable opportunities, and yes, the newspaper world is going through a terrible, wrenching transformation. Part of it, I think, is because people can't wrap their brains around a pretty straightforward transition which is: newspapers don't have to be on physical wood paper pulp technology, right? It just so happens that the current processes lasted for so long no one can think about what does journalism mean in an iPad world, or son of iPad, and what will it look like. So, I think this is not the death knell of journalism, it is the death knell of people who insist that journalism has to be about printing on dead trees.”
● CLICK to view a video version of the radio broadcast (available only in the UK) | VIDEO
Two multimedia productions win top US awards
Friday 26 March 2010
Two multimedia Reuters productions have taken first and second place in the 2010 best of photojournalism awards in the United States.
Reuters won first place in the news/feature multimedia category for Times of Crisis, charting 365 days of economic and financial upheaval, and second place for Surviving the Tsunami, a Thomson Reuters Foundation production with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The annual contest is run by the US National Press Photographer’s Association and the Florida-based Poynter Institute.
● CLICK to view Times of Crisis
● CLICK to view Surviving the Tsunami
Reuters won first place in the news/feature multimedia category for Times of Crisis, charting 365 days of economic and financial upheaval, and second place for Surviving the Tsunami, a Thomson Reuters Foundation production with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The annual contest is run by the US National Press Photographer’s Association and the Florida-based Poynter Institute.
● CLICK to view Times of Crisis
● CLICK to view Surviving the Tsunami
Reuters’ social media rules stir online debate
Friday 12 March 2010
Reuters’ publication this week of new ● guidelines for social media like Facebook and Twitter in its ● Handbook of Journalism has attracted wide attention in the blogosphere.
The online magazine Salon said the guidelines suffer from many of the same problems as similar policies set last year by The New York Times and the The Washington Post.
“All of these flaws boil down to one thing: A desire to control something that fundamentally can’t be controlled, and a fear of what happens when that control is lost,” it said.
Reuters’ guidelines state: “The advent of social media does not change your relationship with the company that employs you — do not use social media to embarrass or disparage Thomson Reuters. Our company’s brands are important; so, too, is your personal brand. Think carefully about how what you do reflects upon you as a professional and upon us as an employer of professionals.”
Salon commented: “The overwhelming message is that, while social media is great and useful for many things (although none of those things are ever mentioned), it is a minefield of potential dangers and even a potential threat to the company’s traditional media business…
“Right at the end of the new policy, Reuters says something that cuts to the heart of all the difficulties with social media guidelines. The policy baldly states: ‘Don’t scoop the wire.’ So I mentioned on Twitter that Reuters’ own editor-in-chief, David Schlesinger, (pictured), did exactly that when he was tweeting from Davos last year and posting about a number of newsworthy events [● David Schlesinger: all a-twitter and scooping Reuters].
Schlesinger responded that “some stuff belongs on the wire first. some stuff belongs on tweets. some stuff you can’t always tell immediately.”
That phrase could just as easily be applied to all of the other potential negative outcomes that Reuters is trying to avoid with its policy, Salon said. Some things are bad to say on Twitter, and some things are not — and some stuff you can’t always tell immediately.
It added: “If you trust your writers and editors, whom you presumably hired and continue to employ because they are smart and capable, then let them use social media for what it was meant for: engaging with readers in as many ways as possible. Don’t get consumed with fear about a loss of control over them — embrace it.”
The blog Techdirt, in a commentary headed “Reuters Social Media Policy Gets It Half Right, Half Wrong”, said the rule that hard news content must be broken first via the wire doesn't really make much sense. “It also goes against what some at Reuters have successfully done. You can still ‘scoop the wire’ and then publish a full report on the wire. In fact, if you use Twitter correctly, you can build a lot more interest in the upcoming full story.
“While there are plenty of reasonable and useful suggestions in the Reuters social media policies, some of it seems to go against what Schlesinger said last year:
“‘The old means of control don't work.
“‘The old categories don't work.
“‘The old ways of thinking won't work.
“‘We all need to come to terms with that.
“‘Fundamentally, the old media won't control news dissemination in the future. And organisations can't control access using old forms of accreditation any more.’”
● SOURCE Salon | Techdirt
Reuters media chief outlines vision for future news network
Thursday 11 March 2010
Project Apollo involves creating a content network that could be both a resource for newspapers requiring specialised information and a means of syndicating their own stories, said Chris Ahearn, president Reuters media, pictured.
“The media is not a one-way street anymore, so why should professional networks be any different from the way the consumers are consuming news?” he said at a conference in Abu Dhabi.
The new project aims to bring together lessons from social media networks and from Thomson Reuters’ primary business of professional information subscriptions.
In the latter realm, the company has learned that “metadata matters”, Ahearn said, referring to the information used to tag and sort media to make it easily searchable. The Apollo project aims to move away from selling clients Thomson Reuters-only products, which “sounds like a very 20th century model to me”, he said.
“What sounds far more interesting to us and our clients is how do we move from a single-source provider to thinking about a professional news network that allows you as a journalist, or your institution, to have access not only to Reuters material, but to a variety of other potentially more specialised information about sport or entertainment, or other areas where we are never going to be as good as someone else.”
At the same time, he said, this network would allow news organisations “to take content that you already paid to produce once, and you already monetised, and see if there’s another market for it in a non-competitive way”.
“Creating that network is going to be the future for us.”
Ahearn said the company made these investments because last year’s doldrums would not last.
“Advertising’s not dead,” he said. “We had a tough year, and advertising was down across the world, but advertising is not going to dry up in the media experience. In some areas of the world, we are going to see growth, like India, China, and despite a bit of a retrenchment here [the Middle East] over the last year, I bet growth comes back.”
● SOURCE The National
Reuters publishes social media rules for journalists
Wednesday 10 March 2010
The rise of social media has brought journalists some powerful new storytelling and information-gathering tools, but these new opportunities have brought new risks, said Dean Wright, global editor, ethics, innovation and news standards, pictured.
“At Reuters, we have just published some social media guidelines that lay out some basic principles and offer recommendations that should prove useful as journalists navigate what can sometimes seem a chaotic landscape.”
The new guidelines for using Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks embrace these basic principles:
● Journalists are encouraged to use social media approaches.
● Accuracy, freedom from bias and independence are fundamental to Reuters’ reputation. These values and the Trust Principles apply to journalism produced using social media just as they have to all other journalism produced by Reuters.
● Reuters is distinguished by the trust invested in its journalists to rise above personal bias in their work and to apply common sense in dealing with the challenges offered by social media.
Wright said some news organisations have been more proscriptive with their rules or guidelines for journalists using social media – “and it’s tempting to provide the rule-hungry with specific latitudes and longitudes of what’s acceptable. But I think that approach sells short the ability of journalists to use their brains and to see – and report on – a world that’s changing every day.
“That’s why I think of the Reuters Handbook of Journalism as a living document, one that helps us navigate that changing world with an eye on the future while being grounded in the ethical behaviour and high standards that have brought us so far.”
The new guidelines state, inter alia:
“We want to encourage you to use social media approaches in your journalism but we also need to make sure that you are fully aware of the risks – especially those that threaten our hard-earned reputation for independence and freedom from bias or our brand.”
The recommendations offer general guidance with more detailed suggestions for managing journalists’ presence on the most popular social networks. Journalists are encouraged to think about the following principles whenever using social media.
● “Accuracy, freedom from bias and integrity are fundamental to the reputation of Reuters and your ability to do your job effectively. The advent of social media changes none of this and you should do nothing that would damage our reputation for impartiality and independence. We reserve the right to change your beat or responsibilities if there are problems in this area. In the case of serious breaches, we may use our established disciplinary procedures.
● ”The advent of social media does not change your relationship with the company that employs you – do not use social media to embarrass or disparage Thomson Reuters. Our company’s brands are important; so, too, is your personal brand. Think carefully about how what you do reflects upon you as a professional and upon us as an employer of professionals.
● “The distinction between the private and the professional has largely broken down online and you should assume that your professional and personal social media activity will be treated as one no matter how hard you try to keep them separate. You should also be aware that even if you make use of privacy settings, anything you post on a social media site may be made public.
● “While it is not practical to always apply the 'second pair of eyes rule' for journalists using social media, especially Twitter, in a professional capacity, you should consider that a 'virtual second pair of eyes rule' applies under which your manager and/or senior editors will retrospectively review your professional output.
● ”Remember, too, that your sources, colleagues, peers, competitors and even future employers also can and will look at your output.”
The guidelines add: “We’re in a competitive business and while the spirit of social media is collaborative we need to take care not to undermine the commercial basis of our company.”
● SOURCE Reuters | Reuters Handbook for Journalists
Reuters caps award-winning week with more prizes
Saturday 06 March 2010
In addition to its own journalist of the year awards [● Reuters honours its journalists of the year], Reuters has won seven awards by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in its best in business annual competition, a record for the agency.
“Some contend that good business journalism is dying. Judging by the winners of the contest, nothing could be further from the truth,” said Greg McCune, SABEW president and Thomson Reuters training manager. “Study this list of winners and you may notice the emergence of a fresh and vigorous online business media, as well as continuing excellence from some traditional media we rely on.”
There were 163 winners out of a total 793 entries. The awards are to be presented on 20 March at the Society’s annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
AWARDS
● BREAKING BUSINESS NEWS REPORTING
Maggie Fox and the Mexico City bureau for H1N1 Flu: The Global Story.
● REAL-TIME NEWS ORGANIZATION SPECIAL PROJECTS
Jonathan Spicer and Herb Lash for Lifting the Veil on High-Frequency Trading
● REAL-TIME NEWS ORGANIZATION SPECIAL PROJECTS
Nick Carey for Route to Recovery
● BUSINESS NEWS COLUMN WRITING
Matthew Goldstein
● REAL-TIME NEWS ORGANIZATION COLUMN WRITING
Felix Salmon
● GENERAL EXCELLENCE FOR A SMALL WEBSITE
Breakingviews.com
● CREATIVE USE OF ONLINE BY A SMALL WEBSITE
Breakingviews.com downloadable calculators.
● SOURCE Reuters | SABEW
“Some contend that good business journalism is dying. Judging by the winners of the contest, nothing could be further from the truth,” said Greg McCune, SABEW president and Thomson Reuters training manager. “Study this list of winners and you may notice the emergence of a fresh and vigorous online business media, as well as continuing excellence from some traditional media we rely on.”
There were 163 winners out of a total 793 entries. The awards are to be presented on 20 March at the Society’s annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
AWARDS
● BREAKING BUSINESS NEWS REPORTING
Maggie Fox and the Mexico City bureau for H1N1 Flu: The Global Story.
● REAL-TIME NEWS ORGANIZATION SPECIAL PROJECTS
Jonathan Spicer and Herb Lash for Lifting the Veil on High-Frequency Trading
● REAL-TIME NEWS ORGANIZATION SPECIAL PROJECTS
Nick Carey for Route to Recovery
● BUSINESS NEWS COLUMN WRITING
Matthew Goldstein
● REAL-TIME NEWS ORGANIZATION COLUMN WRITING
Felix Salmon
● GENERAL EXCELLENCE FOR A SMALL WEBSITE
Breakingviews.com
● CREATIVE USE OF ONLINE BY A SMALL WEBSITE
Breakingviews.com downloadable calculators.
● SOURCE Reuters | SABEW
Reuters honours its journalists of the year
Friday 05 March 2010
Reuters has honoured its best journalists of 2009 in its annual Journalists of the Year awards.
Winners of 11 awards were honoured for their exceptional work at a ceremony in New York on Thursday attended by Thomson Reuters chairman David Thomson.
The news year demanded the best out of journalists and out of news organisations, editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said.
“I’m proud to say the 2,800 men and women of Reuters delivered. The world’s economies began a slow climb out from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression; the new administration in Washington faced tough new political realities; the war in Afghanistan escalated; and the debate over climate policy grew more heated. China flexed its economic and diplomatic muscles; the Gulf experienced the shuddering growing pains emerging economies can have; the competition for resources saw major players jockeying. Through all of this, our journalists were the eyes and ears of the world, doggedly and often bravely telling the globe’s stories.”
AWARDS
● PHOTO OF THE YEAR
Carlos Barria, photographer based in Miami, for his photograph of a US soldier taking a break during a night mission in the Pesh Valley in Afghanistan.
● EDITOR OF THE YEAR
Eric Burroughs, Asia financial markets editor based in Hong Kong, and Vidya Ranganathan, deputy Asia financial markets editor based in Singapore, for driving innovation and excellence and showing superb leadership in a year of focus on markets expertise.
● VIDEO JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Roystan Chan, video journalist based in Shanghai, for impeccable video storytelling in China.
● COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
John Kemp, commodities and energy columnist, for numerous agenda-setting commentary pieces.
● PHOTO JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Toby Melville, photographer based in London, for his photographs documenting daily life in the United Kingdom.
● REPORTER OF THE YEAR
Emma Graham-Harrison, correspondent based in Beijing, for consistently excellent reporting across asset classes.
● VIDEO STORY OF THE YEAR
Afghanistan team, for consistently delivery outstanding team coverage of Afghanistan news in trying circumstances.
● SCOOP OF THE YEAR
The US financial services team, for an exclusive with former Lehman CEO Richard Fuld.
● MULTIMEDIA STORYTELLING OF THE YEAR
Larry Downing, senior staff photographer at the White House, for his photo essay on Arlington National Cemetery's Section 60.
● STORY OF THE YEAR
Iran team coverage, for comprehensive coverage of a turbulent year in Iran.
● EDITOR’S CHOICE
Markets Buzz/The dealing room team, for pioneering new ways of storytelling.
“We talk a lot about ‘new ways of storytelling’,” Schlesinger said. “By bringing chat rooms to life and to the fore editorially, this group actually did it.
“Editorial innovation has a very simple definition: using new tools in new ways to make the traditional craft of journalism relevant to customers in a new age.
“The team we honour – represented by Stuart Brown, Eric Burroughs, Dayan Candappa, Andrew Goldner and Phil Smith – brought journalism into the chat room, brought community building and management into the tool kit of the journalist, and made the snap and crackle of instant messaging an arm of storytelling.
“By creating a chat room ethos where hundreds of clients could lurk and then participate with Reuters journalists, with each other and with invited guests, this team showed that valuable new content could be created at the intersection of journalists and customers, where one-way traditional information-giving met the two-way street of information-sharing.
“This team understood the value we could create by forging a community of professionals with shared interests, passions and spirit.
“From the first tentative instant messages flowing into what seemed a void, they've created a new form of Reuters journalism that is becoming vibrant, important, valuable and a marketplace of ideas.
“Because of the imagination and innovation of this group, the Reuters journalist of the future will be as at home in the chat room as she is in the press conference, as conversant in the style of instant messaging as he is in the style of an analysis – and both our journalism and our service to clients will be richer as a result.”
Footnote: The master of ceremonies at the awards pronounced the name of the agency “rooters”. Members of the audience quickly corrected the howler.
● CLICK the link below to read other comments by David Schlesinger on the award winners.
● SOURCE Reuters
Winners of 11 awards were honoured for their exceptional work at a ceremony in New York on Thursday attended by Thomson Reuters chairman David Thomson.
The news year demanded the best out of journalists and out of news organisations, editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said.
“I’m proud to say the 2,800 men and women of Reuters delivered. The world’s economies began a slow climb out from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression; the new administration in Washington faced tough new political realities; the war in Afghanistan escalated; and the debate over climate policy grew more heated. China flexed its economic and diplomatic muscles; the Gulf experienced the shuddering growing pains emerging economies can have; the competition for resources saw major players jockeying. Through all of this, our journalists were the eyes and ears of the world, doggedly and often bravely telling the globe’s stories.”
AWARDS
● PHOTO OF THE YEAR
Carlos Barria, photographer based in Miami, for his photograph of a US soldier taking a break during a night mission in the Pesh Valley in Afghanistan.
● EDITOR OF THE YEAR
Eric Burroughs, Asia financial markets editor based in Hong Kong, and Vidya Ranganathan, deputy Asia financial markets editor based in Singapore, for driving innovation and excellence and showing superb leadership in a year of focus on markets expertise.
● VIDEO JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Roystan Chan, video journalist based in Shanghai, for impeccable video storytelling in China.
● COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
John Kemp, commodities and energy columnist, for numerous agenda-setting commentary pieces.
● PHOTO JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Toby Melville, photographer based in London, for his photographs documenting daily life in the United Kingdom.
● REPORTER OF THE YEAR
Emma Graham-Harrison, correspondent based in Beijing, for consistently excellent reporting across asset classes.
● VIDEO STORY OF THE YEAR
Afghanistan team, for consistently delivery outstanding team coverage of Afghanistan news in trying circumstances.
● SCOOP OF THE YEAR
The US financial services team, for an exclusive with former Lehman CEO Richard Fuld.
● MULTIMEDIA STORYTELLING OF THE YEAR
Larry Downing, senior staff photographer at the White House, for his photo essay on Arlington National Cemetery's Section 60.
● STORY OF THE YEAR
Iran team coverage, for comprehensive coverage of a turbulent year in Iran.
● EDITOR’S CHOICE
Markets Buzz/The dealing room team, for pioneering new ways of storytelling.
“We talk a lot about ‘new ways of storytelling’,” Schlesinger said. “By bringing chat rooms to life and to the fore editorially, this group actually did it.
“Editorial innovation has a very simple definition: using new tools in new ways to make the traditional craft of journalism relevant to customers in a new age.
“The team we honour – represented by Stuart Brown, Eric Burroughs, Dayan Candappa, Andrew Goldner and Phil Smith – brought journalism into the chat room, brought community building and management into the tool kit of the journalist, and made the snap and crackle of instant messaging an arm of storytelling.
“By creating a chat room ethos where hundreds of clients could lurk and then participate with Reuters journalists, with each other and with invited guests, this team showed that valuable new content could be created at the intersection of journalists and customers, where one-way traditional information-giving met the two-way street of information-sharing.
“This team understood the value we could create by forging a community of professionals with shared interests, passions and spirit.
“From the first tentative instant messages flowing into what seemed a void, they've created a new form of Reuters journalism that is becoming vibrant, important, valuable and a marketplace of ideas.
“Because of the imagination and innovation of this group, the Reuters journalist of the future will be as at home in the chat room as she is in the press conference, as conversant in the style of instant messaging as he is in the style of an analysis – and both our journalism and our service to clients will be richer as a result.”
Footnote: The master of ceremonies at the awards pronounced the name of the agency “rooters”. Members of the audience quickly corrected the howler.
● CLICK the link below to read other comments by David Schlesinger on the award winners.
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters hires top FT editor as global editor-at-large
Monday 01 March 2010
She will help plan Reuters editorial strategy, play a key role on forthcoming financial video service Reuters Insider, serve as Reuters’ principal television pundit, be senior contributor to Reuters.com and play a leading role in Reuters Summits and in Thomson Reuters global Newsmaker series.
Prior to her tenure as the FT’s US managing editor Freeland was the newspaper’s deputy editor in London, editor of the weekend edition, editor of FT.com, UK news editor, Moscow bureau chief and Eastern Europe correspondent. She began her career as a stringer in Ukraine, writing for the FT, The Washington Post and The Economist.
"Chrystia has proven herself an excellent reporter and an original thinker whose views are respected and listened to," said Schlesinger. "Her work will be a great complement to that done by the 2,800 journalists at Reuters worldwide."
Lionel Barber, FT editor, said: "Chrystia has been a driving force behind the FT's success in the US for the past four years, and has contributed to the FT's global profile in many other senior roles in London and Moscow. I wish her the very best with her future endeavours."
Freeland’s replacement at the FT is Gillian Tett, assistant editor for markets coverage.
● SOURCE PR Newswire
Paul Mylrea lands top media job at BBC
Friday 26 February 2010
Mylrea, whose 20-year career at Reuters ended in 2002, is director of communications at the British government’s department for international development. Previously he was director of group media relations at Transport for London and head of media at Oxfam GB. He is also president-elect at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Mylrea will lead the BBC press office and strategic communications function and be part of a ten-strong communications steering group. He will also be the BBC's official spokesman. The job specification states that it sits at the heart of reputation management for the BBC.
"Paul is a terrific hire for the BBC," the corporation's director of communications, Ed Williams, said. "The combination of 20 years at Reuters, along with proven experience at the hard end of public sector communications, is excellent preparation for leading media relations at the BBC."
● SOURCE BBC | PR Week
Health and safety hotel checks for hacks in Haiti
Sunday 21 February 2010
Reuters correspondents arriving in Haiti after the earthquake were ordered to carry out a health and safety audit of their hotel before checking in, according to The Independent newspaper.
Under the headline “Regime change for foreign hacks”, it reported on Sunday:
"The days when war reporters lived off their wits, whisky and a threadbare mattress are over. Reuters correspondents arriving in Haiti immediately after the earthquake are said to have been under orders to carry out a health and safety audit of their hotel before checking in. The insensitivity of reporters arriving in disaster zones is notorious, best summarised by the title of Edward Behr's memoirs: Anyone here been raped and speak English?"
● SOURCE The Independent
Under the headline “Regime change for foreign hacks”, it reported on Sunday:
"The days when war reporters lived off their wits, whisky and a threadbare mattress are over. Reuters correspondents arriving in Haiti immediately after the earthquake are said to have been under orders to carry out a health and safety audit of their hotel before checking in. The insensitivity of reporters arriving in disaster zones is notorious, best summarised by the title of Edward Behr's memoirs: Anyone here been raped and speak English?"
● SOURCE The Independent
iKick for reporter who got too close to Apple supplier in China
Thursday 18 February 2010
Guards at a high-tech complex in China scuffled with a Reuters journalist taking photos at the factory gates. He escaped with threats and a kick to the leg to write about the encounter – and the obsession with secrecy of Apple, US producer of computers, iPods and iPhones.
The Foxconn International factory at Longhua in Guanlan, southern China, supplies parts for Apple, which takes security so seriously that some of the California company’s contractor compounds resemble industrial fortresses.
Inside the “walled city” at Longhua – one of several compounds run by Foxconn – employees are provided with most of their daily needs, from dormitories, canteens, recreation facilities, banks, post offices and bakeries.
As the Reuters journalist stood on the public road taking photos of the front gate and security checkpoint, a guard shouted, Reuters reported under the joint bylines of James Pomfret and Kelvin Soh. “The reporter continued snapping photos before jumping into a waiting taxi. The guard blocked the vehicle and ordered the driver to stop, threatening to strip him of his taxi license.
“The correspondent got out and insisted he was within his rights as he was on the main road. The guard grabbed his arm. A second guard ran over, and with a crowd of Foxconn workers watching, they tried dragging him into the factory.
“The reporter asked to be let go. When that didn't happen, he jerked himself free and started walking off. The older guard kicked him in the leg, while the second threatened to hit him again if he moved. A few minutes later, a Foxconn security car came along but the reporter refused to board it. He called the police instead.
“After the authorities arrived and mediated, the guards apologized and the matter was settled. The reporter left without filing a complaint, though the police gave him the option of doing so.
"’You're free to do what you want,’ the policeman explained, ‘But this is Foxconn and they have a special status here. Please understand.’
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger made the story his choice “must read”.
● SOURCE Reuters | CNN Money
The Foxconn International factory at Longhua in Guanlan, southern China, supplies parts for Apple, which takes security so seriously that some of the California company’s contractor compounds resemble industrial fortresses.
Inside the “walled city” at Longhua – one of several compounds run by Foxconn – employees are provided with most of their daily needs, from dormitories, canteens, recreation facilities, banks, post offices and bakeries.
As the Reuters journalist stood on the public road taking photos of the front gate and security checkpoint, a guard shouted, Reuters reported under the joint bylines of James Pomfret and Kelvin Soh. “The reporter continued snapping photos before jumping into a waiting taxi. The guard blocked the vehicle and ordered the driver to stop, threatening to strip him of his taxi license.
“The correspondent got out and insisted he was within his rights as he was on the main road. The guard grabbed his arm. A second guard ran over, and with a crowd of Foxconn workers watching, they tried dragging him into the factory.
“The reporter asked to be let go. When that didn't happen, he jerked himself free and started walking off. The older guard kicked him in the leg, while the second threatened to hit him again if he moved. A few minutes later, a Foxconn security car came along but the reporter refused to board it. He called the police instead.
“After the authorities arrived and mediated, the guards apologized and the matter was settled. The reporter left without filing a complaint, though the police gave him the option of doing so.
"’You're free to do what you want,’ the policeman explained, ‘But this is Foxconn and they have a special status here. Please understand.’
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger made the story his choice “must read”.
● SOURCE Reuters | CNN Money
US military frees Reuters photographer in Iraq after 17 months
Wednesday 10 February 2010
"How can I describe my feelings? This is like being born again," Jassam told Reuters by telephone as he was greeted emotionally by his family.
"I still cannot believe that my son is next to me," his mother, Fadhila Alwan, said. "Thanks be to God. I cannot speak. I will keep him in my arms for days but I will not be able to get enough of him."
US and Iraqi forces smashed in the doors to Jassam's house in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, in September 2008 and whisked him away. He spent time in a desert prison on the Iraq-Kuwait border, called Camp Bucca, and the smaller Camp Cropper detention centre near Baghdad airport.
The US military never said exactly why it detained him and locked him away for so long, saying the evidence against him was classified. Jassam worked for Reuters as a freelance TV cameraman and photographer. He was one of several Iraqi journalists working for foreign news organisations who have been detained by the US military since the 2003 US invasion. None has ever been charged, triggering criticism from international journalism rights groups.
"I am very pleased his long incarceration without charge is finally over," editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said. "I wish the process to release a man who had no specific accusations against him had been swifter."
The US military has asserted Jassam was a "security threat". The accusations had to do with "activities with insurgents," it said last year, without giving any specifics. The term insurgents generally refers to Sunni Islamist groups. Jassam is a Shi'ite Muslim. The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled that there was no case against Jassam.
A month before arresting him, US forces detained Reuters cameraman Ali Mashhadani and held him for three weeks without charge, the third time he was detained. Mashhadani was held for five months in 2005.
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters editor quits over discredited story
Saturday 06 February 2010
Terri Cullen, pictured, wealth management editor, has gone only days after Reuters was forced to kill her story claiming the White House’s deficit reduction plan relied on raising taxes against the middle class by allowing tax cuts to expire. The story ran on Monday and was withdrawn that night after the White House complained. Numerous errors were discovered.
On Wednesday, a senior Reuters editor sent a memo stating, “This is an important reminder about our second-pair-of-eyes rule… Any content intended for reuters.com needs to be run past an editor PRIOR to publication. This applies to any and all content, including that intended for the blog platform.”
A Reuters spokeswoman confirmed Cullen’s departure but declined further comment. She apparently resigned, the website Talking Biz News said.
Reuters had trumpeted Cullen’s hiring. She was picked to serve as both editor of personal investing coverage on reuters.com as well as the editorial lead for Reuters wealth management initiative, a new service due out later this year that it said "will leverage Thomson Reuters business to business wealth assets in an effort to create an online consumer offering for Reuters.com's vast audience of affluent, business professionals”.
Based in New York, she reported to Richard Baum, global editor of consumer media. The reminder about the need for a second pair of eyes was sent by Keith McAllister, global editor of online, to blog editors and the global online staff.
● SOURCE Talking Biz News
Internet abuzz over Reuters story killed after White House complaint
Tuesday 02 February 2010
US blogs have been abuzz over the story, which suggested President Obama would cut the US budget deficit through backdoor taxes on the middle class.
Media Matters said the conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh “was very excited about a Reuters article that was so riddled with errors that the wire service withdrew it after it was released”.
Business Insider quoted the offending story, filed on Monday, in part: While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.
The White House complained about inaccuracies in the story and Reuters withdrew it, saying a replacement story would be coming later in the week. Later it said the story was wrong and there would be no substitute.
Business Insider said it was told by a Reuters representative that the story was withdrawn “due to significant errors of fact…The story was wrong on multiple points and should not have gone out.”
Talking Points Memo Livewire said “Obama administration aides appealed to the Reuters White House reporting team to kill a story by another reporter of the news service that suggested the president’s new budget blueprint included ‘backdoor’ tax hikes”. An administration official said the Reuters White House team “worked to quickly remedy the situation and helped get the story completely withdrawn”.
The discredited backdoor taxes story was noticed by The New York Times’ Media Decoder blog. And The Christian Science Monitor commented: “It says something about the state of partisanship in America when the biggest budget story of the day is a nonstory. Literally.”
The media blog Gawker pointed out that it was the second story Reuters had killed in as many months “but, on the bright side, the first actually bad one”. In December a story about a billionaire hedge fund manager was spiked after he complained to Thomson Reuters’ markets division chief executive Devin Wenig.
● SOURCE Media Matters | Business Insider | Talking Points Memo | The Christian Science Monitor | Gawker
Kurt Schork Awards winner misses ceremony due to late visa
Friday 13 November 2009
Karachi-based reporter Maqbool Ahmed was unable to receive the $5,000 prize for a local journalist in the developing world or a country in transition in person. It was in recognition of his article titled Inside Swat, published in The Herald, a Pakistani magazine, in November 2008.
The $5,000 prize for a freelance journalist covering foreign news was awarded jointly to Manon Quérouil of France for Columbia - Occupation: Contract Killer published in Marie Claire in April 2009 and Nir Rosen of the United States for How We Lost the War We Won published in Rolling Stone in October 2008.
The awards, administered by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, recognise fearless freelance news reporting and journalists who report from their own countries at great personal risk and sacrifice. They were presented by Kurt Schork's partner, Sabina Cosic of the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund.
Schork, an American freelance journalist, was killed in a military ambush in Sierra Leone on 24 May 2000 while on assignment for Reuters.
Photo: Manon Quérouil (left) and Nir Rosen
● Kurt Schork Memorial Fund
● Institute for War & Peace Reporting
● Sean Maguire
● Kurt Schork in the Reuters Memorial Book
Peter Millar's Berlin Wall book is the best read - Economist
Friday 06 November 2009
“The best read is the irreverent and engaging account by Peter Millar, who writes for the Sunday Times among other papers,” the weekly wrote in a review of six books.
“Fastidious readers who expect reporters to be a mere lens on events will be shocked at the amount of personal detail, including the sexual antics and drinking habits of his colleagues in what now seems a Juvenalian age of dissolute British journalism. He mentions his long-suffering wife and children rather too often, but the result is full of insights and on occasion delightfully funny. The author has a knack for befriending interesting people and tracking down important ones. He weaves their words with his clear-eyed reporting of events into a compelling narrative about the end of the cruel but bungling East German regime.”
Peter Millar was a Reuters correspondent from 1977 to 1985. His book 1989: The Berlin Wall: My Part in its Downfall, is published by Arcadia. It is due to be published in the United States in April 2010.
● SOURCE The Economist
● Peter Millar's books
● Steve Somerville's review
Top editor denies Reuters has abandoned accuracy for speed
Wednesday 28 October 2009
But the news business has changed from the supposed golden age of authoritative journalism where sourcing was always rigorous and the pursuit of truth always relentless. And the nature of authority in the news business has also changed.
“Last week I was told that Reuters has lost its ethical bearings,” says Maguire, editor, political and general news. “You’ve sacrificed the sacred tenet of accuracy by rushing to publish information without checking if it is true. Your credibility has suffered, the value of your brand will wither and the service you offer to clients has been devalued, I heard.”
Writing in a Reuters Editors blog, Maguire concedes “It was a meaty accusation, especially as it came in the midst of a debate on ethics in journalism held at the London home of Thomson Reuters, the parent of the Reuters news organisation. The charge came from former Reuters journalists and a senior member of the trustees body that monitors Reuters compliance with its core ethical principles.”
The accusations concerned two inaccurate reports by CNN and Sky News that Reuters picked up.
“It is grating for any journalist to publish information that turns out to be incorrect,” says Maguire, who specialised in eastern Europe in the 1990s covering the fall of Yugoslavia and later conflict in the Middle East, particularly Iraq. “Even if we can say that the original error was made elsewhere some of the flak hits those who replicate the mistake. After all, those who republish a libel are as liable for it as its originator.
“So why did we not check first and publish later?
“The answer goes to the heart of how the news business has changed, how the notion of authoritativeness has altered and how Reuters journalists interpret the values they live by.
“But first let's scotch one myth. Embarrassing publicity notwithstanding, it is relatively rare for Reuters to publish what turns out to be an erroneous report by another news organisation. Since we instituted our current policy on 'pick-ups,' as they are known in the trade, the level of 'echoed mistakes,' has neither grown nor fallen.
“To provide a complete service to our customers our policy is to pick up stories of significance that are being carried by normally reliable media that are in a position to know what they are reporting.” Hence the decision to quote CNN, which has a good record on reporting its own home turf, or Sky, which has broken news on the Lockerbie bomber story and follows it closely. “We protect our reputation by carefully acknowledging the source of the information and speedily checking its veracity.”
Hundreds of times every day Reuters journalists decline to go with a story running on local media because it smells wrong, is trivial, or both, Maguire says. “Mostly that decision is vindicated. The old school would have it that our policy is a failure of journalism. Yet walking the right line between publishing everything and publishing nothing actually requires a finer exercise of judgment. Better journalism, in other words.
“The counter-argument is that we should only publish when we have 100 percent certainty from our own sources. That may be possible for a news organisation with a longer publishing timescale, such as a newspaper, or a periodical magazine. Yet even they, with online arms that are increasingly as ‘real-time’ as Reuters, the Associated Press or Bloomberg, face the same challenges of dealing with fast-breaking stories as the news agencies. With the advent of the Internet has come a cacophony of online voices that amplify and accelerate information, frequently dropping reference to where it originated or how it first became known. In that environment readers look to news services like Reuters to tell them what is known, and how it is known, with clarity and speed, regardless of whether we originated the story or not. In a complex, fast-moving world, no news organisation, no matter how well-resourced, can be first to report everything. All of us target the news we want to break and rely on others, who are sometimes allies and sometimes competitors, to paint their part of the picture."
Maguire asks whether that approach has destroyed the relationship of trust that clients and readers have with Reuters. His response: “The question supposes there was once a golden age of authoritative journalism where sourcing was always rigorous and the pursuit of truth always relentless. History suggests otherwise. Current anxiety over journalistic values is often a proxy for broader worry over the health of the media industry. Declining revenues have driven cost cutting that has threatened, many feel, the standards of journalism. Reuters is stressing speed for fear of losing its audience, critics say, and will do so at the expense of its reputation for accuracy.
“Yet our business has always put a premium on speed, and given that we are one of very few global news organisations that is expanding its staff during the downturn we feel we are doing the right things to maintain our audience.”
The nature of authority in the news business has also changed, Maguire says. “Real-time readers understand breaking news is contingent, uncertain and provisional. Exclusivity evaporates fast as aggregators, citers and plagiarists disseminate the fruits of others’ reporting toil. Respect is won by breaking news and by operating with clear rules and standards. But it also come from guiding readers carefully to the reports of others, binding the audience in with compelling packages of conversation, illumination and curated content.”
● SOURCE Reuters
Speed over accuracy: ex-correspondents raise concerns
Monday 26 October 2009
Former correspondents criticised Reuters’ reporting standards, raising doubts about the primacy of speed over accuracy in an increasingly competitive market.
In at least two examples, Reuters reported inaccurate stories from other media without checking primary sources first, the website Journalism.co.uk said in a report on What Price the News?, a debate hosted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the company's Canary Wharf, London offices on Thursday 22 October.
Has fact-checking and editing become less of a priority in an age of cost-cutting and “personal” journalism? What are the consequences for news organisations’ commitment to accuracy and freedom from bias? Those were two of the questions billed by the company in advance of the debate, which was introduced by Dean Wright, global editor, ethics, innovation and news standards. Others were: Are Western standards of news ethics and standards necessarily correct? Should there be a global standard for what constitutes proper journalism ethics?
This month Reuters initially published a report, first broadcast by Sky News, that the Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, had died, until his lawyer corrected it.
Another inaccurate story was CNN's report on a US Coast Guard training exercise on the anniversary of September 11 this year which was wrongly claimed to be a gun battle.
Former Reuters journalist Paul Iredale, speaking from the audience, said he was deeply concerned and sad about what he heard during the debate. "In Reuters it seems to have gone to speed rather than accuracy," he said. "What we used to say about Reuters was we got it last, but we got it right. I don't think that is the case now."
Sean Maguire, global editor, political and general news, said Reuters was completely transparent when the stories were found to be untrue. "When we saw it was wrong, we said we were wrong," he said. "Because Sky had been a good source on the [al-Megrahi death report] story we reported it. We very quickly said what they said was nonsense."
Former correspondent Colin Bickler said from the audience that he believed source-checking standards were slipping in the rush to get the story up. "I worked for Reuters for 28 years and if I had pulled that excuse I would have been shot. It is because it can move the markets it needs to be checked. I'm in shock," Journalism.co.uk reported him saying.
Times have changed, said Maguire. "There is a premium on speed and we will put a story out and say 'this is what we know so far,'" he said. "The business model has changed (…) but we don't recklessly report what we think is wrong."
● SOURCE Journalism.co.uk
In at least two examples, Reuters reported inaccurate stories from other media without checking primary sources first, the website Journalism.co.uk said in a report on What Price the News?, a debate hosted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the company's Canary Wharf, London offices on Thursday 22 October.
Has fact-checking and editing become less of a priority in an age of cost-cutting and “personal” journalism? What are the consequences for news organisations’ commitment to accuracy and freedom from bias? Those were two of the questions billed by the company in advance of the debate, which was introduced by Dean Wright, global editor, ethics, innovation and news standards. Others were: Are Western standards of news ethics and standards necessarily correct? Should there be a global standard for what constitutes proper journalism ethics?
This month Reuters initially published a report, first broadcast by Sky News, that the Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, had died, until his lawyer corrected it.
Another inaccurate story was CNN's report on a US Coast Guard training exercise on the anniversary of September 11 this year which was wrongly claimed to be a gun battle.
Former Reuters journalist Paul Iredale, speaking from the audience, said he was deeply concerned and sad about what he heard during the debate. "In Reuters it seems to have gone to speed rather than accuracy," he said. "What we used to say about Reuters was we got it last, but we got it right. I don't think that is the case now."
Sean Maguire, global editor, political and general news, said Reuters was completely transparent when the stories were found to be untrue. "When we saw it was wrong, we said we were wrong," he said. "Because Sky had been a good source on the [al-Megrahi death report] story we reported it. We very quickly said what they said was nonsense."
Former correspondent Colin Bickler said from the audience that he believed source-checking standards were slipping in the rush to get the story up. "I worked for Reuters for 28 years and if I had pulled that excuse I would have been shot. It is because it can move the markets it needs to be checked. I'm in shock," Journalism.co.uk reported him saying.
Times have changed, said Maguire. "There is a premium on speed and we will put a story out and say 'this is what we know so far,'" he said. "The business model has changed (…) but we don't recklessly report what we think is wrong."
● SOURCE Journalism.co.uk
New website trumpets firsts and exclusives
Wednesday 21 October 2009
Reuters has launched a new website to showcase news firsts and exclusives. Reuters Firsts promotes market-moving coverage where Reuters was first or alone with the story.
The collection of winning coverage is organised by topic and geography. Highlights include:
● Categorisation of first and exclusive summaries by asset class and region
● Extensive archive that offers the ability to search past wins by date, region and country
● Ability to print and e-mail a first or exclusive summary to share with clients and colleagues.
Key facts on coverage as well as a timeline of major wins over the last decade are also available.
The site includes statistics on Reuters coverage including more than 9,400 market-moving firsts and exclusives each year.
“Reporting on more asset classes and news genres than any other media organization, Reuters journalists aim to connect the dots on the stories that matter most to financial and media professionals around the globe," it says. Output is over:
● 2.5 million unique news stories a year
● 855,000 alerts per year
● 1,700 picture images per day
● 52,000 video stories per year.
Reuters overall total message volume has risen nearly 35 per cent over the past four years. Value is added to news coverage with
● 5,000 polls a year covering economic indicators, interest rate moves, stocks, bonds, currency, commodities markets, FX rates and asset allocation plans by fund managers
● 6,000 analyses a year covering companies, industry sectors, market trends, political risk and financial industry developments
● Expert columns which provide context and opinion on key areas such as commodities and energy, macroeconomics, technology, European policy, emerging markets and M&A.
More than 51 million people visit Reuters web sites each month.
Reuters scores over 18,000 interviews a year with CEOs, central bankers, finance ministers, and politicians.
● Reuters Firsts
● SOURCE Reuters
The collection of winning coverage is organised by topic and geography. Highlights include:
● Categorisation of first and exclusive summaries by asset class and region
● Extensive archive that offers the ability to search past wins by date, region and country
● Ability to print and e-mail a first or exclusive summary to share with clients and colleagues.
Key facts on coverage as well as a timeline of major wins over the last decade are also available.
The site includes statistics on Reuters coverage including more than 9,400 market-moving firsts and exclusives each year.
“Reporting on more asset classes and news genres than any other media organization, Reuters journalists aim to connect the dots on the stories that matter most to financial and media professionals around the globe," it says. Output is over:
● 2.5 million unique news stories a year
● 855,000 alerts per year
● 1,700 picture images per day
● 52,000 video stories per year.
Reuters overall total message volume has risen nearly 35 per cent over the past four years. Value is added to news coverage with
● 5,000 polls a year covering economic indicators, interest rate moves, stocks, bonds, currency, commodities markets, FX rates and asset allocation plans by fund managers
● 6,000 analyses a year covering companies, industry sectors, market trends, political risk and financial industry developments
● Expert columns which provide context and opinion on key areas such as commodities and energy, macroeconomics, technology, European policy, emerging markets and M&A.
More than 51 million people visit Reuters web sites each month.
Reuters scores over 18,000 interviews a year with CEOs, central bankers, finance ministers, and politicians.
● Reuters Firsts
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters sets new editorial appraisal objectives
Tuesday 20 October 2009
"What do we expect? That Reuters journalists will own the big stories, focus on higher value content, be first and handle news quickly, better serve customer needs, work as a team and be innovative," global managing editor Betty Wong, pictured, said in a note to staff.
"Rather than be prescriptive in what these mean for journalists, the NLT [News Leadership Team] asks managers to keep the overarching themes in mind as well as editorial targets when building individual development objectives."
The broad objectives for journalists' and editorial managers' twice-yearly appraisals are:
1. Own the big stories, emphasise higher-value content
2. Be first, handle news quickly
3. Understand customer needs
4. Teamwork
5. Innovate
6. Lead, communicate, be a face for Reuters/Thomson Reuters
7. Stay within budget targets.
The news leadership team is a steering group of senior editorial management. It sets editorial's operational agenda. The team's members are:
● Kelly Anderson, global head of communications
● Sarah Cavanagh, head of human resources
● John Clarke, global editor, TV/assistant US publisher, visuals
● Jackie Combine, global head of finance, editorial and content
● Chris Cramer, global editor of multimedia
● Stella Dawson, editor, treasury news
● Adrian Dickson, managing editor, Asia
● Thomas Kim, senior vice president and deputy general counsel, markets division
● Michael Lawrence, global head, news specialists
● Richard Mably, commodities & energy editor
● Sean Maguire, global editor, political & general news
● Andrew Meagher, global head real time financial publishing
● Jack Reerink, global editor, company news
● Gary Regenstreif, global editor, domestic news services
● Brian Rhoads, managing editor, Americas
● David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief
● Alex Spinelli, head of news technology
● Thomas Szlukovenyi, global editor, pictures
● Mark Thomson, managing editor, Europe, Middle East and Africa
● Betty Wong, global managing editor
● Dean Wright, global editor, ethics, innovation and news values.
● SOURCE Reuters
Important lessons learned from financial turmoil - David Schlesinger
Friday 09 October 2009
“One lesson was that our standards needed to be constantly examined and sometimes strengthened. Another is that transparency is rewarded by trust.”
The media industry was in its own crisis at the same time as it was reporting on the financial downturn, Schlesinger said in a speech.
“Our sources and our readers were in crisis, too, and this meant that our stories were watched extremely carefully and people were quick to complain about anything they didn’t like.
“I am proud that most of our reporting was excellent, but those times when we didn’t get it right it was vital to correct our errors swiftly and publicly.
“Maintaining our trust with our audience is fundamental to our mission as a news service. Reporting truthfully, reporting accurately, correcting errors, obeying our standards are all vital and can’t be compromised, especially not in the heat of a major and complex story.”
This year Reuters put its entire 500+ page ● Handbook of Journalism free online for anyone and everyone to read and comment on.
“We welcome that scrutiny from around the world. Where our standards are good and we live up to them, we want the attendant praise. Where we need to improve, or where we fail to live up to our ideals, we want the criticism. That should be the attitude that we in the media should strive for.”
Schlesinger was speaking at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on transparency and the role of media in China. The occasion was a World Media Summit hosted by Chinese news agency Xinhua.
The increasing internationalisation of financial markets has at least two dimensions relevant to financial information in China, he said. First, Chinese markets participants and investors need to be efficiently informed about foreign markets, while second, their non-Chinese counterparts overseas need to be efficiently informed about China. Mutual benefit and success depend upon this reciprocal relationship.
“I believe journalism at its best is a mirror, exposing back to society a true and brutally honest picture of what is going on,” Schlesinger said.
“When we fail at that, when our picture is not clear or at all distorted, we deserve to be criticised. We must strive to be that perfect mirror. But for societies and economies to truly work, to be effective and to be healthy, they need to look into that mirror unflinchingly and honestly.
“That is where the virtue of transparency comes in. That is why companies and government departments and government officials need to be ready to be open. That is why they need to take interviews and to reveal figures. That is why the instinct for secrecy needs to be resisted. That is why all involved need to help the media help society, by accepting that while openness, transparency and accountability may lead to momentary discomfort and sometimes embarrassment, they are ultimately worthwhile and, in fact, are a precondition to a truly healthy, stable and successful system.
“Similarly, a commitment to these practices is also a precondition for China’s development of healthy, sound and internationally competitive financial markets that protect domestic investors and encourage foreign investors to place their capital.”
Schlesinger, a former bureau chief in Beijing (1991-1994), added: “As Chinese financial journalism professionalises further, I look forward to mutually beneficial competition. I also look forward to Chinese nationals having full careers within foreign media organisations in China. My fervent wish is that one day soon Reuters financial news editor in China will be a Chinese national – one step on that person’s path to be global editor-in-chief!”
● SOURCE Reuters
● Reuters Handbook of Journalism
News in the digital social media era, by Chris Cramer
Thursday 08 October 2009
Passive audiences are gone, the digital conversation is the future and convergence and the consumer are king, says Reuters' global multimedia editor Chris Cramer.
Chris Ahearn, president of Reuters media, calls it Journalism 3.0 – where stories by Reuters journalists are automatically linked to other, equally relevant stories and websites – with business models that can be all-inclusive.
“The media world is changing so rapidly and so quickly that many of us who work in it are almost overwhelmed by what’s going on, frequently frightened at the speed of change and frightened as well that we may be left behind,” Cramer says.
“Mostly everything has changed. For a start, we are no longer the gatekeepers of information. These days it seems that the whole world is a newsgatherer. Everywhere you look someone is holding a camera and shooting what’s around them.
“You can upload all that stuff to Facebook or to YouTube, add some commentary, and you have potential access to millions of people overnight. You can become the brand.”
Social media trades in information of first resort — raw, unfiltered and there for the taking. This new electronic dialogue, the online conversation, is here to stay and it has enormous power, as a much more targeted approach than anything we have been exposed to, Cramer says.
How does the traditional news and information business adapt in the era of social media?
Reuters holds true to the Reuters Trust Principles and the firm belief that editorial trust and integrity make a much stronger business.
“We think that customers, end users, place a true value against these qualities, which is why when we make mistakes — and we do – we are quick to own up to those. to explain how they happened, to put guidelines in place to ensure they don’t happen again,” he says.
“So we are very excited by social media becoming the newsgathering of first resort – but also wary that everything we find there needs to be validated, checked and checked again before it goes out in our name.
“Far from being despondent about ceding our status as a major information provider, we believe that new and stronger business models will come from curating global information, filtering it, editing and placing it in context.
“We think the future of successful journalism is to produce information, intelligent information that matters to people and has context — news that enhances their lives, news that has a point and a relevance, and news that remains a good business model.”
Cramer, who joined Reuters last year, was speaking at the annual conference of the UK Association of Online Publishers in London on 7 October.
● SOURCE Reuters
● Chris Cramer's speech to the Association of Online Publishers annual conference
Chris Ahearn, president of Reuters media, calls it Journalism 3.0 – where stories by Reuters journalists are automatically linked to other, equally relevant stories and websites – with business models that can be all-inclusive.
“The media world is changing so rapidly and so quickly that many of us who work in it are almost overwhelmed by what’s going on, frequently frightened at the speed of change and frightened as well that we may be left behind,” Cramer says.
“Mostly everything has changed. For a start, we are no longer the gatekeepers of information. These days it seems that the whole world is a newsgatherer. Everywhere you look someone is holding a camera and shooting what’s around them.
“You can upload all that stuff to Facebook or to YouTube, add some commentary, and you have potential access to millions of people overnight. You can become the brand.”
Social media trades in information of first resort — raw, unfiltered and there for the taking. This new electronic dialogue, the online conversation, is here to stay and it has enormous power, as a much more targeted approach than anything we have been exposed to, Cramer says.
How does the traditional news and information business adapt in the era of social media?
Reuters holds true to the Reuters Trust Principles and the firm belief that editorial trust and integrity make a much stronger business.
“We think that customers, end users, place a true value against these qualities, which is why when we make mistakes — and we do – we are quick to own up to those. to explain how they happened, to put guidelines in place to ensure they don’t happen again,” he says.
“So we are very excited by social media becoming the newsgathering of first resort – but also wary that everything we find there needs to be validated, checked and checked again before it goes out in our name.
“Far from being despondent about ceding our status as a major information provider, we believe that new and stronger business models will come from curating global information, filtering it, editing and placing it in context.
“We think the future of successful journalism is to produce information, intelligent information that matters to people and has context — news that enhances their lives, news that has a point and a relevance, and news that remains a good business model.”
Cramer, who joined Reuters last year, was speaking at the annual conference of the UK Association of Online Publishers in London on 7 October.
● SOURCE Reuters
● Chris Cramer's speech to the Association of Online Publishers annual conference
New desktop platform not aimed at business broadcasters – Chris Cramer
Wednesday 07 October 2009
Although the company wants to be the one-stop shop for its clients, it does not wish to encroach on the territory of Bloomberg, Fox News or CNBC, Cramer said on the sidelines of the UK Association of Online Publishers annual conference in London.
The desktop platform – Project Utah due to be launched in 2010 – is designed to be “global, simplified, scaleable” to its customers' specific needs.
"I think it's one of the most significant developments when it comes to multimedia around at the moment,” Cramer said. “We listen to our clients – they're screaming at us [for this type of service] and they have been for years," he said.
Financial clients wanted a vertical platform offering them content and information relevant to their business interests and allowing them “to go look at that, and only that”, he said.
An important part of Utah is Project Insider, a web-based television service currently in beta test for about 5,000 to 6,000 clients.
Cramer, former head of CNN International and now Reuters’ global head, multimedia, was interviewed by a reporter for website Journalism.co.uk. He was a leading speaker at the conference.
● SOURCE Journalism.co.uk
Treasury news editing in shake-up as part of TR integration
Monday 05 October 2009
The reason is a drive for deeper specialisation and a need to “gear ourselves up for the rapidly changing financial and competitive landscape”, according to an internal memo by Michael Lawrence, global editor, news specialists, Stella Dawson, editor, treasury news, and Keith Mullin, editor in chief, IFR markets.
Treasury news editing is to be divided into economics and financial markets. A new global financial markets editor will be appointed to join the team of global editors with a brief “to elevate our markets coverage; work closely with the business to identify our strategic goals and commercial requirements; deliver on strategic priorities, from communities to market commentators and intra-day analysis; and accelerate our integration with IFR and the other professional teams”.
In what they called a big shift in the way Treasury is structured, the three editors said that as part of the restructuring existing treasury editors will become economics editors to better reflect their area of focus. “We expect them to work very closely with the markets team to retain the investor and markets focus in our coverage of economics and policy,” they said. At the same time, the loans teams with Reuters Loan Pricing Corporation and IFR are being combined and a new loans editor is to be appointed.
“Now that we are One Editorial, we want these teams working together and, when we do, they will be folded under the markets umbrella.
“By bringing markets, RLPC and IFR together under the one specialist editor, we will emphasize the centrality of markets to our coverage – it is the very cornerstone of what we do and the focus for the majority of our financial clients.”
The editors said the restructuring does not reflect any dissatisfaction with the current team or the Treasury news editors. “It’s the result of having more resources with the addition of IFR, the fierce competitive environment, new opportunities that we can explore with the business divisions and the need to accelerate the changes that are already under way. There is a huge amount of work to be done to implement integration and new initiatives such as commentary, communities and chat rooms. Quite simply, we need the additional bandwidth and focus to do that.”
● SOURCE Reuters
Social media 'an amplification, a megaphone'
Monday 05 October 2009
Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter have transformed the news industry forever, a paper from the Reuters Institute of Journalism says.
Where such websites have led, traditional newspapers have now followed and are encouraging their users to spread and discuss stories, the paper’s author, Nic Newman, controller future media and technology in BBC journalism, said at its launch.
It’s time for traditional news organisations to take note. "The social media revolution is not a fad and it has absolutely revolutionised the media," he said at the BBC's Broadcasting House, London recently.
"The one-way broadcast is over. People want to interact and answer back."
Readers' comments, blogs and tweets are now almost ever-present features on news websites, allowing users to interact with reporters and editors in a way not previously possible.
This transformation is now central to the future of traditional news outlets because it increases the reach of their content, boosts engagement and loyalty levels and potentially tells a better story by increasing reporters' source base, Newman said.
"Social media is like an amplification, like a megaphone," Meg Pickard, head of development of social media at The Guardian, said. She said it was important for journalists to understand the editorial imperative of social media.
Kate Day, communities editor at ● telegraph.co.uk, explained how the The Daily Telegraph had created an online community at its website ● my.telegraph.co.uk with about 25,000 to 30,000 registered users. "Some blog but most use it as a social networking site," she said.
But what social media is not – or not yet, anyway – is an answer to newspapers' financial woes. Social media increases the number of people using media but does not have an answer to the industry's core challenges – falling advertising revenues and the spread of free content.
"It is still early days in the social media revolution," Newman wrote in the conclusion to his paper. "There is much still much to be learned, but overall there is new confidence in the underlying values of journalism and the role that social media might play in keeping those values relevant in the digital media age."
Not all agree. A response posted to Newman’s paper said the distinction ought to be drawn between taking social media into account as necessary and taking social media too seriously, ever. “Social media is to reality as Reality TV is to TV. Though their existence is scarcely to be denied, neither is their inherently parasitic quality, above which one (seriously) ought to remain at all times able to rise.”
● Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is based at Oxford University and receives most of its funding from ● Thomson Reuters Foundation.
● SOURCE Reuters
Where such websites have led, traditional newspapers have now followed and are encouraging their users to spread and discuss stories, the paper’s author, Nic Newman, controller future media and technology in BBC journalism, said at its launch.
It’s time for traditional news organisations to take note. "The social media revolution is not a fad and it has absolutely revolutionised the media," he said at the BBC's Broadcasting House, London recently.
"The one-way broadcast is over. People want to interact and answer back."
Readers' comments, blogs and tweets are now almost ever-present features on news websites, allowing users to interact with reporters and editors in a way not previously possible.
This transformation is now central to the future of traditional news outlets because it increases the reach of their content, boosts engagement and loyalty levels and potentially tells a better story by increasing reporters' source base, Newman said.
"Social media is like an amplification, like a megaphone," Meg Pickard, head of development of social media at The Guardian, said. She said it was important for journalists to understand the editorial imperative of social media.
Kate Day, communities editor at ● telegraph.co.uk, explained how the The Daily Telegraph had created an online community at its website ● my.telegraph.co.uk with about 25,000 to 30,000 registered users. "Some blog but most use it as a social networking site," she said.
But what social media is not – or not yet, anyway – is an answer to newspapers' financial woes. Social media increases the number of people using media but does not have an answer to the industry's core challenges – falling advertising revenues and the spread of free content.
"It is still early days in the social media revolution," Newman wrote in the conclusion to his paper. "There is much still much to be learned, but overall there is new confidence in the underlying values of journalism and the role that social media might play in keeping those values relevant in the digital media age."
Not all agree. A response posted to Newman’s paper said the distinction ought to be drawn between taking social media into account as necessary and taking social media too seriously, ever. “Social media is to reality as Reality TV is to TV. Though their existence is scarcely to be denied, neither is their inherently parasitic quality, above which one (seriously) ought to remain at all times able to rise.”
● Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is based at Oxford University and receives most of its funding from ● Thomson Reuters Foundation.
● SOURCE Reuters
Live blogging draws new readers to Reuters
Monday 05 October 2009
Live blogging – bite-sized snippets filed directly by journalists to the Internet – is thriving at Reuters, drawing thousands of new readers to coverage.
Two recent major stories, the G20 summit in Pittsburgh and the German elections, provided opportunities for correspondents to publish directly and almost instantly.
To see what it looks like ● click http://live.reuters.com/Event/G20_Pittsburgh, which featured tweets from correspondents Steve Holland, Michelle Nichols and Sumeet Desai alongside links to key stories, pictures and video as the news developed.
As G20 wound down, bureaus in Germany ramped up a live blog of their national elections, says Richard Baum, global editor, consumer media.
“Live blogs are fast becoming popular with journalists – and readers – because they allow almost instant publishing of any type of media,” Baum says. “And because the tools integrate easily with Twitter, they allow reporters in the field to publish directly from apps on their BlackBerry or iPhone. The pages update live without the need for a manual refresh, giving readers a true multimedia wire.”
● Reuters.com editor Adam Pasick, who edited the live blog from Pittsburgh, said: "Multimedia coverage of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh was perhaps the best example yet of how the many strands of Reuters journalism can be pulled together into a rich, cohesive package for our readers and clients.
“At the height of the protests in Pittsburgh on Thursday evening, the page was drawing as many as three visitors a second. Over the whole event, more than 78,000 people visited the blog, which was also embedded in our main G20 page.”
The German blog was the idea of Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin who had “about 10 different contributors" including Reuters Television.
In the UK, journalists have been live blogging Prime Minister Gordon Brown's recent travels and the Labour Party conference.
● SOURCE Reuters
Two recent major stories, the G20 summit in Pittsburgh and the German elections, provided opportunities for correspondents to publish directly and almost instantly.
To see what it looks like ● click http://live.reuters.com/Event/G20_Pittsburgh, which featured tweets from correspondents Steve Holland, Michelle Nichols and Sumeet Desai alongside links to key stories, pictures and video as the news developed.
As G20 wound down, bureaus in Germany ramped up a live blog of their national elections, says Richard Baum, global editor, consumer media.
“Live blogs are fast becoming popular with journalists – and readers – because they allow almost instant publishing of any type of media,” Baum says. “And because the tools integrate easily with Twitter, they allow reporters in the field to publish directly from apps on their BlackBerry or iPhone. The pages update live without the need for a manual refresh, giving readers a true multimedia wire.”
● Reuters.com editor Adam Pasick, who edited the live blog from Pittsburgh, said: "Multimedia coverage of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh was perhaps the best example yet of how the many strands of Reuters journalism can be pulled together into a rich, cohesive package for our readers and clients.
“At the height of the protests in Pittsburgh on Thursday evening, the page was drawing as many as three visitors a second. Over the whole event, more than 78,000 people visited the blog, which was also embedded in our main G20 page.”
The German blog was the idea of Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin who had “about 10 different contributors" including Reuters Television.
In the UK, journalists have been live blogging Prime Minister Gordon Brown's recent travels and the Labour Party conference.
● SOURCE Reuters
WWII correspondent Stewart Sale commemorated in Italy
Thursday 01 October 2009
Sale, 38, was killed on 28 September 1943 at Scafati near Salerno with Alexander Austin of the Daily Herald, and William J. Munday, of the News Chronicle and the Sydney Morning Herald. They were covering the Battle of Scafati during the Italian campaign. All three were buried at the Montecorvino Commonwealth war cemetery.
Sixty-six years later, the local town council has unveiled a commemorative plaque in the town centre and another at the spot where they died. A Città di Scafati journalism prize is to be established in their names.
Sale’s son, Anthony Sale, was present as an honoured guest at the ceremonies and visited his father's grave. The direct descendents of the other two correspondents who also died on that day were also present. They were greeted by the mayor and people of Scafati.
The commemoration was the idea of Angelo Pesce, Scafati’s official historian, who has written a book about the three journalists who died in his town.
● CLICK to read the entry on Stewart Sale in Reuters’ Memorial Book.
Media must find own path to prosperity – David Schlesinger
Tuesday 08 September 2009
Forget old media and new media: each media organisation must find its own path to prosperity by engaging with its audience, using technology effectively and keeping its reporting relevant, editor-in-chief David Schlesinger says.
"We need to stop thinking about a division between new media and traditional media," he told the Chinese news agency Xinhua in an interview ahead of the world media summit to be held in Beijing on 7-10 October.
Schlesinger said media organisations that consider themselves "traditional" face significant changes in their business models and in the reading or viewing habits of their audience.
Therefore, all media organisations – if they are to survive and prosper – must use good journalism, technology and new techniques to engage with their audience and stay relevant.
Asked about the challenges Reuters is facing, Schlesinger said the financial crisis has been a dominant factor this year.
"It has been an important and exciting story to cover, and it has also affected all of our clients, whether they are in financial services, in the media or individual consumers," he added.
Reuters, the first foreign news agency to operate in China after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, has 24 correspondents stationed in the country with a much larger local support team working on the ground.
Schlesinger first visited China in 1979. He joined Reuters as a correspondent in Hong Kong in 1987. From 1989 to 1995 he managed editorial operations in Taiwan, China and the Greater China region.
● SOURCE Xinhua
"We need to stop thinking about a division between new media and traditional media," he told the Chinese news agency Xinhua in an interview ahead of the world media summit to be held in Beijing on 7-10 October.
Schlesinger said media organisations that consider themselves "traditional" face significant changes in their business models and in the reading or viewing habits of their audience.
Therefore, all media organisations – if they are to survive and prosper – must use good journalism, technology and new techniques to engage with their audience and stay relevant.
Asked about the challenges Reuters is facing, Schlesinger said the financial crisis has been a dominant factor this year.
"It has been an important and exciting story to cover, and it has also affected all of our clients, whether they are in financial services, in the media or individual consumers," he added.
Reuters, the first foreign news agency to operate in China after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, has 24 correspondents stationed in the country with a much larger local support team working on the ground.
Schlesinger first visited China in 1979. He joined Reuters as a correspondent in Hong Kong in 1987. From 1989 to 1995 he managed editorial operations in Taiwan, China and the Greater China region.
● SOURCE Xinhua
Reuters repositioning news for 21st century
Tuesday 08 September 2009
Reuters is no longer a traditional wire service. It is one of the largest multimedia news agencies in the world, he said in a recent interview.
“We're committed to enhancing our news file with considerable investments in commentary and investigative journalism and by melding the work of correspondents into a file that out-smarts the competition. We are a strong and diverse global network with a formidable line up of journalists who are able to make connections that other news organisations don't have the resources to do.
“We are investing now towards repositioning our news for the twenty-first century in an effort to anticipate the future needs of our clients -- many of whom are now of the Google/YouTube generation.
Reuters has invested $1 billion in "innovation and next-generation information products" this year. The centrepiece of this effort is Project Insider, an interactive TV service that delivers personalised financial news and insight direct to clients’ desktop and mobile devices.
“This is something no one else is doing and we believe it transforms the viewing experience from a passive, one-way broadcast model into an interactive and powerfully personalised medium. Think narrowcasting rather than broadcasting.
“Insider has been developed by some scary smart people inside the company and will leverage exclusive Reuters content and the editorial expertise from our 2,700 journalists around the world, packaged in a way that makes the most sense for our clients. Our programming will include market outlooks, live newsmaker interviews, deep technical analysis and market reactions to important events. We reckon that a combination of Reuters content with targeted content from third party financial information providers will enable our clients to cut through all the noise and clutter of existing financial news programming and receive a single, complete source of information.”
Cramer, former head of CNN International, says Thomson Reuters has done a great job of turning challenges into opportunity, especially with regards to its innovation strategy.
“In my opinion, great companies are defined in challenging times and it takes a great company to have the courage to invest in a tough period. Across the company we are investing a remarkable $1 billion this year in innovation and next-generation information products."
● SOURCE MediaBistro
Ibrahim Jassam: one year without justice
Wednesday 02 September 2009
Neither Jassam and his family nor Reuters, which employed him as a freelance TV cameraman and photographer, have been told exactly why he has been detained by US military forces in Iraq.
Jassam's mother, Fadhila Alwan, said: "We asked his lawyer, we asked military officers, we've asked all the officials we meet, but not one of them knew why he's been in jail for a whole year."
The evidence against him is classified, but the accusations have to do with "activities with insurgents", said Lt. Col. Pat Johnson, a spokeswoman for the US military in Iraq, Reuters reported from Baghdad. The term "insurgents" in Iraq generally refers to Sunni Islamist groups, like al Qaeda. Jassam is a Shi'ite Muslim.
"In a year of trying to get specifics, we've heard only vague and undefined accusations – to me this is unacceptable," said David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief.
"It is only right and fair that any specific accusation against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to defend himself properly."
Jassam, who is being held in a prison camp built in the desert on the Iraq-Kuwait border, will eventually be released.
Under a US-Iraqi security pact, called a Status of Forces Agreement, the US military must hand over the thousands of Iraqis it still has in its custody as Iraq gradually regains its sovereignty more than six years after the US-led invasion.
Those facing Iraqi charges will be tried; the rest freed.
The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled last November there was no case against Jassam. But the US military says it considers Jassam a security threat to Iraq. It says that under the security agreement it is entitled to hold Jassam as long as possible.
"Though we appreciate the decision of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in the Ibrahim Jassam case, their decision does not negate the intelligence information that currently lists him as a threat to Iraqi security and stability," Johnson said.
Reuters argues the US army is misinterpreting its remit.
"Ibrahim Jassam has never been charged by the US military or the Iraqi authorities, and has never had a single piece of evidence or even a specific allegation of wrongdoing presented to him," said Thomson Reuters deputy general counsel Thomas Kim.
"We believe this is not consistent with the spirit behind either the Status of Forces Agreement ... or the Rule of Law." The US military detained many Iraqi journalists during the sectarian slaughter and insurgency unleashed by the 2003 invasion. None have been known to have been charged.
Journalists rights groups say US forces may be misinterpreting legitimate journalistic activities in war zones. Taking pictures of Shi'ite militiamen battling US troops, for example, might look like enemy propaganda to a US soldier.
"The year-long detention of Ibrahim Jassam without charge or due process is not only unjust it also undermines the ability of the US government to effectively advocate for press freedom around the world," said Joel Simon of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
The US military said it expected all high security threat detainees to go before an Iraqi judge starting in December 2009. The intelligence information against Jassam will be aired then.
● SOURCE Reuters
Peter Bale: MSN's mission to explain, worries about defamation
Monday 31 August 2009
Bale is Microsoft's UK executive producer. He joined the computer giant’s content portal MSN two years ago from News International where he oversaw the TimesOnline site for The Times and The Sunday Times. Previously he was editor-in-chief of FTMarketWatch and had other online roles at the Financial Times.
Bale joined Reuters in Australia in 1985 and during a 15-year career covered British politics and Romania before becoming deputy news editor, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Talking about Microsoft’s plans, he told The Independent: "The thing which is not immediately visible to most people in the media is the extent to which we create our own content."
More established news players may not be quaking in their boots, the newspaper said, but for the last two years, MSN has been short-listed by the Association of Online Publishers as digital publisher of the year in the consumer category, losing out to the Telegraph group and Sky respectively.
"We have an evolving approach to news that is based around immediacy and a mission to explain," Bale says. "We can't go out and compete on scale with a major news provider but we can compete by bringing explanatory information, maps, more pictures, discussion, adding value to the news package."
MSN's news operation was set up in 1995 by three former newspaper journalists. It now has 35 staff and 15 contractors.
With multi-skilled staff capable of devising an editorial concept and seeing it to fruition, Bale accepts there is a need in the system for checks and balances. "We have introduced a reasonably robust system of copy editing because what you get with everybody being an expert is that everybody has tremendous power in being able to publish anything. We've invested quite a lot in training in ethics and copy-editing, laying down pretty good ground rules," he says. Some of MSN's young new media professionals have had little experience of seeing their work edited by a colleague. "When you have a lot of younger inexperienced people you've got to give them framework, training and support," says Bale. "My worry is defamation, which is a big risk in the UK. We've invested in defamation training, making people relaxed about having their copy edited."
● SOURCE The Independent
● Peter Bale
Reuters taps ex-NYT man for new ‘enterprise' job
Monday 17 August 2009
Based in New York, he will commission and edit stories that meet the challenge of engaging a diverse global Reuters readership in an increasingly competitive media environment. The aim is to deliver more groundbreaking and innovative stories and multimedia packages for customers throughout the world.
At The New York Times Impoco helped to redesign and relaunch the Saturday and Sunday business sections. He has also served as deputy editor at Condé Nast magazine Portfolio, assistant managing editor at Fortune magazine and executive editor at Men's Journal and was a Tokyo-based reporter for The Associated Press and Tokyo Bureau Chief for U.S. News & World Report.
"Jim's proven ability and experience in generating fresh, innovative feature stories, coupled with his deep understanding of our clients' needs, make him an enormous asset for Reuters," said Howard Goller, editor, political and general news, US & Canada. "We are proud of our reputation for accuracy and speed, and it is important in this increasingly competitive journalism market that we maintain our edge for clients who rely on us to be first with news, trends and analysis in the world of business and finance. Jim will help us lead the way."
Impoco said: "Reuters is an impressively large and influential platform, and I am sincerely flattered that they have asked me to try my hand at this. To be able to shape feature stories at an organization with Reuters’ reach is a dream job. No matter what happens to our industry, Reuters is certain to remain in the thick of it."
● SOURCE PR Newswire
David Schlesinger joins debate over links to Reuters stories
Friday 07 August 2009
Editor-in-Chief David Schlesinger has weighed in on a public debate over links to Reuters stories on the Internet. His take: it’s about being part of the conversation, adding to the debate rather than just playing postman and passing on others’ views, adding value, and getting rewarded for adding value.
“As head of a journalistic army of 2,700 professionals I obviously have an intense vested interest in ensuring that their work is valuable to readers and valued by them,” Schlesinger said in a Reuters blog posting.
“Part of that involves ensuring that they are in the centre of the action and that they fill their reports with their expertise and experience. Part of that involves ensuring that they are part of the debate, that their reports inform the debate and that the debate, in turn, informs their future reporting.
“Our standards on sourcing have always emphasized the importance of giving proper credit, even when quoting from competitors. And, of course, we expect the same in return.”
Schlesinger said that in the writing Reuters does specifically for the web “we’re as open to outbound linking as we are to the inbound”. But much of its other writing does not currently use outbound links “because of the particular ecosystem of our professional products, for which a lot of it is specifically written.” But he is sure that will change over time.
“The real danger in not being extremely open to linking, it seems to me, is that by moving yourself out of the mainstream debate you risk irrelevancy.
The fact that today the crediting can be done with a hyperlink is to me intellectually no different than the use of an academic footnote or a traditional journalistic “…according to XYZ in an interview”. It’s just better, because it’s fast, direct and creates an instant chain of knowledge.
“What’s more interesting to me is what one does with the link, not the link itself.
Schlesinger added: “I have a passing interest in the link or retweet that simply passes a nugget along.
“I have a bit more interest when the linker or retweeter extracts real gold that was hidden in the original and gives it more prominence.
“I have a lot more interest when the link or retweet uses the original as a jumping off point for argument, debate, or development.
“That’s when it gets interesting.”
● SOURCE Reuters
“As head of a journalistic army of 2,700 professionals I obviously have an intense vested interest in ensuring that their work is valuable to readers and valued by them,” Schlesinger said in a Reuters blog posting.
“Part of that involves ensuring that they are in the centre of the action and that they fill their reports with their expertise and experience. Part of that involves ensuring that they are part of the debate, that their reports inform the debate and that the debate, in turn, informs their future reporting.
“Our standards on sourcing have always emphasized the importance of giving proper credit, even when quoting from competitors. And, of course, we expect the same in return.”
Schlesinger said that in the writing Reuters does specifically for the web “we’re as open to outbound linking as we are to the inbound”. But much of its other writing does not currently use outbound links “because of the particular ecosystem of our professional products, for which a lot of it is specifically written.” But he is sure that will change over time.
“The real danger in not being extremely open to linking, it seems to me, is that by moving yourself out of the mainstream debate you risk irrelevancy.
The fact that today the crediting can be done with a hyperlink is to me intellectually no different than the use of an academic footnote or a traditional journalistic “…according to XYZ in an interview”. It’s just better, because it’s fast, direct and creates an instant chain of knowledge.
“What’s more interesting to me is what one does with the link, not the link itself.
Schlesinger added: “I have a passing interest in the link or retweet that simply passes a nugget along.
“I have a bit more interest when the linker or retweeter extracts real gold that was hidden in the original and gives it more prominence.
“I have a lot more interest when the link or retweet uses the original as a jumping off point for argument, debate, or development.
“That’s when it gets interesting.”
● SOURCE Reuters
Boycott AP over paid links says U.S. business blogger
Thursday 06 August 2009
"In case you aren’t aware the Associated Press (AP) is painting itself into the corner of obscurity by charging non-AP sites and blogs to pull small snippets from their news items. I think after their traffic starts dying off they will soon realize that links are the lifeblood of the Internet. No incoming links, no income, it’s just that simple,” wrote Statesboro Business Magazine publisher Allen Harkleroad (pictured).
"Personally I have been boycotting linking to AP stories and whenever possible avoiding AP stories in their entirety. Long Live Reuters and the other news services that embrace the link economy and fair use. I encourage you to boycott the Associated Press’ news as well."
Thomson Reuters’ president, media, Chris Ahearn, on Tuesday welcomed links to Reuters’ online news reports.
“Blaming the new leaders or aggregators for disrupting the business of the old leaders, or saber-rattling and threatening to sue are not business strategies – they are personal therapy sessions. Go ask a music executive how well it works,” he wrote.
“A better approach is to have a general agreement among community members to treat others’ content, business and ideas with the same respect you would want them to treat yours…”
● SOURCE Statesboro Business Magazine
News honcho champions 'link economy'
Tuesday 04 August 2009
“Recently there has been a rising crescendo of finger-pointing, shrieking, braying and teeth-gnashing about the future of the news. In the last couple of weeks there have been many comments on proposals for making money out of online news,” says Chris Ahearn, president, media.
“To start, yes the global economy is fairly grim and the cyclical aspects of our business are biting extremely hard in the face of the structural changes. But the Internet isn’t killing the news business any more than TV killed radio or radio killed the newspaper. Incumbent business leaders in news haven’t been keeping up. Many leaders continue to help push the business into the ditch by wasting “resources” (management speak for talented people) on recycling commodity news. Reader habits are changing and vertically curated views need to be meshed with horizontal read-around ones,” he wrote in a Reuters blog posting.
“Blaming the new leaders or aggregators for disrupting the business of the old leaders, or saber-rattling and threatening to sue are not business strategies – they are personal therapy sessions. Go ask a music executive how well it works.
“A better approach is to have a general agreement among community members to treat others’ content, business and ideas with the same respect you would want them to treat yours…
“I believe in the link economy. Please feel free to link to our stories — it adds value to all producers of content. I believe you should play fair and encourage your readers to read-around to what others are producing if you use it and find it interesting.
Ahearn does not believe in charging others for simply linking to your content. “Appropriate excerpting and referencing are not only acceptable, but encouraged. If someone wants to create a business on the back of others’ original content, the parties should have a business relationship that benefits both,” he says.
“Let’s stop whining and start having real conversations across party lines. Let’s get online publishers, search engines, aggregators, ad networks, and self-publishers (bloggers) in a virtual room and determine how we can all get along. I don’t believe any one of us should be the self-appointed Internet police; agreeing on a code of conduct and ethics is in everyone’s best interests.
“Our news ecosystem is evolving and learning how it can be open, diverse, inclusive and effective. With all the new tools and capabilities we should be entering a new golden age of journalism – call it journalism 3.0. Let’s identify how we can birth it and agree what is “fair use” or “fair compensation” and have a conversation about how we can work together to fuel a vibrant, productive and trusted digital news industry. Let’s identify business models that are inclusive and that create a win-win relationship for all parties.
“This is not code for some hidden agenda – it is an open call for collective problem solving. Let’s do it wiki-style and edit it in the public domain. Let’s define the code of conduct and ethics we would all like to operate under.”
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters rocks - US business magazine
Monday 03 August 2009
Reuters rocks, a U.S. business magazine says. Long live Reuters and other news/press agencies that embrace the Internet and fair use.
The source of this endorsement? Statesboro Business Magazine in Georgia.
“The Associated Press (AP), in my opinion is putting the nails in it’s coffin,” wrote publisher Allen Harkleroad. Calling for a boycott of the AP “until they disappear into oblivion”, he added: “On top of that the AP is trying to force sites to pay for fair use and public domain.
“I understand that there are websites out there that copy the AP’s content verbatim. However there are many independent news publications and blogs out there that only use small snippets or quotes and cite the original source. On top of that those cited source links send visitors to the Associated Press website.
“I for one (I am a publisher of a multitude of niche websites) am boycotting the Associated Press entirely and instead elect to support news agencies such as Reuters that don’t have a problem with publishers and bloggers pulling a quote from them. They understand the nature of the Internet and fair use...
“It’s sad to see the Associated Press shooting themselves in the foot like this. I guess there is no law against running your business in the ground, so they can have at it. The Associate Press is not the only news source out there.
“Long live Reuters and other news / press agencies that embrace the Internet and fair use. Goodbye AP, as I for one refuse to pay for fair use or public domain, much less for pulling a quote and sending your traffic back to your website or affiliate sites.”
● SOURCE Statesboro Business Magazine
The source of this endorsement? Statesboro Business Magazine in Georgia.
“The Associated Press (AP), in my opinion is putting the nails in it’s coffin,” wrote publisher Allen Harkleroad. Calling for a boycott of the AP “until they disappear into oblivion”, he added: “On top of that the AP is trying to force sites to pay for fair use and public domain.
“I understand that there are websites out there that copy the AP’s content verbatim. However there are many independent news publications and blogs out there that only use small snippets or quotes and cite the original source. On top of that those cited source links send visitors to the Associated Press website.
“I for one (I am a publisher of a multitude of niche websites) am boycotting the Associated Press entirely and instead elect to support news agencies such as Reuters that don’t have a problem with publishers and bloggers pulling a quote from them. They understand the nature of the Internet and fair use...
“It’s sad to see the Associated Press shooting themselves in the foot like this. I guess there is no law against running your business in the ground, so they can have at it. The Associate Press is not the only news source out there.
“Long live Reuters and other news / press agencies that embrace the Internet and fair use. Goodbye AP, as I for one refuse to pay for fair use or public domain, much less for pulling a quote and sending your traffic back to your website or affiliate sites.”
● SOURCE Statesboro Business Magazine
Online copyright protection group registers 1,000 members
Thursday 23 July 2009
An online copyright protection group in which Thomson Reuters is a founder has registered more than 1,000 members since its launch in April.
The Fair Syndication Consortium now includes more than half of all US newspaper publishers.
Bloggers, the Magazine Publishers Association of America (MPA), The Washington Post and The New York Times are also involved in the initiative. It is based on online copyright tracking technology which enables consortium members to monitor instances where full copies of their material have been republished online.
External sites using the content will be approached with an proposed advertising revenue deal in return for continued use. If this is rejected, other options, including possible licensing or legal action will be explored.
"As one of the largest multimedia news organisations in the world, we find value in everything from subscription to ad-based monetization models," said Chris Ahearn, president of media at Thomson Reuters.
"The Fair Syndication usage model is an important step forward in creating a thriving and sustainable commercial environment for our News Agency and Reuters.com publishing businesses, as well as our peers in the publishing world."
● SOURCE www.journalism.co.uk
● The Fair Syndication Consortium
The Fair Syndication Consortium now includes more than half of all US newspaper publishers.
Bloggers, the Magazine Publishers Association of America (MPA), The Washington Post and The New York Times are also involved in the initiative. It is based on online copyright tracking technology which enables consortium members to monitor instances where full copies of their material have been republished online.
External sites using the content will be approached with an proposed advertising revenue deal in return for continued use. If this is rejected, other options, including possible licensing or legal action will be explored.
"As one of the largest multimedia news organisations in the world, we find value in everything from subscription to ad-based monetization models," said Chris Ahearn, president of media at Thomson Reuters.
"The Fair Syndication usage model is an important step forward in creating a thriving and sustainable commercial environment for our News Agency and Reuters.com publishing businesses, as well as our peers in the publishing world."
● SOURCE www.journalism.co.uk
● The Fair Syndication Consortium
Reuters trustees to continue after de-listing
Wednesday 22 July 2009
Directors of Reuters Founders Share Company take a vigorous and active interest in Thomson Reuters and in editorial and will continue after the company ends its listing on the London Stock Exchange, editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said on Wednesday.
Concern had been raised that the Founders Share directors, known as trustees, would lose their power.
“There is a very interesting and immensely important statement in the management information circular about the changing share structure of Thomson Reuters,” Michael Reupke, former editor-in-chief and general manager, said.
“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,” he wrote in a letter to The Baron.
“I hope I can set a predecessor's mind at ease,” Schlesinger responded. “When Thomson Reuters was created, it was created as a dual listed company. Thomson Reuters Corp is domiciled in Toronto and Thomson Reuters PLC has been in London. There has been one Reuters Founders Share in each of the two companies. Obviously if one of the two companies in the dual structure goes away so too will its founders share, but the other remains. I can assure all that from my perspective as Editor-in-Chief, the current Reuters Founders Share Company directors take a vigorous and active interest in the company and in editorial. That interest and engagement has, if anything, increased in the months before and after the consummation of the deal, particularly if I compare it to, say, a decade earlier.”
Shareholder meetings on unifying Thomson Reuters’ dual-listed company structure are scheduled to take place in Toronto and London on 7 August.
CEO Tom Glocer said last month the company’s decision to end its stock exchange listing in London and on NASDAQ in New York would not affect the operations, customers, strategy or financial position of the business.
“Unification would benefit shareholders by creating a single deep, global pool of liquidity and a simpler, more transparent capital structure,” he told staff.
“Our shares are currently listed on four different stock exchanges [London, New York, NASDAQ and Toronto], which has fragmented the trading in our shares and deterred certain large global investors from buying our shares. Unification would also reduce costs and complexity across the company.
“Our commitment to customers, employees and other stakeholders in London, the United Kingdom and Europe is unchanged by where we list our shares. London is a vital global capital for the markets we serve and home to more than 5,000 of our employees.
“The Founders Share Company has indicated it will support unification as this will in no way diminish our adherence to the Reuters Trust Principles.”
Concern had been raised that the Founders Share directors, known as trustees, would lose their power.
“There is a very interesting and immensely important statement in the management information circular about the changing share structure of Thomson Reuters,” Michael Reupke, former editor-in-chief and general manager, said.
“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,” he wrote in a letter to The Baron.
“I hope I can set a predecessor's mind at ease,” Schlesinger responded. “When Thomson Reuters was created, it was created as a dual listed company. Thomson Reuters Corp is domiciled in Toronto and Thomson Reuters PLC has been in London. There has been one Reuters Founders Share in each of the two companies. Obviously if one of the two companies in the dual structure goes away so too will its founders share, but the other remains. I can assure all that from my perspective as Editor-in-Chief, the current Reuters Founders Share Company directors take a vigorous and active interest in the company and in editorial. That interest and engagement has, if anything, increased in the months before and after the consummation of the deal, particularly if I compare it to, say, a decade earlier.”
Shareholder meetings on unifying Thomson Reuters’ dual-listed company structure are scheduled to take place in Toronto and London on 7 August.
CEO Tom Glocer said last month the company’s decision to end its stock exchange listing in London and on NASDAQ in New York would not affect the operations, customers, strategy or financial position of the business.
“Unification would benefit shareholders by creating a single deep, global pool of liquidity and a simpler, more transparent capital structure,” he told staff.
“Our shares are currently listed on four different stock exchanges [London, New York, NASDAQ and Toronto], which has fragmented the trading in our shares and deterred certain large global investors from buying our shares. Unification would also reduce costs and complexity across the company.
“Our commitment to customers, employees and other stakeholders in London, the United Kingdom and Europe is unchanged by where we list our shares. London is a vital global capital for the markets we serve and home to more than 5,000 of our employees.
“The Founders Share Company has indicated it will support unification as this will in no way diminish our adherence to the Reuters Trust Principles.”
Reuters correspondent to head White House association
Tuesday 21 July 2009
Reuters’ White House correspondent Caren Bohan has been elected next president of the White House Correspondents Association.
She will begin her one-year term as president in mid-2011 after serving as vice president for a year. The WHCA’s mission is to push for media access to the president and provide input on coverage and travel logistics for journalists who cover the White House beat. It also hosts an annual dinner with the president.
Bohan joined Reuters in 1992 and has covered the White House since 2003. Previously she was part of a team of reporters who won an award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for their coverage of President Bush's 2002 shakeup of his economic team.
Howard Goller, editor for US & Canada political & general news, said: "We are pleased, proud and honored. This is wonderful recognition for Caren, our White House team and Reuters."
The first Reuters correspondent to head the WHCA was Ralph Harris in 1979. He died on 24 December 2008 aged 87.
She will begin her one-year term as president in mid-2011 after serving as vice president for a year. The WHCA’s mission is to push for media access to the president and provide input on coverage and travel logistics for journalists who cover the White House beat. It also hosts an annual dinner with the president.
Bohan joined Reuters in 1992 and has covered the White House since 2003. Previously she was part of a team of reporters who won an award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for their coverage of President Bush's 2002 shakeup of his economic team.
Howard Goller, editor for US & Canada political & general news, said: "We are pleased, proud and honored. This is wonderful recognition for Caren, our White House team and Reuters."
The first Reuters correspondent to head the WHCA was Ralph Harris in 1979. He died on 24 December 2008 aged 87.
David Chipp's memoirs to be published in October
Thursday 16 July 2009
The memoirs of the late David Chipp, former editor of Reuters and director of the Reuters Foundation, are to be published posthumously in October.
The title, Mao’s Toe, comes from an incident in Peking half a century ago when Chipp was Reuters’ first resident correspondent in China since the 1949 Communist takeover. He trod on Chairman Mao Zedong’s toe and, far from taking offence, the Communist leader later gave Chipp his very own Chinese name, Qi Dewei – Lacquered Defender of Morals.
Chipp died in his sleep on 9 September 2008 aged 81. His memoirs will be launched at a reception at his old college, King’s, Cambridge, preceded by a memorial evensong in the chapel on Saturday 24 October at 5:15 pm for 5:30 pm. Those who wish to attend or obtain a copy of the book should contact ● development.office@kings.cam.ac.uk to register their interest.
● Obituary
● Thanksgiving service
The title, Mao’s Toe, comes from an incident in Peking half a century ago when Chipp was Reuters’ first resident correspondent in China since the 1949 Communist takeover. He trod on Chairman Mao Zedong’s toe and, far from taking offence, the Communist leader later gave Chipp his very own Chinese name, Qi Dewei – Lacquered Defender of Morals.
Chipp died in his sleep on 9 September 2008 aged 81. His memoirs will be launched at a reception at his old college, King’s, Cambridge, preceded by a memorial evensong in the chapel on Saturday 24 October at 5:15 pm for 5:30 pm. Those who wish to attend or obtain a copy of the book should contact ● development.office@kings.cam.ac.uk to register their interest.
● Obituary
● Thanksgiving service
Reuters Iraq war documentary nominated for Emmy
Wednesday 15 July 2009
A Reuters documentary on Iraq has been nominated for “a well-deserved Emmy”, editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said on Wednesday.
“It's already a winner in my book,” he said in a message on the micro-blogging site Twitter.
Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War, features graphic still and video images and interviews with journalists Ceerwan Aziz, Alastair Macdonald, Andrew Marshall, Samia Nakhoul, Khaled Ramahi, Goran Tomasevic and Dean Yates.
It has already won numerous prizes including Best Multimedia at the 2008 Online News Association and New York Photo Awards. In June it was awarded the Italian Illaria Alpi Prize for Best International Report. The €2,500 prize was donated to the Rory Peck Trust which supports the families of freelance journalists killed on assignment.
Others among six Emmy finalists are The New York Times, Toronto Globe and Mail and The Washington Post. The winner will be announced at the 30th annual awards ceremony of the US National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in New York on 21 September.
The Academy presented a Lifetime Achievement Award for Business and Financial Reporting to Schlesinger in December.
● CLICK to view Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War | VIDEO
“It's already a winner in my book,” he said in a message on the micro-blogging site Twitter.
Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War, features graphic still and video images and interviews with journalists Ceerwan Aziz, Alastair Macdonald, Andrew Marshall, Samia Nakhoul, Khaled Ramahi, Goran Tomasevic and Dean Yates.
It has already won numerous prizes including Best Multimedia at the 2008 Online News Association and New York Photo Awards. In June it was awarded the Italian Illaria Alpi Prize for Best International Report. The €2,500 prize was donated to the Rory Peck Trust which supports the families of freelance journalists killed on assignment.
Others among six Emmy finalists are The New York Times, Toronto Globe and Mail and The Washington Post. The winner will be announced at the 30th annual awards ceremony of the US National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in New York on 21 September.
The Academy presented a Lifetime Achievement Award for Business and Financial Reporting to Schlesinger in December.
● CLICK to view Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War | VIDEO
Reuters' complete Handbook of Journalism goes online
Thursday 09 July 2009
“The handbook is the guidance Reuters journalists live by — and we’re proud of it,” wrote Dean Wright, global editor, ethics, innovation and news standards (pictured).
“Until now, it hasn’t been freely available to the public. In the early 1990s, a printed handbook was published and in 2006 the Reuters Foundation published a relatively short PDF online that gave some basic guidance to reporters. But it’s only now that we’re putting the full handbook online.”
Wright said the handbook is being made available to everyone for a number of reasons. Among them:
● Transparency: At a time when trust is an endangered commodity in the financial and media worlds, it’s important that news consumers see the guidelines our journalists follow.
● Service: As we’ve seen over the past decade, the barriers to publishing have dropped so that anyone with an idea and a computer can be a publisher. But it’s also become clear that publishers have a varying standard of truth, fairness and style. Our handbook is a good place for budding journalists to begin.
● Geography: Reuters serves a global audience and the handbook recognises the cultural and political differences that our journalists face in reporting for the world. This is a handbook not just for English-language journalists in the United Kingdom or the United States, but for wherever English is used.
In the contest between UK and US English, “We take a global approach to the spelling of many words. Often, it’s the United States against the world.”
The sports section of the handbook offers a list of cliches to avoid and advice on “good, bad”: “For financial and commodity markets good news and bad news depends on who you are and what your position is in the market. Avoid them.”
One of the most controversial entries is that of “terrorism.” It reads, in part: “We may refer without attribution to terrorism and counter-terrorism in general but do not refer to specific events as terrorism. Nor do we use the adjective word terrorist without attribution to qualify specific individuals, groups or events. … Report the subjects of news stories objectively, their actions, identity and background. Aim for a dispassionate use of language so that individuals, organisations and governments can make their own judgment on the basis of facts. Seek to use more specific terms like “bomber” or “bombing”, “hijacker” or “hijacking”, “attacker” or “attacks”, “gunman” or “gunmen” etc.”
This policy has been passionately debated inside and outside Reuters, Wright said. As the handbook says, “we aim for dispassionate language” so that our customers can “make their own judgment on the basis of facts.”
Editor-in-Chief David Schlesinger puts it this way: “Over the years we have been criticised for this policy on numerous occasions, when people or governments wanted us to label an incident ourselves rather than quote their views. Criticism of our policy was especially fierce when the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Reuters made the decision not to describe the attackers as terrorists, because we thought a label would not add to our vivid description of the thousands of deaths and the destruction of the iconic twin towers of the World Trade Center. In the years since, as the world has witnessed numerous other attacks, we’ve chosen to continue that policy of sticking with the facts and letting our readers make up their own minds based on our reporting and the evidence we present them.”
Wright added: “It’s important to point out that the handbook is a living document, one that preserves rules that have guided Reuters journalists through a century and half but also one that may change when the times change. It’s also important to note that the handbook is produced by humans who aren’t infallible — and it’s used by humans who aren’t infallible, so sometimes we make mistakes. I’m sure you’ll let us know when we do, but we’re usually harder on ourselves than anyone else is.”
● SOURCE Reuters | Handbook of Journalism
RSF demands release of Ibrahim Jassam
Saturday 04 July 2009
Advocates say his detention is illegal as the Iraqi central criminal court dismissed all charges against him last November.
"The US armed forces are now withdrawing from the main Iraqi cities after six years of occupation," Paris-based RSF said.
"We hope this will result in the release of detainees still held by the Americans, such as Ibrahim Jassam, who was arrested 10 months ago. His detention is illegal as the Iraqi central criminal court dismissed all charges against him last November. He must be freed."
One of Jassam's sisters told RSF by phone: "Ibrahim began a hunger strike four days ago in protest against his illegal detention. His health is deteriorating. We are very worried about him.” His family says they have been allowed to visit him every two months.
Jassam was arrested by US and Iraqi soldiers in the south Baghdad district of Mahmoudiyah on 1 September. No evidence was produced against him when the central criminal court heard his case on 30 November and dismissed all the charges. Nonetheless, he is still being held in Buki prison in Basra, 550 km south of Baghdad.
The situation of journalists continues to be critical in Iraq and the danger persists as the US forces pull out, RSF said. Three journalists have been killed since the start of the year.
● SOURCE Reporters sans Frontières
David Schlesinger on journalism in the age of Twitter
Wednesday 24 June 2009
In the future, old media won’t control news dissemination. Newspapers, magazines and news services won’t die. But they must change.
The only way for news organisations like Reuters to survive is to embrace the change and embrace the new. “Longing for the ways of the past will not work.”
Schlesinger was speaking to the International Olympics Committee Press Commission on Tuesday. His speech was posted on the Reuters Editors’ blog (click on the link below to read the full text).
“I spend my days at Reuters preaching the multimedia gospel to my 2,700 journalists,” he said.
“I want people to think holistically. I need them to. More and more, we’re issuing a multimedia report to multimedia-savvy consumers who no longer make a distinction between information they receive from text and information they receive from images. They demand words and pictures to be blended because… well, because that’s the way the world is! That’s the way the internet is. That’s the way schools work. That’s the way businesses work.
“So that’s my gospel – to bring multimedia to life at Reuters.”
In the face of “citizen journalism” using new social media tools, “what can we do to survive, or more fundamentally, to stay relevant?
“I think the only path is to embrace the change and embrace the new. Longing for the ways of the past will not work,” Schlesinger said.
“We in the traditional media and you in the IOC must concentrate our efforts on defining and developing that which really adds value.
“That means understanding what really can be exclusive and what really is insightful. It means truly exploiting real expertise.”
It means using all the multimedia tools available and all the smart multimedia journalists to provide a package so much stronger than any one individual strand, Schlesinger said.
It means working with the mobile phone and digital camera and social media-enabled public and not against them.
While old distinctions and old definitions are falling, “Our goal has to be to preserve the institutions and not the rules or definitions.
“And the way to do that is to evolve and morph and develop faster than the changes all around us.”
● SOURCE Reuters
Facebook, Twitter and the Trust Principles: a guide
Wednesday 03 June 2009
Reuters is developing guidelines for how its journalists interact with social media like Facebook and Twitter. The Trust Principles, drafted in 1941, are at the heart of the rules for the new 21st century media.
These are the guidelines:
● If Reuters journalists want to use Twitter or social media as part of their professional role they should seek the permission of their manager.
● If Reuters journalists use Twitter professionally they should use the word “Reuters” in the name of their streams or somewhere else on the page.
● The Trust Principles apply to Twitter and social media – journalists should do nothing that compromises them.
● Microblogging and use of social media tend to blur the distinction between professional and personal lives: When using Twitter or social media in a professional capacity Reuters journalists should aim to be personable but not to include irrelevant material about their personal lives.
The Trust Principles were created in the midst of World War II with the express purpose of preserving Reuters’ independence, integrity and freedom from bias. When Reuters merged with Thomson in April 2008 they were adopted by the combined company.
Dean Wright, global editor, ethics, innovation and news standards, pondering the question “Are we too connected?” says that in recent days and weeks he’s been wondering whether our mobile phones, Blackberries, text messaging and constant access to e-mail and social media have brought us too close together for our own good.
“Or maybe the quality of our connected life is only as good as the information we share.”
Wright wonders whether this “me, me, me” quality of Facebook and Twitter is just an early evolutionary stage of something smarter and more useful. “There are some encouraging signs – and that’s a good thing, because we’re becoming ever more connected,” he says.
How connected are we?
“At Reuters, we’re using Reuters Messenger to build chat rooms in which our journalists can expand their conversation with the marketplace through informal, dynamic interactions with a group of engaged financial news clients on our terminals.
“We’re also using Twitter in some intriguing ways:
● “Specialist journalists use it to share articles and build up a following.
● “Online editorial staff and bloggers use Twitter to distribute news and solicit reader comment.
● “Journalists are using Twitter during live events like the World Economic Forum at Davos (editor-in-chief David Schlesinger used it to break news there earlier this year) and to solicit questions for newsmaker interviews.
“There are huge implications for those of us in the news media as we try to reach an increasingly fragmented and distracted audience awash in information, some of it wanted and much of it not.
“And journalists who work and live in the digital world (and that’s just about all of us now) will find that there is little or no difference between our professional and private personae in the wide-open world of social media.”
In an e-mail to editorial staff, Schlesinger said “whether we like it or not, our online identities are inextricably linked with our workplace identities…Things we do online could very easily taint our journalistic activity. If one of us self-identifies as ‘very liberal’ politically, it may well be the truth, but would advertising it simply feed the myth that journalists in general have a liberal bias?”
“The easiest rule,” Schlesinger cautioned, “is to stop, think and imagine: How would you feel and how would you react if someone made your Facebook page or blog or online comment a story? Could you defend your objectivity? Could Reuters defend having you on the beat you’re on? Could your reputation, and ours, survive someone making an issue of it?”
Wright added: “I’m sure neither Schlesinger nor I have had the last word on the relationship of journalism and social media, nor on whether we’re all too connected. What we need to pay attention to is the quality of those connections.”
● SOURCE Reuters
● Trust Principles
These are the guidelines:
● If Reuters journalists want to use Twitter or social media as part of their professional role they should seek the permission of their manager.
● If Reuters journalists use Twitter professionally they should use the word “Reuters” in the name of their streams or somewhere else on the page.
● The Trust Principles apply to Twitter and social media – journalists should do nothing that compromises them.
● Microblogging and use of social media tend to blur the distinction between professional and personal lives: When using Twitter or social media in a professional capacity Reuters journalists should aim to be personable but not to include irrelevant material about their personal lives.
The Trust Principles were created in the midst of World War II with the express purpose of preserving Reuters’ independence, integrity and freedom from bias. When Reuters merged with Thomson in April 2008 they were adopted by the combined company.
Dean Wright, global editor, ethics, innovation and news standards, pondering the question “Are we too connected?” says that in recent days and weeks he’s been wondering whether our mobile phones, Blackberries, text messaging and constant access to e-mail and social media have brought us too close together for our own good.
“Or maybe the quality of our connected life is only as good as the information we share.”
Wright wonders whether this “me, me, me” quality of Facebook and Twitter is just an early evolutionary stage of something smarter and more useful. “There are some encouraging signs – and that’s a good thing, because we’re becoming ever more connected,” he says.
How connected are we?
“At Reuters, we’re using Reuters Messenger to build chat rooms in which our journalists can expand their conversation with the marketplace through informal, dynamic interactions with a group of engaged financial news clients on our terminals.
“We’re also using Twitter in some intriguing ways:
● “Specialist journalists use it to share articles and build up a following.
● “Online editorial staff and bloggers use Twitter to distribute news and solicit reader comment.
● “Journalists are using Twitter during live events like the World Economic Forum at Davos (editor-in-chief David Schlesinger used it to break news there earlier this year) and to solicit questions for newsmaker interviews.
“There are huge implications for those of us in the news media as we try to reach an increasingly fragmented and distracted audience awash in information, some of it wanted and much of it not.
“And journalists who work and live in the digital world (and that’s just about all of us now) will find that there is little or no difference between our professional and private personae in the wide-open world of social media.”
In an e-mail to editorial staff, Schlesinger said “whether we like it or not, our online identities are inextricably linked with our workplace identities…Things we do online could very easily taint our journalistic activity. If one of us self-identifies as ‘very liberal’ politically, it may well be the truth, but would advertising it simply feed the myth that journalists in general have a liberal bias?”
“The easiest rule,” Schlesinger cautioned, “is to stop, think and imagine: How would you feel and how would you react if someone made your Facebook page or blog or online comment a story? Could you defend your objectivity? Could Reuters defend having you on the beat you’re on? Could your reputation, and ours, survive someone making an issue of it?”
Wright added: “I’m sure neither Schlesinger nor I have had the last word on the relationship of journalism and social media, nor on whether we’re all too connected. What we need to pay attention to is the quality of those connections.”
● SOURCE Reuters
● Trust Principles
Reuters active on case of Ibrahim Jassam - David Schlesinger
Thursday 28 May 2009
Progress has indeed been unsatisfactory, Schlesinger said in a message to The Baron in response to a posting by former editor-in-chief Brian Horton (● Click Mail).
“Your readers can be assured we are working actively on this – in Iraq, in Washington and through the Committee to Protect Journalists (where I am a board member),” Schlesinger said.
“My position has been consistent throughout: if there is a charge against or suspicion about any of our journalists, let it be aired publicly. If there is a charge, let the journalist defend his name with the aid of counsel and in an open, fair tribunal. If there is a suspicion about his actions, let us know what it is: we will happily explain why our journalists rush to the scene of conflict instead of away and why they, and we, put such a premium on speed of response.
“We have no interest in harbouring a proven evil-doer on our staff. But I will not tolerate or accept innuendo or vague, unspecified charges against a journalist who has never done anything to cause us to question his probity.”
The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Jassam, 31, is close to breaking point. His brother Walid visited him recently in Camp Bucca, the desolate, tented US prison camp in the desert in southern Iraq, it said.
"He used to be handsome, but now he's pale and he's tired," said Walid, who says his brother had no ties to insurgents. "Every now and then while we were talking, he would start crying. He was begging me: 'Please do something to get me out of here. I don't know what is the charge against me.'
"I told him we already tried everything."
Jassam was seized by American and Iraqi troops at his family home in the town of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, on 2 September 2008. They confiscated his computer hard drive and cameras and led him away handcuffed and blindfolded.
The U.S. military rejected an Iraqi Central Criminal Court order on 30 November to release him for lack of evidence, saying he is a “high security threat”. No evidence has been presented.
Detained Reuters cameraman 'close to breaking point'
Sunday 24 May 2009
Jassam's brother Walid visited him recently in Camp Bucca, the desolate, tented US prison camp in the desert in southern Iraq, it said.
"He used to be handsome, but now he's pale and he's tired," said Walid, who says his brother had no ties to insurgents. "Every now and then while we were talking, he would start crying. He was begging me: 'Please do something to get me out of here. I don't know what is the charge against me.'
"I told him we already tried everything."
Jassam, 31, was detained by American and Iraqi troops at his family home in the town of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, on 2 September 2008. They confiscated his computer hard drive and cameras and led him away handcuffed and blindfolded.
The US military rejected an Iraqi Central Criminal Court order on 30 November to release him for lack of evidence, saying he is a “high security threat”. No evidence has been presented.
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger has expressed disappointment over Jassam's detention and said there is no evidence against him.
Jassam is the only Iraqi journalist still in US custody. He is the last to be detained under wartime rules that predated a US-Iraqi security agreement signed in December. Under the new accord, US forces must obtain a warrant before they can arrest an Iraqi citizen.
The decision to release him or transfer him to the Iraqi legal system will be made by the Iraqi government. The only timetable for that is by the end of the year, a US military spokesman said.
● SOURCE Los Angeles Times
Reuters hires three more columnists
Thursday 14 May 2009
Reuters announced three more appointments to its commentary team.
Agnes Crane, an editor at Dow Jones Newswires, Matthew Goldstein, a senior writer for BusinessWeek, and Christopher Swann from Bloomberg News are joining over the next three weeks as columnists based in New York.
The 25-member commentary team based primarily in London and New York will produce a blog.
The team will be led by Jonathan Ford, co-founder of Breakingviews. The European team will be led by Peter Thal Larsen, formerly banking editor of the Financial Times, and the US team will be led by Jeffrey Cane, formerly an editor at Portfolio.com and The New York Times.
"I am very excited to have a team of such talented financial journalists," said Cane. "They, along with our New York-based financial blogger, Felix Salmon, and our Washington blogger and columnist, James Pethokoukis, will greatly expand the ability of Reuters to offer smart, fact-based opinion on the big stories in the global financial markets."
● SOURCE PR News Wire
Agnes Crane, an editor at Dow Jones Newswires, Matthew Goldstein, a senior writer for BusinessWeek, and Christopher Swann from Bloomberg News are joining over the next three weeks as columnists based in New York.
The 25-member commentary team based primarily in London and New York will produce a blog.
The team will be led by Jonathan Ford, co-founder of Breakingviews. The European team will be led by Peter Thal Larsen, formerly banking editor of the Financial Times, and the US team will be led by Jeffrey Cane, formerly an editor at Portfolio.com and The New York Times.
"I am very excited to have a team of such talented financial journalists," said Cane. "They, along with our New York-based financial blogger, Felix Salmon, and our Washington blogger and columnist, James Pethokoukis, will greatly expand the ability of Reuters to offer smart, fact-based opinion on the big stories in the global financial markets."
● SOURCE PR News Wire
FT man joins Reuters as commentary editor, banking chief
Wednesday 15 April 2009
The Financial Times’ banking editor, Peter Thal Larsen, is leaving after 10 years to join Reuters’ commentary service.
He will become the London-based European editor of the commentary team, commissioning and editing comment articles, as well as taking overall charge of global banking coverage.
Thal Larsen will report to Jonathan Ford, editor of the new commentary team at Reuters which is developing its global commentary output and expanding its range of columns and blogs.
Before becoming FT banking editor he worked in New York from 2000 to 2004, first as the paper's Wall Street correspondent and later as US communications editor, covering the media and telecoms.
● SOURCE The Guardian
He will become the London-based European editor of the commentary team, commissioning and editing comment articles, as well as taking overall charge of global banking coverage.
Thal Larsen will report to Jonathan Ford, editor of the new commentary team at Reuters which is developing its global commentary output and expanding its range of columns and blogs.
Before becoming FT banking editor he worked in New York from 2000 to 2004, first as the paper's Wall Street correspondent and later as US communications editor, covering the media and telecoms.
● SOURCE The Guardian
In the news: the art of expenses
Thursday 09 April 2009
Former correspondent John Morrison has been interviewed on radio about journalists’ expenses following the humiliation of a British government minister over a claim for two pornographic films watched by her husband while she was away.
"Reuters had a legendary journalism tutor called George Short and he used to make sure that young journalists were fully briefed on expenses, which was just as important as writing stories,” Morrison said.
“He used to tell the story about the stringer in the far north of Alaska who used to claim every month for a fleet of husky dogs, and when this was queried and his boss was going to visit and said ‘Can I see the dogs?’ suddenly the dogs had to be put down because they were ill. But that also went on expenses...”
Morrison (Reuters 1971-2000 – Moscow, Vienna, The Hague, Paris, Harare, Westminster lobby correspondent and now a freelance writer) said he picked up a few tips in Moscow and the former Soviet bloc.
“The tip is really to travel to as many countries as possible, all using different currencies,” he said in the interview, which was taped in a Fleet Street pub and aired on Sunday on the BBC Radio 4 programme Broadcasting House.
Did he think everyone was on the fiddle, that there was a culture of legendary expenses on Fleet Street?
“Well, I think it was certainly much easier in those days, because these days if an accountant queries your expenses he can just call you up on your Blackberry wherever you are. Even if you’re paddling up the Zambezi, you’re not out of contact, whereas 20, 30 years ago you sent in your expenses by cleft stick or whatever and it was quite difficult for the accountant to reach you and query them...
“I do remember a trip to, somewhere in Austria or Italy, with the parliamentary lobby. We all went to a summit and we all went out to a restaurant. Lobby journalists are not terribly well known for their language skills so I quite often translated the menu and ordered the food. And I do remember saying to the waiter, ‘Well, we’ll have three bottles of house wine, please’. And there was a deathly silence from all around me, and from the end of the table a loud voice said, ‘I did not come into journalism to drink the house wine’. So I never made that mistake again.
“There is a problem if you go out in a group and you can’t actually spend enough. One of the great George Short mottos was: never charge less than the last bloke did. I do remember a Lobby trip to South Africa. We got together and as usual tried to find the most expensive restaurant in town. This was at a period when the rand had plummeted against sterling. And so we all had our prawns and our lobsters and our bill came at the end for several thousand rand but when we worked it out, catastrophe – it was only £15 a head.”
Rodney Pinder also remembers a few tales about expenses. “I recall one day in bleakest London being invited into Jack Henry's office. We chatted about the weather and some African country I was about to be assigned to and after an hour or so's pleasantries he said he was going to tell me a story. I leaned forward in expectation of a penetrating glimpse of the hazards of hacking in the heart of darkness.
"’A friend of mine was standing in the Strand outside the law courts the other day when he saw someone he knew from the Telegraph sprinting past,’ related Jack.
"’My friend shouted to his friend: 'What are you doing?'
"’Taking a taxi,' his friend gasped.
“Finished, Jack leaned back in his chair, a slight smile playing on his lips.
"’Sorry, Jack,’ was all I could think of saying, ‘Don't get it.’"
Expenses managers and overseers must have had a difficult life, Pinder said. “Old salts and training editors like fabled George Short used to drum into recruits that expenses forms offered fact-bound journalists their greatest opportunity for creative writing. Many grabbed the chance with imagination and wit.
“A big-byline AP correspondent once was assigned to a story, big news at the time but forgotten now, in backwoods Armpitville, Miss.
“He submitted his exes and shortly thereafter was summoned into the presence of the Chief Accountant in his eyrie at Rockefeller Plaza.
"’How on earth can you spend 50 dollars a day in Armpitville?’" demanded the bean counter (this was in the 60s).
"’It was difficult,’ responded the big byline. ‘I just had to do without breakfast.’
“His expenses were approved.
“My introduction to journalist salaries and expenses came at the Hendon Times where I was paid a spectacular £10 a week plus £4 expenses allowance.
“Once I had to go to the Managing Editor and say ‘Please, Sir, I need some more’ as I had overspent my allowance by two shillings, necessitated by taking a taxi to the crematorium for a last-minute assignment. (Too far to run!)
“He was scared witless at the thought of having to justify this extravagance to his boss so he grabbed his purse and shook out the extra two bob himself. Shamelessly, I took it (my rent was four guineas a week).
“A few years later I was moonlighting on the Daily Mirror. I submitted my first expenses and was swiftly called to the desk of the purple-faced News Editor.
“‘This is not acceptable, laddie,’ he spluttered, brandishing my modest paperwork. ‘What are you trying to do to us? Go away and don't come back until you double it. If you can't do proper exes you're not up to the job.’
“Foreign correspondents were high-end practitioners of the fine art of expenses. But they probably had an advantage as they worked in strange, far-flung places of which we knew little, far from the accountants' natural habitats in Croydon and Potters Bar.
“There are tales of costs claimed to replace Louis Vuitton bags thrown out of a hot air balloon as it struggled for height; costs for ladies of the night appearing on hotel bills in the light of day as laundry; costs for (phantom) TV crews accompanying a lone correspondent across Africa; kwacha transmuted by some strange alchemy into sterling between Lusaka and London. And so on.
“One top correspondent was caught out charging for a lawnmower for his home. Someone in Head Office remembered visiting him in his top-floor flat. Another creative writer was about to submit a pet's vet bill as a personal medical expense when at the last minute he or she noticed at the foot of the account amongst services offered by the practice the item ‘euthanasia’.”
John Owen-Davies believes the husky story related by Morrison “may be a spin-off from the one about the Daily Express chap who, in the 1967 Six Day War, claimed on return from Egypt the princely sum of £50 for hire of one camel. When challenged, he added an extra £50 ‘for burial of one camel’ – and won the day.
“On the Daily Telegraph one old timer sent to Prague in 1967 attached to his exes a somewhat flattened pair of shoes of top quality hide. He claimed for a new pair saying they had been flattened by a Soviet tank. He, too, got his cash. Sure, the shoes were flattened but it was believed someone had trod on them in the King and Keys.”
Andy Hill remembers Paris in the 1970s:
“Andy Hill to news editor Julian Nundy: ‘Julian. Why do you close your eyes when you sign my expenses?’
“Nundy to AJH: ‘Because I never read fiction.’"
Bernard Edinger recalls this story about expenses told to him by Ron Thompson:
“When the Korean War broke out in 1950, no one had any staff correspondents in Korea or who knew anything about the place.
“A very large British news organisation latched on to a Scot who lived in Seoul and who turned out to be a magnificent war correspondent who provided them with excellent coverage during the three-year-long conflict.
“After the war, his employers decided to integrate this man into its regular ranks and made him their Tokyo correspondent.
“Not much was happening however in Tokyo and the correspondent spent his free time as best as he could. Among other things, he was particularly appreciative of young Japanese ladies of uncertain morality and he would take one of them to an expensive restaurant every week, putting down the expense as ‘dinner with the Polish Air Attaché’.
“One day, the news organisation’s auditing team picked Tokyo as one of the several bureaux whose accounts they chose at random to inspect that year.
“The correspondent subsequently got the following message:
“‘Dear Mr X,
“‘We have been going through your expenses and find that you regularly dine at considerable expense with the Air Attaché at the Polish embassy. We have consulted the diplomatic list for Japan and found that there is no Air Attaché at the Polish embassy in Tokyo. Would you kindly explain ... etc, etc’
“To which the correspondent replied ‘The cad! I shall never invite him to dinner again!’”
And how about the Saigon jeep? “I tell this tale as told to me by someone who was there,” Rick Norsworthy relates.
“The boys in the Saigon bureau decided they were overworked and underpaid. To do something about this, they bought a jeep. This jeep was overpriced but the bureau decided to buy it anyway even though it existed only in the bureau accounts. This imaginary jeep proved very expensive to run. It guzzled gas, and repair bills were high, it even had a name which became well-known throughout the region and to the accounts department in London. Its name escapes me. If a visitor passing through Saigon found out about the jeep, he or she was sworn to secrecy. All members of the Saigon bureau were beneficiaries of the jeep, until one day the boys heard that Brian Horton, the editor-in-chief, was visiting Saigon. On arrival Horton expressed a keen interest to see the jeep. That day it broke down for the last time, and was towed away before the editor-in-chief could see it. Both Horton and the boys in the bureau were disappointed.”
Expenses even rated a mention in one of the eulogies at Patrick Massey’s funeral on Monday. Former Financial Times correspondent David Lennon recounted how Massey once queried a bill that included high charges for using the telex at a Middle East hotel.
It was discreetly explained that “telex” really meant alcoholic drinks and was for the sake of Arab journalists who drank but dared not indicate it on their expenses.
“Ah," said Massey, reassured. “Time for a telex, then.”
Tom Glocer's radical ideas about newspapers
Tuesday 07 April 2009
Tom Glocer has weighed in on the crisis in US newspapers with some trenchant ideas – The New York Times could get by with 60 journalists instead of 10 times that number, he says.
"Why does The New York Times need to have 600-700 journalists? Why not 30 journalists with 30 apprentices? Does The New York Times do a good job covering sports? So-so. Do they do a good job covering business? No. How about The New York Times on Israel, FT on Germany and France, which is really good, ESPN on sports and other smaller things coming together on a style sheet every morning?" Thomson Reuters’ CEO said.
But would people pay for it? "People will pay for quality journalism, whether through micropayments or regular, boring subscription plans."
Glocer said Reuters is comfortable reinventing itself. Until 1970, it never made more than about $100 million a year, he said. Today, it's a $13.5 billion company because it is "getting out of provisional news gathering, like stop being like the AP and other press, and realising there was value in information from professionals in their work, whether it was bankers, lawyers and accountants and health care professionals."
Glocer also discussed Twitter, the fast-growing micro-blogging phenomenon, saying, "I think if you hooked up Einstein to Twitter, it'd be garbage, too."
And he explained why he switched from LinkedIn to Facebook for business networking: "Every asshole who wanted a job was pestering me on LinkedIn and nobody interesting was coming to me."
Glocer also emphasized the need for financial companies to move into more transparent practices and release real-time data sets, instead of quarterly or yearly reports.
"Even when it's down to press releases and Webcasts, it's really all about a bunch of people inside the walls of a company, a corporation pretending that they have some control over what gets out and a bunch of people on the other side, interpreting the official flow, and then most of the art is saying how that's bullshit," he said.
"What if we stopped this charade that people like me pretend to be in control of the timing, and to some extent, the content of my business, and instead release a real-time flow of information?"
Certainly, that will change the game for financial reporters. "I mean, what are good journalists? For good journalists, their job in company reporting is essentially to find out stuff that companies don't want to release outside of their normal cycles or templates, and get that information faster."
Glocer believes the evolution of news will be a slow process. "I've met a lot of smart people in my life, and they're the ones who are eventually always right and they always know where things are going [and] they always underestimate friction in the world and how long it takes to get there."
"Since we're still human beings, living in a friction-filled world, it'll take at least 10 years for the media cycle to catch up," he said.
Glocer was talking in Brooklyn, New York on Monday night at a Futurists Meetup about what financial news and data will look like in 30 years. His remarks were reported by The New York Observer.
“While Glocer’s proposal might seem a little drastic, last week the NYTCo did some scaling back by folding the International Herald Tribune’s site into the NYTimes.com’s global section,” the Observer said.
Postscript: Four days later Tom Glocer said his talk on the future of financial information and the ensuing discussion was not particularly controversial, “but my answer to a somewhat unrelated question on the future of newspapers has been ricocheting in an increasingly inaccurate way across the blogosphere”.
In a posting on his blog on on 11 April, Glocer wrote: “I did, in fact, imagine a future (again 30 years hence) when a newspaper (in my example my hometown New York Times) could employ only 60 journalists rather than the hundreds who work there today. In my example, I challenged our conception of what a newspaper must include and imagined my theoretically ideal paper which combined New York Times content on the Middle-East, the FT on Europe, the Wall Street Journal or Reuters for finance, ESPN for sports and so on. The web, of course, already makes such a mash-up possible today either through browser tabs or RSS feeds.
“In this sort of disaggregated world, the NYT would not need a staff of hundreds to produce a fully integrated newspaper, any more than Apple needs to manufacture its own hard drives or touch screens. I imagined that to really focus on one or two core strengths that it could do better than any other publication, the Times might need 30 star journalists – the Tom Friedmans and William Safires, a couple of great editors, and then an up and coming group (or farm system) of 30 junior staff who could grow into the next generation of stars. I readily admit this would be much different from our current view of what a newspaper should look like, but ironically this alternative reality is not so far removed from that apparently described by the great Times editor Max Frankel in a memo to management several years ago (see The Inheritance Vanity Fair, May 2009).
“Even if this vision of a more open and interoperable newspaper were financially viable, it will be difficult for the current generation of integrated papers to get there. I know from painful personal experience at Reuters that it is much easier to build new from zero to 60 staff than to reduce 1000 to 60. Moreover, there is no reason to believe (just because I came up with a low number to be intentionally provocative) that the ‘right’ number is not 200 or 300. The principle, however, is the same. When I fly on American Airlines, I am actually pleased they feature Starbucks coffee rather than American Airlines coffee. I don’t want Starbucks baristas flying or maintaining the 777, but I see no reason other than inertia why every function must be staffed by ‘insiders.’
“The modern digital world is increasingly frictionless. This requires every company that wishes to survive and prosper to really understand and focus on its core competence. To repeatedly ask ‘what do we do better than anyone else? What defines us?’ At Thomson Reuters, some of our businesses used to build their own computer hardware and operate communications networks, but these are not our core skill set. Today we still build our own editing systems, but likely not for ever. Newspapers are glorious, fabled institutions which serve an important civic role, but that does not give them a perpetual bye to avoid change and reinvention like the rest of us.”
● SOURCE The New York Observer | Paid Content | Media Bistro | Tom Glocer’s Blog
Reuters names new global online editor
Tuesday 07 April 2009
Reuters has created the new post of global editor for online and appointed Keith McAllister, a former CEO of a syndicated online content company, to the job.
He will be part of the multimedia and consumer media management teams and will oversee editorial and production of all online operations for Reuters News. He will be based in New York and report to Chris Cramer, global editor, multimedia.
McAllister will also be responsible for the packaging, programming and publishing of editorial content for Reuters News websites and retail customers.
The website Paid Content said his first priority will be to create multimedia products for existing and online operations in order to meet the increased challenges from Bloomberg and Associated Press, which have become more aggressive on the digital and video front.
“Case in point, at its annual meeting on Monday, the AP said it would ramp up e-commerce and mobile news products as it looks to find ways of drawing in more revenue.”
McAllister previously worked for online content firm Mochila, and before that was at CNN for 17 years, most recently as executive vice president and managing editor for national news gathering.
Cramer is a former president of CNN International. He joined Reuters last September with the task of overseeing multimedia projects including the reuters.com website and acting as the main liaison between the news organisation and media business.
● SOURCE Washington Post / Paid Content
He will be part of the multimedia and consumer media management teams and will oversee editorial and production of all online operations for Reuters News. He will be based in New York and report to Chris Cramer, global editor, multimedia.
McAllister will also be responsible for the packaging, programming and publishing of editorial content for Reuters News websites and retail customers.
The website Paid Content said his first priority will be to create multimedia products for existing and online operations in order to meet the increased challenges from Bloomberg and Associated Press, which have become more aggressive on the digital and video front.
“Case in point, at its annual meeting on Monday, the AP said it would ramp up e-commerce and mobile news products as it looks to find ways of drawing in more revenue.”
McAllister previously worked for online content firm Mochila, and before that was at CNN for 17 years, most recently as executive vice president and managing editor for national news gathering.
Cramer is a former president of CNN International. He joined Reuters last September with the task of overseeing multimedia projects including the reuters.com website and acting as the main liaison between the news organisation and media business.
● SOURCE Washington Post / Paid Content
Thomson Reuters staff vote for industrial action
Monday 06 April 2009
Journalists at Thomson Reuters’ financial news operation have voted for industrial action in an attempt to protect their current working conditions, The Guardian reported on Monday.
Members of the National Union of Journalists who used to work for Thomson Financial News took part in secret ballot, with 59 per cent of the 30 staff who took part in the ballot voting in favour of strike action and 83 per cent in favour of some form of industrial action.
Before the April 2008 merger, staff working for Thomson Financial News were on a nine-day fortnight. They are unhappy at a plan to introduce a 10-day fortnight.
"Our members at the previous Thomson's group had a nine-day fortnight as part of their contracts to recognise the stress of the job and the anti-social shift pattern," said the NUJ head of publishing, Barry Fitzpatrick. "They now play their part in making huge profits for an extraordinarily successful company."
NUJ members are understood to be meeting next week to plan their next move, The Guardian said.
A spokeswoman for Thomson Reuters said the planned rota change was part of a plan to create common working practices across the company.
"Reuters is deeply disappointed that a majority of former Thomson Financial News staff have voted for industrial action over changes to shift patterns in the London newsroom," the spokeswoman added.
"Given the challenges facing the industry and the innovative investments Reuters is making throughout the newsroom, the ballot will only prolong a dispute that is unnecessary and ill-considered and one which involves less than 10 per cent of the London newsroom staff."
● SOURCE The Guardian
Members of the National Union of Journalists who used to work for Thomson Financial News took part in secret ballot, with 59 per cent of the 30 staff who took part in the ballot voting in favour of strike action and 83 per cent in favour of some form of industrial action.
Before the April 2008 merger, staff working for Thomson Financial News were on a nine-day fortnight. They are unhappy at a plan to introduce a 10-day fortnight.
"Our members at the previous Thomson's group had a nine-day fortnight as part of their contracts to recognise the stress of the job and the anti-social shift pattern," said the NUJ head of publishing, Barry Fitzpatrick. "They now play their part in making huge profits for an extraordinarily successful company."
NUJ members are understood to be meeting next week to plan their next move, The Guardian said.
A spokeswoman for Thomson Reuters said the planned rota change was part of a plan to create common working practices across the company.
"Reuters is deeply disappointed that a majority of former Thomson Financial News staff have voted for industrial action over changes to shift patterns in the London newsroom," the spokeswoman added.
"Given the challenges facing the industry and the innovative investments Reuters is making throughout the newsroom, the ballot will only prolong a dispute that is unnecessary and ill-considered and one which involves less than 10 per cent of the London newsroom staff."
● SOURCE The Guardian
Reuters boosts Japanese news with Kyodo content
Wednesday 25 March 2009
Reuters is to boost its Japanese News Service with content supplied by Japan’s biggest news agency, Kyodo.
Starting on 1 April, the Japanese News Service’s 12,000 subscribers will receive an additional 800 daily headlines. The new content will include deeper coverage of market regulators in Japan and internationally, emerging markets, Asian loan markets and Japanese politics, as well as faster real-time delivery of major macroeconomic data and announcements from the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. The partnership with Kyodo will also ensure expanded coverage of the Japanese prime minister’s office and key ministries.
“We are going through dramatic change in financial markets,” said Mark Smith, Thomson Reuters’ markets senior company officer in Japan. ”Our customers require now more than ever trusted, relevant and timely news and analysis of domestic and international events. We see a tremendous opportunity to meet this increasing demand.”
Reuters opened its first office in Japan in 1872. Reuters Japanese News was launched in 1985 as ReuterScoop, one of a number of local language news services.
● SOURCE Media Newsline
Starting on 1 April, the Japanese News Service’s 12,000 subscribers will receive an additional 800 daily headlines. The new content will include deeper coverage of market regulators in Japan and internationally, emerging markets, Asian loan markets and Japanese politics, as well as faster real-time delivery of major macroeconomic data and announcements from the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. The partnership with Kyodo will also ensure expanded coverage of the Japanese prime minister’s office and key ministries.
“We are going through dramatic change in financial markets,” said Mark Smith, Thomson Reuters’ markets senior company officer in Japan. ”Our customers require now more than ever trusted, relevant and timely news and analysis of domestic and international events. We see a tremendous opportunity to meet this increasing demand.”
Reuters opened its first office in Japan in 1872. Reuters Japanese News was launched in 1985 as ReuterScoop, one of a number of local language news services.
● SOURCE Media Newsline
Morocco withholds visa renewal for Reuters photographer
Wednesday 25 March 2009
The Moroccan government confirmed on Wednesday that it would not renew the accreditation of a Reuters photographer on the grounds that he had acted as a "political adversary".
"The ministry (of communication) has decided not to renew the accreditation of Rafael Marchante as a Reuters agency photographer in Morocco," it said in a statement. The ministry denied it had ever ordered his expulsion from the country.
Marchante, a Spanish national, has worked as a freelance photographer for Reuters in Morocco since 2006.
According to the ministry statement he was "accredited to Morocco to exercise freely his mission and not behave as a political adversary under the cover of journalistic privilege".
It criticised him for "non-respect of the rules of the profession" and "working for several press organs without declaring he was doing so".
The ministry said it was ready to accredit "any other journalist put forward by the Reuters agency".
AFP quoted a Reuters statement issued in London as saying Marchante had respected professsional ethics and acted at all times with integrity, independence and without bias.
It called on the ministry to review its decision and hoped Marchante could soon resume work.
● SOURCE CNN / AFP
"The ministry (of communication) has decided not to renew the accreditation of Rafael Marchante as a Reuters agency photographer in Morocco," it said in a statement. The ministry denied it had ever ordered his expulsion from the country.
Marchante, a Spanish national, has worked as a freelance photographer for Reuters in Morocco since 2006.
According to the ministry statement he was "accredited to Morocco to exercise freely his mission and not behave as a political adversary under the cover of journalistic privilege".
It criticised him for "non-respect of the rules of the profession" and "working for several press organs without declaring he was doing so".
The ministry said it was ready to accredit "any other journalist put forward by the Reuters agency".
AFP quoted a Reuters statement issued in London as saying Marchante had respected professsional ethics and acted at all times with integrity, independence and without bias.
It called on the ministry to review its decision and hoped Marchante could soon resume work.
● SOURCE CNN / AFP
Twitter for newsgathering? Reuters makes news
Thursday 19 March 2009
Reuters is driving the debate about the use of the fast-growing micro-blogging Internet service Twitter in journalism.
A recent NewsMaker meeting at the London office with Hector Sants, chief executive of the UK's Financial Services Authority, was opened up to all-comers via Twitter and attracted the interest of CNN which sent a crew to tape Reuters’ social media team in action at the event. CNN broadcast a report on its International Correspondents show.
Twitter enables the broadcast of SMS-length (maximum 140 characters) texts. President Obama is the world’s most prominent “tweeter”.
“What caught the CNN crew’s imagination was our use of Twitter to create a live channel from Reuters readers to our NewsMaker,” Mark Jones, community editor, wrote in a Reuters blog.
“Ahead of time we had publicised the fact that Hector Sants was coming in and had agreed to take readers’ questions. We asked readers to add a question to our blog comments or to go onto Twitter and to use the askfsa tag.
“As word got around about what we were doing dozens of Twitter users started sending in comments and questions. My role was to monitor them (most came in during the event) and to pick out the most interesting ones to put to Sants.
“CNN wanted to know where was the journalism in that. Answer: same as ever — filtering large amounts of information for the nuggets (there were more than 200 questions and comments) and trying to pull together any themes.”
A non-scientific CNN poll on the question: should journalists use Twitter as a newsgathering tool has found opinion is running in favour.
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger started the Twitter debate in January over his own twitterings from the World Economic Forum. He even scooped his own team of correspondents covering the annual meeting in Davos.
● CLICK to read Mark Jones’s blog posting on twittering.
● CLICK to read about David Schlesinger’s blog posting on twittering.
A recent NewsMaker meeting at the London office with Hector Sants, chief executive of the UK's Financial Services Authority, was opened up to all-comers via Twitter and attracted the interest of CNN which sent a crew to tape Reuters’ social media team in action at the event. CNN broadcast a report on its International Correspondents show.
Twitter enables the broadcast of SMS-length (maximum 140 characters) texts. President Obama is the world’s most prominent “tweeter”.
“What caught the CNN crew’s imagination was our use of Twitter to create a live channel from Reuters readers to our NewsMaker,” Mark Jones, community editor, wrote in a Reuters blog.
“Ahead of time we had publicised the fact that Hector Sants was coming in and had agreed to take readers’ questions. We asked readers to add a question to our blog comments or to go onto Twitter and to use the askfsa tag.
“As word got around about what we were doing dozens of Twitter users started sending in comments and questions. My role was to monitor them (most came in during the event) and to pick out the most interesting ones to put to Sants.
“CNN wanted to know where was the journalism in that. Answer: same as ever — filtering large amounts of information for the nuggets (there were more than 200 questions and comments) and trying to pull together any themes.”
A non-scientific CNN poll on the question: should journalists use Twitter as a newsgathering tool has found opinion is running in favour.
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger started the Twitter debate in January over his own twitterings from the World Economic Forum. He even scooped his own team of correspondents covering the annual meeting in Davos.
● CLICK to read Mark Jones’s blog posting on twittering.
● CLICK to read about David Schlesinger’s blog posting on twittering.
Industrial action ballot over nine-day fortnight
Friday 13 March 2009
Journalists at Thomson Reuters are balloting on industrial action to protect the right of former Thomson Financial News staff to a nine-day fortnight.
The National Union of Journalists is holding a ballot after rejecting the company's offer of £1,000 in compensation for the loss of the nine-day fortnight as "risible" and "totally inadequate". The union says former TFN staff have vowed to continue working their current hours, despite threats of disciplinary action.
The dispute over working hours is part of a wider argument over pay that has been brewing for months, The Guardian reported. The company's latest offer is a 1.25% rise in annual pay across the board, which the union has criticised as below inflation.
Barry Fitzpatrick, the NUJ's head of publishing, said TFN members regarded the nine-day fortnight as an essential benefit given the low pay rise and the fact that their colleagues from the Reuters side of the business were better paid.
"Many former TFN staff are paid significantly less than Reuters' colleagues for doing the same work, and in a lot of cases paid not much more than a Reuters trainee's starting salary," Fitzpatrick said.
"If the company is serious about harmonisation, it should properly consider its journalists' claim for compensation, which, given the company's massive profits, is more than affordable even in these difficult times."
A Thomson Reuters spokeswoman said: "We regret that the NUJ has decided to take this course of action, particularly in light of the concerted and prolonged efforts made by the company to resolve matters amicably. We delayed implementation of the changes to work, employed favourable enhancements to terms and conditions and proposed a financial offer, which has been flatly rejected by the NUJ."
● SOURCE The Guardian
The National Union of Journalists is holding a ballot after rejecting the company's offer of £1,000 in compensation for the loss of the nine-day fortnight as "risible" and "totally inadequate". The union says former TFN staff have vowed to continue working their current hours, despite threats of disciplinary action.
The dispute over working hours is part of a wider argument over pay that has been brewing for months, The Guardian reported. The company's latest offer is a 1.25% rise in annual pay across the board, which the union has criticised as below inflation.
Barry Fitzpatrick, the NUJ's head of publishing, said TFN members regarded the nine-day fortnight as an essential benefit given the low pay rise and the fact that their colleagues from the Reuters side of the business were better paid.
"Many former TFN staff are paid significantly less than Reuters' colleagues for doing the same work, and in a lot of cases paid not much more than a Reuters trainee's starting salary," Fitzpatrick said.
"If the company is serious about harmonisation, it should properly consider its journalists' claim for compensation, which, given the company's massive profits, is more than affordable even in these difficult times."
A Thomson Reuters spokeswoman said: "We regret that the NUJ has decided to take this course of action, particularly in light of the concerted and prolonged efforts made by the company to resolve matters amicably. We delayed implementation of the changes to work, employed favourable enhancements to terms and conditions and proposed a financial offer, which has been flatly rejected by the NUJ."
● SOURCE The Guardian
Reuters revamps websites to improve global crisis cover
Tuesday 10 March 2009
Reuters is changing its websites to improve coverage of the global economic crisis.
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger, in a blog posting aimed at visitors to the sites, says the crisis is the biggest story in modern times “and a record audience is turning to Reuters for information you can trust”.
“I share with you some changes we’ve brought to Reuters.com and Reuters.co.uk to help you understand the financial turmoil and benefit from the expertise of our 2,550 journalists around the globe,” Schlesinger says.
“You’ll notice more headlines from our financial correspondents and more video interviews with business newsmakers. We’ve added a new Economy section, increased our coverage of regulation and will soon relaunch our small business and environment pages.
“Our Great Debate section has added more financial commentary from our growing team of Reuters columnists, with technology expert Eric Auchard among the writers joining James Saft, John Kemp and Bernd Debusmann. We also offer more graphics for better insight into the financial markets. And we continue to add specialist blogs, with Hedge Hub providing a place for readers to discuss the hedge fund industry with journalists such as Laurence Fletcher.
“Of course, we know you rely on us for news of the political and cultural trends that influence our personal and professional worlds. You’ll find full coverage of the new U.S. administration on our Barack Obama: First 100 Days page, while pages ranging from Afghanistan to Wine can be found in our Topics section. Our India edition has a page dedicated to the national elections there. Bureaus in China, Japan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories have blogs to share their insights and we offer more video from our entertainment reporters. China and Japan have added native language blogs on their local editions.”
Schlesinger promises many more changes throughout 2009 that will help visitors to navigate “the unrivaled breadth and depth of Thomson Reuters news and data”.
● SOURCE Reuters
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger, in a blog posting aimed at visitors to the sites, says the crisis is the biggest story in modern times “and a record audience is turning to Reuters for information you can trust”.
“I share with you some changes we’ve brought to Reuters.com and Reuters.co.uk to help you understand the financial turmoil and benefit from the expertise of our 2,550 journalists around the globe,” Schlesinger says.
“You’ll notice more headlines from our financial correspondents and more video interviews with business newsmakers. We’ve added a new Economy section, increased our coverage of regulation and will soon relaunch our small business and environment pages.
“Our Great Debate section has added more financial commentary from our growing team of Reuters columnists, with technology expert Eric Auchard among the writers joining James Saft, John Kemp and Bernd Debusmann. We also offer more graphics for better insight into the financial markets. And we continue to add specialist blogs, with Hedge Hub providing a place for readers to discuss the hedge fund industry with journalists such as Laurence Fletcher.
“Of course, we know you rely on us for news of the political and cultural trends that influence our personal and professional worlds. You’ll find full coverage of the new U.S. administration on our Barack Obama: First 100 Days page, while pages ranging from Afghanistan to Wine can be found in our Topics section. Our India edition has a page dedicated to the national elections there. Bureaus in China, Japan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories have blogs to share their insights and we offer more video from our entertainment reporters. China and Japan have added native language blogs on their local editions.”
Schlesinger promises many more changes throughout 2009 that will help visitors to navigate “the unrivaled breadth and depth of Thomson Reuters news and data”.
● SOURCE Reuters
Thomson Reuters to launch video news service in June
Tuesday 03 March 2009
Thomson Reuters Corp will launch a video news service in June for financial professionals who use its terminals, part of a $1 billion plan to appeal to a new generation of customers.
The service, called Reuters Insider, will provide live and searchable financial markets coverage, analysis and breaking news.
It will not run all day, will not rely on advertising and will be largely unavailable to the public. Clients, however, will be able to access it around the clock. Paying customers will be able to access on-demand news segments in the same way people watch video clips on YouTube. They will be able to select videos on channels grouped by category, such as foreign exchange, equities or political news.
The project is part of a $1 billion programme to update the company's products and infrastructure to make them more appealing to financial professionals accustomed to using the Internet to get information.
Thomson Reuters has been testing the service since last October, and is launching it during a time of uncertainty for media outlets.
Many newspapers, TV stations and news outlets are losing advertising revenue as people get more news online, often for free. Some news and information companies may be forced out of business. Others are trying to figure out how to get people to pay for their news.
Investing during the global economic downturn, which has led to layoffs in the financial industry, is what the company must do to keep performing well, said Devin Wenig, markets division chief executive.
Reuters journalists are contributing to the programming, and Thomson Reuters is recruiting about 120 people to run it from multi-media studios in New York, London and Hong Kong. It hopes clients such as banks and investment companies will also supply video and create their own channels.
The new service is designed to give financial professionals news they can use to make trades and other business decisions, but does not replace news articles, Wenig said.
"To me, this is just Reuters News 2.0," he said. Targeting a narrowly defined, paying audience works better for the company, Wenig said. "This isn't infotainment."
Chris Cramer, former president of CNN International who is now global editor of multimedia for Reuters News, said: “The broadcast model, the cable model, is broken. At the moment there is no competition. This is something unique.”
Michael Stepanovich, managing editor of Reuters Insider, said it would rely heavily on “tags” about each video clip, generated from transcripts using software acquired through the 2007 purchase of a “semantic engine” called Clear Forest.
As well as channels for sales and trading or enterprise customers, he said Reuters Insider could be customised to track individual sectors, asset classes, regions, companies and topics, or an investor’s portfolio. “We want to be able to create a [Bernie] Madoff channel,” Stepanovich said.
Users will also be able to watch “highlights reels” drawn from different videos, find sections of video from the relevant passage in the transcript, or send clips to their BlackBerrys.
David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, said the initiative was a response to the demands of a younger generation.
Reuters experimented with video a decade ago with Reuters TV but abandoned the initiative because of the high costs required before the web video era.
● SOURCE Financial Times
● CLICK to read Chris Cramer’s blog post on narrowcasting.
The service, called Reuters Insider, will provide live and searchable financial markets coverage, analysis and breaking news.
It will not run all day, will not rely on advertising and will be largely unavailable to the public. Clients, however, will be able to access it around the clock. Paying customers will be able to access on-demand news segments in the same way people watch video clips on YouTube. They will be able to select videos on channels grouped by category, such as foreign exchange, equities or political news.
The project is part of a $1 billion programme to update the company's products and infrastructure to make them more appealing to financial professionals accustomed to using the Internet to get information.
Thomson Reuters has been testing the service since last October, and is launching it during a time of uncertainty for media outlets.
Many newspapers, TV stations and news outlets are losing advertising revenue as people get more news online, often for free. Some news and information companies may be forced out of business. Others are trying to figure out how to get people to pay for their news.
Investing during the global economic downturn, which has led to layoffs in the financial industry, is what the company must do to keep performing well, said Devin Wenig, markets division chief executive.
Reuters journalists are contributing to the programming, and Thomson Reuters is recruiting about 120 people to run it from multi-media studios in New York, London and Hong Kong. It hopes clients such as banks and investment companies will also supply video and create their own channels.
The new service is designed to give financial professionals news they can use to make trades and other business decisions, but does not replace news articles, Wenig said.
"To me, this is just Reuters News 2.0," he said. Targeting a narrowly defined, paying audience works better for the company, Wenig said. "This isn't infotainment."
Chris Cramer, former president of CNN International who is now global editor of multimedia for Reuters News, said: “The broadcast model, the cable model, is broken. At the moment there is no competition. This is something unique.”
Michael Stepanovich, managing editor of Reuters Insider, said it would rely heavily on “tags” about each video clip, generated from transcripts using software acquired through the 2007 purchase of a “semantic engine” called Clear Forest.
As well as channels for sales and trading or enterprise customers, he said Reuters Insider could be customised to track individual sectors, asset classes, regions, companies and topics, or an investor’s portfolio. “We want to be able to create a [Bernie] Madoff channel,” Stepanovich said.
Users will also be able to watch “highlights reels” drawn from different videos, find sections of video from the relevant passage in the transcript, or send clips to their BlackBerrys.
David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, said the initiative was a response to the demands of a younger generation.
Reuters experimented with video a decade ago with Reuters TV but abandoned the initiative because of the high costs required before the web video era.
● SOURCE Financial Times
● CLICK to read Chris Cramer’s blog post on narrowcasting.
Tom Glocer on news and newspapers
Wednesday 25 February 2009
The Reuters journalist who reported Thomson Reuters’ Q4 results on Tuesday has added something that was not included in the wire story: the public thoughts of CEO Tom Glocer on news and newspapers.
“During a conference call with reporters, I asked Chief Executive Tom Glocer, who ran Reuters before Thomson Corp bought it, what the company plans to do regarding investing in news,” Robert MacMillan wrote in a Reuters blog.
“I also asked if the company could ever be in the market for another print newspaper. Remember that Thomson Reuters likes to tout the fact that Thomson Corp long ago got out of the newspaper business, thinking there was more of a future in electronic information that you make people pay a lot of money for.”
Glocer on news spending:
“We’ve continued to invest in news and we think 2009 is a very good year in investment for us both in terms of having brought in some of the journalists who have joined from Thomson Financial, but also investments we’re making in new editorial systems, in the video, multimedia presentation of news. So I think one of the good things about the strength of our financial performance is that we can continue to invest when a lot of pure media companies aren’t.”
Glocer on getting “back” into the newspaper business (“I asked whether the Financial Times or the New York Times-owned International Herald Tribune would be good fits, specifically. But why not The New York Times? Everyone with more than a few pennies to rub together is a candidate to buy it these days.”):
“[Thomson was] so early in getting out of newspapers that now to go back in when our business model is so focused on professionals and so overwhemingly electronic doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. … If there were a fantastic information product that was 95 per cent electronic and five per cent a print output device, we would do it — maybe — if it otherwise made sense. I’m not convinced that we know how to run a newspaper any better than the ones running them today.”
Earlier, Glocer said on his blog that newspapers remain dead but journalism is alive and well.
Reporting on a panel debate at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos on the health of the media with Steve Forbes of the eponymous magazine; Jonathan Nelson of Providence Equity Partners, the media-focused buyout firm; Shobhana Bhartia of the Indian Parliament and the Hindustan Times; and John Graham of Fleishman-Hillard, the global PR firm, he wrote:
“While we broke little new ground, the discussion was uncharacteristically animated for a 9:00am audience. While Luddites and Refusniks remain, there seems to be growing acceptance of the point I and others have been making for years: Newsprint is an output device, not an end in itself. What matters is quality journalism which can and does thrive in multiple media.
“There are several advantages of paper: it is light to carry, highly legible, and can be folded, written upon and read on the train or in the small tiled room. However, paper has its limitations: it is relatively expensive, must be physically delivered, is less environmentally friendly than digital bits, and cannot be easily searched or processed. This latter point has resulted in the near destruction of the print newspaper model as classified advertising has fled online.
“While these trends are not universal (Shobhana reminded us that newspapers in India continue to thrive), the combination of these structural challenges with the tremendous cyclical pressures being experienced in most markets should not make one optimistic about the future of the print-only model.
“Instead, of lamenting that the Fourth Estate is dead, we should celebrate the innovations of the current age that can now be applied to telling the story, such as blogs, wikis, IPTV, social media, the mobile web, Kindle, electronic ink, etc.. For those who can make the leap while not abandoning their journalistic values, new audiences await.”
● SOURCE Reuters Blogs | Tom Glocer’s Blog
Thomson Reuters restructures multimedia operations
Wednesday 18 February 2009
Thomson Reuters is restructuring its multimedia operations to face a growing challenge from digital and video competitors like Bloomberg and The Associated Press.
Chris Cramer (pictured), former CNN chief, comes out on top. Cramer, named head of multimedia in October, will serve as the unit's global editor. His new responsibilities entail the creation of five editorial groups, including TV, photos, financial video, online and agency. By coordinating them, the company hopes to build on its appeal, even while it strenuously tries to cut costs, the digital media industry website paidContent said.
The five multimedia groups will be led by senior editors. Mike Stepanovich, senior vice-president and global head of business development, adds the role of managing editor of the financial video service. John Clarke and Tom Szlukovenyi will continue in their jobs overseeing TV and photos respectively. The two others – online global editor and agency global editor – are new posts and have not yet been filled.
Cramer was a president and managing director of CNN International before he retired from the Turner network in 2007. David Schlesinger, Reuters' editor-in-chief, brought him into the company last year to handle the financial video service. Before the latest change, only the teams who worked on financial video and online reported to Cramer.
“As competitors like Bloomberg and Associated Press have become more aggressive on the digital and video front, Thomson Reuters is trying to step up by introducing a new management structure for its multimedia offerings,” paidContent said.
● SOURCE Paid Content
Pay showdown seen after talks collapse
Monday 09 February 2009
Staff and management at Thomson Reuters in London are heading for a showdown over pay this week after talks at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service broke down after three hours on Friday, The Guardian reported.
National Union of Journalists officials have rejected a revised 1.25 per cent across-the-board increase, while an attempt by management to force former Thomson London staff to give up their nine-day fortnight in return for a £500-a-year pay rise was rejected as "derisory", it said.
The combined Thomson Reuters NUJ Chapel is due to hold a mandatory meeting on Thursday to discuss the pay offer. A ballot for industrial action could also be held on the issue of former Thomson staff being forced to give up their nine-day fortnight following last April’s merger with Reuters. Reuters staff moved to a five-day week almost a decade ago and in return received a seven per cent across-the-board pay increase.
Management, led by editor-in-chief David Schlesinger, maintain they are changing the company's shift patterns, not the hours worked, The Guardian said. “When Reuters dumped its nine-day fortnight, in contrast, there was an increase in working hours.”
NUJ officials, however, claim that former Thomson Financial News staff are already on significantly lower wages than their Reuters colleagues for doing the same work and any move to a five-day week should be on a voluntary basis.
"Thomson Reuters encourages flexible working and will consider individual requests in line with company policy," a Reuters spokeswoman said in response.
The two sides have been battling over pay for months, the newspaper said. Management initially said there would be no across-the-board annual pay increase from April this year, but up to 2.5 per cent would be paid out on a performance basis.
That has since changed to a 1.25 per cent across-the-board increase, out of a total budget increase of 2.5 per cent, with the rest to be paid based on performance. From next year, management are understood to want to base all pay increases on performance, The Guardian added.
● SOURCE The Guardian
National Union of Journalists officials have rejected a revised 1.25 per cent across-the-board increase, while an attempt by management to force former Thomson London staff to give up their nine-day fortnight in return for a £500-a-year pay rise was rejected as "derisory", it said.
The combined Thomson Reuters NUJ Chapel is due to hold a mandatory meeting on Thursday to discuss the pay offer. A ballot for industrial action could also be held on the issue of former Thomson staff being forced to give up their nine-day fortnight following last April’s merger with Reuters. Reuters staff moved to a five-day week almost a decade ago and in return received a seven per cent across-the-board pay increase.
Management, led by editor-in-chief David Schlesinger, maintain they are changing the company's shift patterns, not the hours worked, The Guardian said. “When Reuters dumped its nine-day fortnight, in contrast, there was an increase in working hours.”
NUJ officials, however, claim that former Thomson Financial News staff are already on significantly lower wages than their Reuters colleagues for doing the same work and any move to a five-day week should be on a voluntary basis.
"Thomson Reuters encourages flexible working and will consider individual requests in line with company policy," a Reuters spokeswoman said in response.
The two sides have been battling over pay for months, the newspaper said. Management initially said there would be no across-the-board annual pay increase from April this year, but up to 2.5 per cent would be paid out on a performance basis.
That has since changed to a 1.25 per cent across-the-board increase, out of a total budget increase of 2.5 per cent, with the rest to be paid based on performance. From next year, management are understood to want to base all pay increases on performance, The Guardian added.
● SOURCE The Guardian
Unfair labor practice charges over union t-shirts in newsrooms
Tuesday 03 February 2009
The New York Newspaper Guild has filed two unfair labor practice charges against Thomson Reuters over the wearing of red union t-shirts in newsrooms.
It says the company unfairly barred workers from their long-standing practice of wearing the t-shirts to show solidarity during labor contract negotiations.
The Guild's charges to the National Labor Relations Board said Thomson Reuters violated federal labor law by banning only Guild t-shirts and by implementing a dress code without bargaining with the union as required.
"This is the first time in the union's more than 30 years at Reuters that management has been so rattled as to ban a display of union support," said Guild President Bill O'Meara. "Our members are more than a little riled at management trying to curb their right to show solidarity with their union."
The company ordered newsroom staffers not to wear the t-shirts if they could be captured by television cameras using the newsrooms in New York and Washington as a backdrop to Thomson Reuters’ new web-based video product, Insider.
The union and the company have had three bargaining sessions aimed at agreeing a new contract to replace the one that expires on 28 February.
● SOURCE PR Newswire
It says the company unfairly barred workers from their long-standing practice of wearing the t-shirts to show solidarity during labor contract negotiations.
The Guild's charges to the National Labor Relations Board said Thomson Reuters violated federal labor law by banning only Guild t-shirts and by implementing a dress code without bargaining with the union as required.
"This is the first time in the union's more than 30 years at Reuters that management has been so rattled as to ban a display of union support," said Guild President Bill O'Meara. "Our members are more than a little riled at management trying to curb their right to show solidarity with their union."
The company ordered newsroom staffers not to wear the t-shirts if they could be captured by television cameras using the newsrooms in New York and Washington as a backdrop to Thomson Reuters’ new web-based video product, Insider.
The union and the company have had three bargaining sessions aimed at agreeing a new contract to replace the one that expires on 28 February.
● SOURCE PR Newswire
David Schlesinger: all a-twitter and scooping Reuters
Friday 30 January 2009
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger has started a debate over his twitterings.
“I’ve been tweeting from the World Economic Forum, using the microblogging platform Twitter to discuss the mundane (describing crepuscular darkness of the Swiss Alps at 5 a.m.) or the interesting (live tweeting from presentations),” he writes on the Reuters blog Full Disclosure: Ethics, Innovation and News Standards.
The scoop? Beating Reuters from Davos on news that billionaire financier George Soros believes the current economic downturn could be worse than the Great Depression, and that as much as $15 trillion might be needed to save the banking system.
“Is it journalism?
“Is it dangerous?
“Is it embarrassing that my tweets even beat the Reuters newswires?
(Tweets are Internet messages limited by the technology to 140 characters.)
“Am I destroying Reuters standards by encouraging tweeting or blogging?” Schlesinger asks.
“(These aren’t rhetorical questions - I’ve been challenged by many people who would answer those questions as No, Yes, Yes, and Yes! I answer them as Yes, Potentially, No and No.)”
Schlesinger recalls that the foundation of what Reuters does as a company and as a news service are the Reuters Trust Principles.
“While it is vital to read the five as a whole, I take the fifth (”That no effort shall be spared to expand, develop and adapt the news and other services and products of Thomson Reuters so as to maintain its leading position in the international news and information business”) as an imperative for continual innovation and experimentation.
“I have no idea what journalism will look like in five years except that it will be different than it is now. That’s a great thing, I believe.
“I have little patience for those who cling to sentimental (and frankly inaccurate) memories of the good old halcyon days of journalism that were somehow purer and better than a world where tweets and blogs compete with news wires and newspapers.
“Bring it on, I say!”
Schlesinger says working for Reuters gives him a tremendous platform and great access. “It does not give me a license.”
Microblogging and macroblogging and social networks are themselves great platforms.
“If great storytellers use those platforms to display their knowledge, access, expertise and abilities, I think that is a marvellous advance.
“If I don’t beat the Reuters wire with a live tweet because I deliberately hold back, someone else will. If I don’t beat the Reuters wire because I’m slow or inattentive, someone else will.
“The reason my live tweeting was fast is that it was unintermediated, while the journalist covering the story went the traditional route and had a discussion with an editor about how best to position and play the story.
“Both methods have important roles. In this case, the editor added value.
“In a democratic world where publishing platforms are available to all, editors and institutions like Reuters MUST add great value if they are to survive the competitive fight with the unintermediated storytellers.
“I love that.
“I love the competitive pressure that brings.
“I love the way it will force us continually to redefine our role vis-a-vis unaffiliated storytellers.
“I love the way it is and will continue to force us to redefine our profession and our craft.
“Are there potential pitfalls and dangers? Could a mistweet hurt our reputation? Of course. And over time we will have to work hard to decide what we have reporters tweet in their own names and what we have them do in the company name; we’ll have to refine our rules about micro and macroblogging to allow the maximum of free expression while holding fast to our important values of being fair, accurate and free from bias.
“But we will get there. And consumers of news will be the ultimate beneficiaries.”
Bravo, David, says Silicon Alley Insider, another blog. “Reuters and other newswires have made their names and their fortunes by being first with the news — now anyone who is at a news event has the equivalent of a newswire in their pocket, thanks to cellphones, Twitter, and other social-media tools. Does that make them journalists? Possibly. But best of all, ‘real’ journalists can make use of all those tools too.”
● SOURCE Reuters | Silicon Alley Insider
“I’ve been tweeting from the World Economic Forum, using the microblogging platform Twitter to discuss the mundane (describing crepuscular darkness of the Swiss Alps at 5 a.m.) or the interesting (live tweeting from presentations),” he writes on the Reuters blog Full Disclosure: Ethics, Innovation and News Standards.
The scoop? Beating Reuters from Davos on news that billionaire financier George Soros believes the current economic downturn could be worse than the Great Depression, and that as much as $15 trillion might be needed to save the banking system.
“Is it journalism?
“Is it dangerous?
“Is it embarrassing that my tweets even beat the Reuters newswires?
(Tweets are Internet messages limited by the technology to 140 characters.)
“Am I destroying Reuters standards by encouraging tweeting or blogging?” Schlesinger asks.
“(These aren’t rhetorical questions - I’ve been challenged by many people who would answer those questions as No, Yes, Yes, and Yes! I answer them as Yes, Potentially, No and No.)”
Schlesinger recalls that the foundation of what Reuters does as a company and as a news service are the Reuters Trust Principles.
“While it is vital to read the five as a whole, I take the fifth (”That no effort shall be spared to expand, develop and adapt the news and other services and products of Thomson Reuters so as to maintain its leading position in the international news and information business”) as an imperative for continual innovation and experimentation.
“I have no idea what journalism will look like in five years except that it will be different than it is now. That’s a great thing, I believe.
“I have little patience for those who cling to sentimental (and frankly inaccurate) memories of the good old halcyon days of journalism that were somehow purer and better than a world where tweets and blogs compete with news wires and newspapers.
“Bring it on, I say!”
Schlesinger says working for Reuters gives him a tremendous platform and great access. “It does not give me a license.”
Microblogging and macroblogging and social networks are themselves great platforms.
“If great storytellers use those platforms to display their knowledge, access, expertise and abilities, I think that is a marvellous advance.
“If I don’t beat the Reuters wire with a live tweet because I deliberately hold back, someone else will. If I don’t beat the Reuters wire because I’m slow or inattentive, someone else will.
“The reason my live tweeting was fast is that it was unintermediated, while the journalist covering the story went the traditional route and had a discussion with an editor about how best to position and play the story.
“Both methods have important roles. In this case, the editor added value.
“In a democratic world where publishing platforms are available to all, editors and institutions like Reuters MUST add great value if they are to survive the competitive fight with the unintermediated storytellers.
“I love that.
“I love the competitive pressure that brings.
“I love the way it will force us continually to redefine our role vis-a-vis unaffiliated storytellers.
“I love the way it is and will continue to force us to redefine our profession and our craft.
“Are there potential pitfalls and dangers? Could a mistweet hurt our reputation? Of course. And over time we will have to work hard to decide what we have reporters tweet in their own names and what we have them do in the company name; we’ll have to refine our rules about micro and macroblogging to allow the maximum of free expression while holding fast to our important values of being fair, accurate and free from bias.
“But we will get there. And consumers of news will be the ultimate beneficiaries.”
Bravo, David, says Silicon Alley Insider, another blog. “Reuters and other newswires have made their names and their fortunes by being first with the news — now anyone who is at a news event has the equivalent of a newswire in their pocket, thanks to cellphones, Twitter, and other social-media tools. Does that make them journalists? Possibly. But best of all, ‘real’ journalists can make use of all those tools too.”
● SOURCE Reuters | Silicon Alley Insider
Blast hits Reuters building in Gaza
Thursday 15 January 2009
An explosion blasted a tower block in Gaza that houses the offices of Reuters and several other media organisations on Thursday.
Reuters journalists working there at the time said an Israeli missile or shell appeared to have struck the southern side of the 13th floor of the Al-Shurouq Tower in Gaza city centre.
Reuters evacuated the bureau, though a live camera feed that has been providing images from Gaza throughout the war continued to function. Live television images from another site showed smoke pouring from the upper floors of the 16-storey building.
Colleagues said at least one journalist working for Abu Dhabi television on the 14th floor was wounded.
The 13th floor houses a local television production company. The Reuters bureau is on the 12th floor.
Reuters journalists on the spot said they had not been aware of any presence of armed men in the building beforehand.
An Israeli army spokesman had spoken with Reuters staff in Jerusalem shortly before the explosion to check the location of the Reuters bureau in Gaza. Reuters had provided the coordinates of its office to the army at the start of the war and was assured on several occasions that it was not a target.
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters journalists working there at the time said an Israeli missile or shell appeared to have struck the southern side of the 13th floor of the Al-Shurouq Tower in Gaza city centre.
Reuters evacuated the bureau, though a live camera feed that has been providing images from Gaza throughout the war continued to function. Live television images from another site showed smoke pouring from the upper floors of the 16-storey building.
Colleagues said at least one journalist working for Abu Dhabi television on the 14th floor was wounded.
The 13th floor houses a local television production company. The Reuters bureau is on the 12th floor.
Reuters journalists on the spot said they had not been aware of any presence of armed men in the building beforehand.
An Israeli army spokesman had spoken with Reuters staff in Jerusalem shortly before the explosion to check the location of the Reuters bureau in Gaza. Reuters had provided the coordinates of its office to the army at the start of the war and was assured on several occasions that it was not a target.
● SOURCE Reuters
Thomson Reuters starting to feel ‘coherent, focused’
Friday 19 December 2008
At the close of a rollercoaster year of firsts, integration pains and the most challenging market of a lifetime, Thomson Reuters is starting to feel like a coherent, focused business and is on track to become one company in one year, says Devin Wenig, markets division CEO.
There is lots more to do and there are more challenges to come – hold tight for another amazing year, he has told staff.
“We recently held our holiday parties and I have to say that I wasn’t sure how people would react to these parties, given our focus on costs and the uncertainty in the market,” Wenig said in a year-end message. “I think people really had a great time and they understand that our goal was simply to say thanks for an extraordinary effort in an extraordinary year.
“As someone said to me in New York, anybody that has a party in this market environment must be winning!
“And what an amazing year it’s been – no-one could have predicted even a year ago the pace of change that we have seen inside our organization but also what’s happening to the markets and to our customers.
“It’s been a year of highs and lows, of things to celebrate, of getting to know new friends and colleagues, and saying goodbye to colleagues who are no longer with us. And, sadly, it’s also saying goodbye to long-standing institutions like Lehman Brothers who had been a loyal customer and supporter of ours for many, many years.”
It has been a year of firsts, Wenig said – the first year as a new company, the first year of serving a new and diverse customer base and the first year of making a significant step change in service.
“But we had two other important firsts this year. We won our first Pulitzer prize – won by Reuters News for breaking news photography taken by Adrees Latif. And then just recently, we won our first Emmy in recognition of Reuters News and our role in the pursuit of truth and our contribution to society. The Emmy, for lifetime achievement in journalism, was awarded to our own Editor-in-Chief David Schlesinger. I’m incredibly proud of these two achievements, particularly as they come from the US, a part of the world where Reuters News has not always been as well known but is now gaining a really important place in the markets and with our clients.
“Let’s not forget what we were able to achieve together. We’ve pulled the business together; we’ve met our customers’ high expectations of service and benefits; we’ve exceeded our targets for the integration; and we’ve continued to deliver growth in the most challenging market of a lifetime. Most importantly, we’re on a path to become one company in one year. I hear a lot more people these days talk about Thomson Reuters rather than Thomson Financial or Reuters. It’s starting to feel like a coherent, focused business. We have a lot more to do and many challenges to come but I will enter 2009 with the optimism of knowing we have great people, great assets and a focused and high performing team.
“So we’re coming to the end of a rollercoaster year and I want you to know how grateful I am for all of your hard work; for putting up with the pains of integration and for helping me to build the great company that I dream about for all of us.
“Thank you and I hope you all have a wonderful time with family and friends over the holiday period. I know that many of you will be working around the world over the holidays and keeping our content and news flowing – and I thank you for that.
“So here’s to 2009…get some rest and get ready to hold on tight for what undoubtedly will be another amazing year.”
● SOURCE Thomson Reuters
There is lots more to do and there are more challenges to come – hold tight for another amazing year, he has told staff.
“We recently held our holiday parties and I have to say that I wasn’t sure how people would react to these parties, given our focus on costs and the uncertainty in the market,” Wenig said in a year-end message. “I think people really had a great time and they understand that our goal was simply to say thanks for an extraordinary effort in an extraordinary year.
“As someone said to me in New York, anybody that has a party in this market environment must be winning!
“And what an amazing year it’s been – no-one could have predicted even a year ago the pace of change that we have seen inside our organization but also what’s happening to the markets and to our customers.
“It’s been a year of highs and lows, of things to celebrate, of getting to know new friends and colleagues, and saying goodbye to colleagues who are no longer with us. And, sadly, it’s also saying goodbye to long-standing institutions like Lehman Brothers who had been a loyal customer and supporter of ours for many, many years.”
It has been a year of firsts, Wenig said – the first year as a new company, the first year of serving a new and diverse customer base and the first year of making a significant step change in service.
“But we had two other important firsts this year. We won our first Pulitzer prize – won by Reuters News for breaking news photography taken by Adrees Latif. And then just recently, we won our first Emmy in recognition of Reuters News and our role in the pursuit of truth and our contribution to society. The Emmy, for lifetime achievement in journalism, was awarded to our own Editor-in-Chief David Schlesinger. I’m incredibly proud of these two achievements, particularly as they come from the US, a part of the world where Reuters News has not always been as well known but is now gaining a really important place in the markets and with our clients.
“Let’s not forget what we were able to achieve together. We’ve pulled the business together; we’ve met our customers’ high expectations of service and benefits; we’ve exceeded our targets for the integration; and we’ve continued to deliver growth in the most challenging market of a lifetime. Most importantly, we’re on a path to become one company in one year. I hear a lot more people these days talk about Thomson Reuters rather than Thomson Financial or Reuters. It’s starting to feel like a coherent, focused business. We have a lot more to do and many challenges to come but I will enter 2009 with the optimism of knowing we have great people, great assets and a focused and high performing team.
“So we’re coming to the end of a rollercoaster year and I want you to know how grateful I am for all of your hard work; for putting up with the pains of integration and for helping me to build the great company that I dream about for all of us.
“Thank you and I hope you all have a wonderful time with family and friends over the holiday period. I know that many of you will be working around the world over the holidays and keeping our content and news flowing – and I thank you for that.
“So here’s to 2009…get some rest and get ready to hold on tight for what undoubtedly will be another amazing year.”
● SOURCE Thomson Reuters
Discordant notes on the economic crisis
Wednesday 17 December 2008
Reuters has been indulging in navel-gazing over the global economic crisis to try to discover whether the media has been doing its job in reporting the story.
Are journalists keeping things in perspective? Should they even be using words like “crisis” or “meltdown”? Are they being careful not to sow panic and make things even worse?
David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, doubts whether financial journalists could have done much more to predict the depth of the crisis.
“Journalists do best when reporting what’s happening and giving the news context and analysis,” he said. “We also do well when we look backwards and discuss past events from the perspective of the present. We do least well when we prognosticate. While our reporting and commentary did discuss potential weak points in the economy, we did not – and nor frankly could we – accurately predict the calamitous events of this year.”
Dean Wright (pictured), global editor, ethics, innovation and news standards, says Schlesinger worries, though, that there was a certain inevitability to the crisis and that the media played a role.
“I do worry about the narrative lines of reporting that contributed to the crisis,” he said. “To take just one example, much of the crisis was caused by banks taking on excess risks in the pursuit of higher profits. Yet had a major bank president stepped back from that fray and declined to participate, the ‘grammar’ of our results reporting would surely have compared that bank’s results negatively against expectations and against its peers.
“That brave bank president would surely have lost at least his bonus and probably his job. The very fear of that kind of negative comparison helped spur things on – as Citibank’s ex-CEO Charles Prince said (while still in his job), ‘As long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance.’
“We in the media help play that music, probably exacerbating the highs on the way up and the lows on the way down.”
So, did the media help change the tune that was being played, Wright asks in a recent Reuters Editors blog. Did it raise questions about the factors that contributed to the crisis, including complex financial instruments, subprime mortgage lending and excessive risk?
Questioning notes were sounded, he writes. As early as 18 August, 2003, a Reuters story quoted a Federal Reserve governor citing the dangers of “predatory lending” in extending subprime credit. By 2006, the pace had accelerated. A Factiva search found 128 Reuters stories that mentioned the phrase “subprime mortgage” that year, including a number in which analysts predicted a deterioration in credit quality. The crescendo came in 2007 when there were more than 10,000 stories that referenced subprime mortgages and when Reuters.com built a special section to house material on the issue.
“Still, the overall ‘music’ was loud and infectious and it’s easy to understand why so many couldn’t stay off the dance floor, says Wright.
He adds: “As Schlesinger says, ‘We have a responsibility to be careful, and most of our reporting has been very careful. But we too have played some discordant notes and we need to learn from that.’
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters to include news by US ‘upstart’
Monday 15 December 2008
Reuters is to incorporate US government and political news from an “upstart news source” into its newswire in a revenue-sharing deal to offer combined coverage to American newspapers and broadcasters.
The deal will bring together about 120 journalists in Washington, DC covering politics and business. The combined coverage will be offered to 60 newspapers and 40 broadcasters who are currently part of an advertising network run by Politico, an online service whose “informed political coverage, sometimes spiced with attitude” was launched less than two years ago. In exchange, they would allow Politico to sell online advertising on their websites.
The New York Times described Politico as “the upstart news source from Washington” and Reuters as “the venerable wire service”. It said the venture was the latest step in the rising competition among electronic news media to fill the void left by the shrinking print business.
The new service would be free for six months, and the partners could charge for the Reuters content after that, it said.
But until then, Politico would offer Reuters a foot in the door at a large number of US news operations, said Christoph Pleitgen, Thomson Reuters’ global head of news agency.
“He said his service had just 15 newspaper clients in this country, compared with more than 1,400 for The Associated Press,” The New York Times said.
“If we can, through this, engage with potential clients we don’t have a relationship with, that’s fantastic,” Pleitgen said. “There absolutely is an untapped market.”
The New York Times added: “Politico’s informed political coverage, sometimes spiced with attitude from its writers, complements Reuters’ sober style and Washington coverage that often reads as if written for an overseas audience.”
● SOURCE Reuters | The New York Times | Politico
The deal will bring together about 120 journalists in Washington, DC covering politics and business. The combined coverage will be offered to 60 newspapers and 40 broadcasters who are currently part of an advertising network run by Politico, an online service whose “informed political coverage, sometimes spiced with attitude” was launched less than two years ago. In exchange, they would allow Politico to sell online advertising on their websites.
The New York Times described Politico as “the upstart news source from Washington” and Reuters as “the venerable wire service”. It said the venture was the latest step in the rising competition among electronic news media to fill the void left by the shrinking print business.
The new service would be free for six months, and the partners could charge for the Reuters content after that, it said.
But until then, Politico would offer Reuters a foot in the door at a large number of US news operations, said Christoph Pleitgen, Thomson Reuters’ global head of news agency.
“He said his service had just 15 newspaper clients in this country, compared with more than 1,400 for The Associated Press,” The New York Times said.
“If we can, through this, engage with potential clients we don’t have a relationship with, that’s fantastic,” Pleitgen said. “There absolutely is an untapped market.”
The New York Times added: “Politico’s informed political coverage, sometimes spiced with attitude from its writers, complements Reuters’ sober style and Washington coverage that often reads as if written for an overseas audience.”
● SOURCE Reuters | The New York Times | Politico
US declines to free Iraqi photographer
Tuesday 09 December 2008
The US military in Iraq refuses to obey a court order to release a freelance photographer working for Reuters and said on Tuesday it will hold him into 2009.
The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled on 30 November that there was no evidence against Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, detained in a raid on his home in Mahmudiya, 30 km south of Baghdad on 2 September. It ordered the US military to release him from Camp Cropper prison near Baghdad airport.
Iraqi prosecutors acknowledged there was a lack of evidence and said they were closing the case against Jassam.
“Though we appreciate the decision of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in the Jassam case, their decision does not negate the intelligence information that currently lists him as a threat to Iraq security and stability,” Major Neal Fisher, spokesman for the US military’s detainee operations in Iraq, said in an e-mail to Reuters on Tuesday.
“He will be processed for release in a safe and orderly manner after December 31st, in the order of his individual threat level, along with all other detainees.”
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said: “I am disappointed he has not been released in accordance with the court order.”
The International Federation of Journalists "strongly condemned" the decision. It "makes a mockery of the coalition's handover of powers to Iraqi sovereign institutions," said Aidan White, IFJ general secretary. "The American military officials in Iraq should stop interfering with the Iraqi justice and free Ibrahim."
● SOURCE Reuters
The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled on 30 November that there was no evidence against Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, detained in a raid on his home in Mahmudiya, 30 km south of Baghdad on 2 September. It ordered the US military to release him from Camp Cropper prison near Baghdad airport.
Iraqi prosecutors acknowledged there was a lack of evidence and said they were closing the case against Jassam.
“Though we appreciate the decision of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in the Jassam case, their decision does not negate the intelligence information that currently lists him as a threat to Iraq security and stability,” Major Neal Fisher, spokesman for the US military’s detainee operations in Iraq, said in an e-mail to Reuters on Tuesday.
“He will be processed for release in a safe and orderly manner after December 31st, in the order of his individual threat level, along with all other detainees.”
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said: “I am disappointed he has not been released in accordance with the court order.”
The International Federation of Journalists "strongly condemned" the decision. It "makes a mockery of the coalition's handover of powers to Iraqi sovereign institutions," said Aidan White, IFJ general secretary. "The American military officials in Iraq should stop interfering with the Iraqi justice and free Ibrahim."
● SOURCE Reuters
UK editorial staff meet over pay offer
Wednesday 03 December 2008
Editorial staff at Thomson Reuters in London will hold a union meeting on Wednesday over management’s annual pay offer ahead of a year-end deadline for talks.
The Guardian reported that despite beating forecasts in its latest results – Q3 revenues were eight per cent higher – the company initially threatened to freeze the basic salaries of its 5,000 UK staff next year because of the economic downturn.
Staff would be eligible for a 2.5 per cent increase based on performance.
“However, yesterday management was understood to have offered an improved deal of an across the board pay of 1%, with staff eligible for a further 1.5% in performance-related pay,” the newspaper said.
The National Union of Journalists is holding out for a better offer.
● SOURCE The Guardian
The Guardian reported that despite beating forecasts in its latest results – Q3 revenues were eight per cent higher – the company initially threatened to freeze the basic salaries of its 5,000 UK staff next year because of the economic downturn.
Staff would be eligible for a 2.5 per cent increase based on performance.
“However, yesterday management was understood to have offered an improved deal of an across the board pay of 1%, with staff eligible for a further 1.5% in performance-related pay,” the newspaper said.
The National Union of Journalists is holding out for a better offer.
● SOURCE The Guardian
NUJ members call for strike ballot
Wednesday 03 December 2008
National Union of Journalists members at Thomson Reuters in London rejected a pay offer on Wednesday and instructed officials to hold a strike ballot.
The company says the UK pay budget can rise only 2.5 per cent in 2009 because of the tough economic climate. The latest offer is for a one per cent increase across the board with a further 1.5 per cent based on performance.
The offer was rejected unanimously at the NUJ meeting. A further motion to hold a ballot for industrial action was passed by an overwhelming majority.
A strike over job cuts following the April merger of Thomson and Reuters was averted when management promised there would be no compulsory redundancies in the UK editorial operation.
A company spokeswoman told The Guardian that talks over a pay deal were continuing.
● SOURCE The Guardian
The company says the UK pay budget can rise only 2.5 per cent in 2009 because of the tough economic climate. The latest offer is for a one per cent increase across the board with a further 1.5 per cent based on performance.
The offer was rejected unanimously at the NUJ meeting. A further motion to hold a ballot for industrial action was passed by an overwhelming majority.
A strike over job cuts following the April merger of Thomson and Reuters was averted when management promised there would be no compulsory redundancies in the UK editorial operation.
A company spokeswoman told The Guardian that talks over a pay deal were continuing.
● SOURCE The Guardian
Iraqi court tells US to free photographer
Sunday 30 November 2008
An Iraqi court on Sunday ordered the release of a freelance photographer working for Reuters who has been held by US forces for three months.
The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled there was no evidence against Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed and ordered the US military to release him from Camp Cropper prison near Baghdad airport.
Iraqi prosecutors acknowledged there was a lack of evidence and said they were closing the case against Jassam.
There was no immediate response from the US military but editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said: “I hope the US authorities comply with this order swiftly to reunite him with his colleagues, friends and family.”
US and Iraqi forces arrested Jassam on 2 September when they raided his home in Mahmudiya, 30 km south of Baghdad. They confiscated his photographic equipment.
Reuters and international media rights groups have criticised the US military's refusal to deal more quickly with suspicions apparently arising from reporters' legitimate activities covering acts of violence.
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters closes ‘virtual’ bureau
Friday 21 November 2008
Reuters has closed its most bizarre bureau – the virtual one in cyberspace, online reports said on Friday.
The two-man bureau was opened two years ago at Sadville on Second Life, an imaginery playground in the Internet world of unreal, make-believe environments. It comprised Adam Reuters (real name Adam Pasick and Eric Reuters (Eric Krangel).
A Reuters spokeswoman, confirming the Sadville bureau had been closed, told one online reporter: ”We’re still reporting on Second Life, but only as part of our usual tech and media coverage.”
“Does Reuters’ withdrawal mean they’re going to have to explain to their boards why they spent tens of thousands of dollars on the digital equivalent of a wife-swapping party on an oil rig (embarrassing, empty, yet still really dirty)?” The Register said. “Well, there’s no need to fire up the self-justification Powerpoint yet, as it’s only Reuters editorial that has lost the faith.
“‘As a company we’re still committed to Second Life,” the spokeswoman said. ‘We’re maintaining our corporate presence.’ Bravo!”
Krangel himself went online to report in real-world confessional style: “For a year and a half, I reported under the byline ‘Eric Reuters’ in Second Life...
“As part of walking my ‘beat’, I’d get invited by sources to virtual nightclubs, where I’d right-click the dancefloor to send my avatar gyrating as I sat at home at my computer. It was about as fun as watching paint dry.”
Krangel added: “I wasn’t in Second Life to play, I was there on assignment for Reuters.”
The opening of the bureau was described as part of Reuters’ strategy to embrace new digital platforms to deliver next generation news and information.
“Reuters is all about innovation – new technologies, new audiences, and new ways of presenting the news,” CEO Tom Glocer said at the time. “In Second Life, we’re making Reuters part of a new generation. We’re playing an active role in this community by bringing the outside world into Second Life and vice versa.”
● SOURCE The Register | Silicon Alley Insider | Valleywag | Reuters Second Life News Center
The two-man bureau was opened two years ago at Sadville on Second Life, an imaginery playground in the Internet world of unreal, make-believe environments. It comprised Adam Reuters (real name Adam Pasick and Eric Reuters (Eric Krangel).
A Reuters spokeswoman, confirming the Sadville bureau had been closed, told one online reporter: ”We’re still reporting on Second Life, but only as part of our usual tech and media coverage.”
“Does Reuters’ withdrawal mean they’re going to have to explain to their boards why they spent tens of thousands of dollars on the digital equivalent of a wife-swapping party on an oil rig (embarrassing, empty, yet still really dirty)?” The Register said. “Well, there’s no need to fire up the self-justification Powerpoint yet, as it’s only Reuters editorial that has lost the faith.
“‘As a company we’re still committed to Second Life,” the spokeswoman said. ‘We’re maintaining our corporate presence.’ Bravo!”
Krangel himself went online to report in real-world confessional style: “For a year and a half, I reported under the byline ‘Eric Reuters’ in Second Life...
“As part of walking my ‘beat’, I’d get invited by sources to virtual nightclubs, where I’d right-click the dancefloor to send my avatar gyrating as I sat at home at my computer. It was about as fun as watching paint dry.”
Krangel added: “I wasn’t in Second Life to play, I was there on assignment for Reuters.”
The opening of the bureau was described as part of Reuters’ strategy to embrace new digital platforms to deliver next generation news and information.
“Reuters is all about innovation – new technologies, new audiences, and new ways of presenting the news,” CEO Tom Glocer said at the time. “In Second Life, we’re making Reuters part of a new generation. We’re playing an active role in this community by bringing the outside world into Second Life and vice versa.”
● SOURCE The Register | Silicon Alley Insider | Valleywag | Reuters Second Life News Center
David Schlesinger wins an Emmy
Tuesday 18 November 2008
Reuters’ editor-in-chief David Schlesinger has won an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award for Business and Financial Reporting.
The award was made by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in the United States. Academy president and CEO Peter Price said “More than any other news organization, Reuters understands that there is no sharp dividing line between business reporting, political reporting, and other kinds of news.
“As Editor-in-Chief, David Schlesinger has preserved this venerable organization’s core journalistic values while enthusiastically embracing the possibilities and challenges of the digital age, and we are proud to honor him for this achievement.”
“It may not have the glamor of an Emmy for best actor but it’s incredible recognition of what we all do here,” Schlesinger said. “I feel very keenly that my own contributions are nothing compared to the 2,500 people around the world working for Reuters News,” he told the company’s in-house Daily Briefing.
“It’s a great reward for us because it recognizes our commitment to business and financial news, which is core. And it’s especially true in the U.S. where we haven’t had as large a profile as we should have had.”
Schlesinger joined Reuters as a correspondent in Hong Kong in 1987. After assignments to Taiwan and China, in 1995 he became financial editor for the Americas and later managing editor and then editor for the Americas, based in New York. He was appointed global managing editor and head of editorial operations in 2003 and Editor-in-Chief in 2007.
The award is due to be presented at a ceremony at the Rainbow Room in New York on 2 December.
● SOURCE Reuters | Variety
The award was made by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in the United States. Academy president and CEO Peter Price said “More than any other news organization, Reuters understands that there is no sharp dividing line between business reporting, political reporting, and other kinds of news.
“As Editor-in-Chief, David Schlesinger has preserved this venerable organization’s core journalistic values while enthusiastically embracing the possibilities and challenges of the digital age, and we are proud to honor him for this achievement.”
“It may not have the glamor of an Emmy for best actor but it’s incredible recognition of what we all do here,” Schlesinger said. “I feel very keenly that my own contributions are nothing compared to the 2,500 people around the world working for Reuters News,” he told the company’s in-house Daily Briefing.
“It’s a great reward for us because it recognizes our commitment to business and financial news, which is core. And it’s especially true in the U.S. where we haven’t had as large a profile as we should have had.”
Schlesinger joined Reuters as a correspondent in Hong Kong in 1987. After assignments to Taiwan and China, in 1995 he became financial editor for the Americas and later managing editor and then editor for the Americas, based in New York. He was appointed global managing editor and head of editorial operations in 2003 and Editor-in-Chief in 2007.
The award is due to be presented at a ceremony at the Rainbow Room in New York on 2 December.
● SOURCE Reuters | Variety
Reuters suspends Australian cricket cover
Thursday 13 November 2008
Reuters suspended coverage of cricket in Australia on Thursday citing “press freedom and protecting the interests and coverage rights of our global client base”.
The suspension covers matches, training sessions and commercial events across text, pictures and TV.
“Faced with unacceptable accreditation terms for photographers and camera crews imposed by Cricket Australia, Reuters has decided to curtail coverage of Australian cricket, until such time as we are able to reach agreement with Cricket Australia. We hope to continue discussions with Cricket Australia with a view to resuming full coverage of global cricket as quickly as possible,” it told subscribers.
“While it is our sincere wish to provide the world’s media with premium, timely text, photographs and TV, freedom of the press, intellectual property and our editorial integrity are at the core of our business, and these must be respected.”
● SOURCE Reuters
The suspension covers matches, training sessions and commercial events across text, pictures and TV.
“Faced with unacceptable accreditation terms for photographers and camera crews imposed by Cricket Australia, Reuters has decided to curtail coverage of Australian cricket, until such time as we are able to reach agreement with Cricket Australia. We hope to continue discussions with Cricket Australia with a view to resuming full coverage of global cricket as quickly as possible,” it told subscribers.
“While it is our sincere wish to provide the world’s media with premium, timely text, photographs and TV, freedom of the press, intellectual property and our editorial integrity are at the core of our business, and these must be respected.”
● SOURCE Reuters
First Dog bites Reuters reporter
Thursday 06 November 2008
Barack Obama called himself a mutt and John McCain got a mauling but it was Reuters TV reporter Jonathan Decker who got bitten in the US presidential election.
Barney, a Scottish terrier that has had the run of the White House as President George Bush’s First Dog, growled and snapped at Decker’s finger when our man bent down to pet the dog in the Rose Garden.
A White House doctor bandaged Decker’s index finger. Barney is known to be a serial offender: he has bitten other visitors in the past.
● SOURCE YouTube
Barney, a Scottish terrier that has had the run of the White House as President George Bush’s First Dog, growled and snapped at Decker’s finger when our man bent down to pet the dog in the Rose Garden.
A White House doctor bandaged Decker’s index finger. Barney is known to be a serial offender: he has bitten other visitors in the past.
● SOURCE YouTube
At 78, Lionel Walsh goes online to tell his story
Thursday 16 October 2008
Lionel Walsh, former correspondent and editor in Bonn, Geneva, London, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Warsaw, has published his memoirs on the Internet.
The online autobiography Lionel Walsh: My Life and Times includes details of his early life and adventures from school in England and military service in post-war Austria to journalism at home and abroad. President John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in Berlin and the Israeli trial of Nazi fugitive Adolf Eichmann were among the stories he covered.
It is illustrated with photographs of key figures of the 1950s and 1960s including managing editor Stuart Underhill, editor Walton (Tony) Cole, chief news editor Sidney Mason and deputy editor Geoffrey Imeson, Many others are mentioned in the text.
Walsh joined Reuters in 1956 (the picture above shows him on his way to his job interview) and left in 1981. Now aged 78, he lives in the Vendée, western France.
● CLICK lionelwalsh.com to read his story.
● CLICK People to read about his present life in retirement.
The online autobiography Lionel Walsh: My Life and Times includes details of his early life and adventures from school in England and military service in post-war Austria to journalism at home and abroad. President John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in Berlin and the Israeli trial of Nazi fugitive Adolf Eichmann were among the stories he covered.
It is illustrated with photographs of key figures of the 1950s and 1960s including managing editor Stuart Underhill, editor Walton (Tony) Cole, chief news editor Sidney Mason and deputy editor Geoffrey Imeson, Many others are mentioned in the text.
Walsh joined Reuters in 1956 (the picture above shows him on his way to his job interview) and left in 1981. Now aged 78, he lives in the Vendée, western France.
● CLICK lionelwalsh.com to read his story.
● CLICK People to read about his present life in retirement.
Foundation to join Abu Dhabi media zone
Monday 13 October 2008
The Thomson Reuters Foundation is to set up journalism training in Abu Dhabi as part of a joint project to develop media in the Gulf.
Along with international media companies including the BBC, CNN and the Financial Times, it will be a partner in a media zone funded by the United Arab Emirates government.
The project, called twofour54, aims to build an Arab media economy in the region, offering a vocational training academy, production and post-production facilities, and an incubation fund for new businesses.
Monique Villa, Foundation chief executive, said: "We are one of the main partners with the BBC in the training academy, which means we are going to train a number of journalists from the region in all the things they need to learn.
"It could be as tailor-made as how you cover business, how you cover a natural catastrophe, all this for print and broadcasting as well as for photography and multimedia. It will be a great centre for training the Arab region."
She said a regional director would be appointed to oversee the scheme, which begins in January.
"Here you have a fast-growing region and a fast-growing population of journalists, but sometimes they need to be a little bit more professional, so we will try to help them with that."
The Guardian said Thomson Reuters is expected to set up a photo agency and establish a sharia law-compliant financial information portal for the region.
Along with international media companies including the BBC, CNN and the Financial Times, it will be a partner in a media zone funded by the United Arab Emirates government.
The project, called twofour54, aims to build an Arab media economy in the region, offering a vocational training academy, production and post-production facilities, and an incubation fund for new businesses.
Monique Villa, Foundation chief executive, said: "We are one of the main partners with the BBC in the training academy, which means we are going to train a number of journalists from the region in all the things they need to learn.
"It could be as tailor-made as how you cover business, how you cover a natural catastrophe, all this for print and broadcasting as well as for photography and multimedia. It will be a great centre for training the Arab region."
She said a regional director would be appointed to oversee the scheme, which begins in January.
"Here you have a fast-growing region and a fast-growing population of journalists, but sometimes they need to be a little bit more professional, so we will try to help them with that."
The Guardian said Thomson Reuters is expected to set up a photo agency and establish a sharia law-compliant financial information portal for the region.
Reuters Fellows mark quarter century
Wednesday 01 October 2008
Reuters Fellows old and new gathered at Oxford University for a weekend of lectures, seminars and socialising to mark the 25th anniversary of the Reuters Foundation Fellowship Programme which brings journalists from around the world to study at the renowned seat of learning. Some of the journalists had flown in specially from Africa and Asia.
First event on 26 September was a lecture by Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times. He spoke of the economic and democratic challenges the Internet posed to the media at a time when the global audience for news is growing.
That was followed by dinner for more than 150 people at Lady Margaret Hall, down the road from the mansion on Norham Gardens where the new Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) – successor to the Foundation’s original Oxford Fellowship Programme – is centred.
Saturday saw seminars on the future of journalism in Africa, a “Moral Maze” debate on whether good journalism is in crisis and a lively, wide-ranging Fellows Symposium (pictured above) looking at coverage of the year’s major stories.
It ended with a garden party in rare late-summer sunshine in the gardens of Green Templeton College bringing together not only the fellows but also some of the past luminaries of the programme including its founders Michael Nelson and Neville Maxwell, former directors Godfrey Hodgson and Paddy Coulter and the newly appointed director of the RISJ, David Levy, former controller of public policy at the BBC. Past and present directors of the Reuters Foundation including Steve Somerville and the present CEO Monique Villa were also there.
The RISJ programme offers Oxford fellowships to mid-career journalists, including those from developing countries, to study media-related issues which it is hoped will benefit them and their communities.
Peter Mosley
First event on 26 September was a lecture by Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times. He spoke of the economic and democratic challenges the Internet posed to the media at a time when the global audience for news is growing.
That was followed by dinner for more than 150 people at Lady Margaret Hall, down the road from the mansion on Norham Gardens where the new Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) – successor to the Foundation’s original Oxford Fellowship Programme – is centred.
Saturday saw seminars on the future of journalism in Africa, a “Moral Maze” debate on whether good journalism is in crisis and a lively, wide-ranging Fellows Symposium (pictured above) looking at coverage of the year’s major stories.
It ended with a garden party in rare late-summer sunshine in the gardens of Green Templeton College bringing together not only the fellows but also some of the past luminaries of the programme including its founders Michael Nelson and Neville Maxwell, former directors Godfrey Hodgson and Paddy Coulter and the newly appointed director of the RISJ, David Levy, former controller of public policy at the BBC. Past and present directors of the Reuters Foundation including Steve Somerville and the present CEO Monique Villa were also there.
The RISJ programme offers Oxford fellowships to mid-career journalists, including those from developing countries, to study media-related issues which it is hoped will benefit them and their communities.
Peter Mosley
Has Reuters given up on news?
Tuesday 23 September 2008
Has Reuters given up on news? At least one online commentator thinks so following an announcement that Reuters is asking users of a virtual prediction website what will happen before the event itself.
“Ancient news outfit Reuters has given up on working out news based on facts and will ask the virtual prediction site, Hubdub what will happen instead,” The Inquirer, a UK-based website that bills itself as “News, reviews, facts and friction”, said on Tuesday.
Hubdub, launched in February, is an online game that has created a section that allows players to predict the outcome of ongoing Reuters stories. Reuters will be able to establish a network of “friends” and link back to its own widgets and articles, according to the website ● www.journalism.co.uk.
Reuters questions have gained popularity on the web, in particular with financial news forecasts, Hubdub said. Its members made predictions about the recent HBOS take-over by Lloyds TSB “long before mainstream media” began covering the story, Hubdub founder Nigel Eccles said.
“We want to build up our user base, and as that gets bigger they’ll see Reuters’ questions, which sends traffic back to those news sites,” he said. Hubdub has 150,000 users.
“Reuters are obviously very very aware of how their news affects the markets – we’d be pretty aware of not letting that become an issue,” Eccles said.
Reuters’ top question on Hubdub on Tuesday was: Who will use the word “regulation” most in the first presidential debate? Respondents were split evenly between Barack Obama and John McCain.
“Reuters is a phenomenal agency,” Eccles said. “The technology we’ve got can make the experience for their readers really interesting. We’re really excited about the editorial content that comes out of it.”
He said Hubdub’s growth has “been very, very quick” and the relationship with Reuters took just two months to finalise after a “chance encounter” with the organisation in the United States.
Asked whether people could make predictions to better their own shares, Eccles said: “We’ve been running the markets for about 8 months now, and we’ve become pretty good at catching most of them. In general, we catch the vast majority of it.”
The Inquirer commented: “Apparently the combined fortune-telling powers of Hubdub members is far greater than all of the hacks in all of the world.”
The Washington Post, which launched a similar current events-related prediction market in July, said Reuters’ Hubdub connection could have a more significant impact: “If the site can grow a large and diverse user base, it could potentially help pollsters and news organizations quickly get a feel for the public’s perception on a given issue.”
Hubdub is not Reuters’ first foray into the virtual world. Two years ago it launched the first ever virtual news bureau on Second Life, an online world inhabited by hundreds of thousands users with its own virtual economy. The opening of the bureau was described as part of Reuters’ strategy to embrace new digital platforms to deliver next generation news and information.
“Reuters is all about innovation – new technologies, new audiences, and new ways of presenting the news,” CEO Tom Glocer said at the time. “In Second Life, we’re making Reuters part of a new generation. We’re playing an active role in this community by bringing the outside world into Second Life and vice versa.”
Reuters’ Second Life bureau has a virtual bureau chief known as Adam Reuters and a reporter called Erik Reuters. In real life they are Reuters journalists Adam Pasick, a technology and media correspondent, and Erik Krangel, who covers technology from New York.
● SOURCE The Inquirer | Journalism | Hubdub | The Washington Post | The World Editors Forum | Reuters | Reuters Second Life News Center
“Ancient news outfit Reuters has given up on working out news based on facts and will ask the virtual prediction site, Hubdub what will happen instead,” The Inquirer, a UK-based website that bills itself as “News, reviews, facts and friction”, said on Tuesday.
Hubdub, launched in February, is an online game that has created a section that allows players to predict the outcome of ongoing Reuters stories. Reuters will be able to establish a network of “friends” and link back to its own widgets and articles, according to the website ● www.journalism.co.uk.
Reuters questions have gained popularity on the web, in particular with financial news forecasts, Hubdub said. Its members made predictions about the recent HBOS take-over by Lloyds TSB “long before mainstream media” began covering the story, Hubdub founder Nigel Eccles said.
“We want to build up our user base, and as that gets bigger they’ll see Reuters’ questions, which sends traffic back to those news sites,” he said. Hubdub has 150,000 users.
“Reuters are obviously very very aware of how their news affects the markets – we’d be pretty aware of not letting that become an issue,” Eccles said.
Reuters’ top question on Hubdub on Tuesday was: Who will use the word “regulation” most in the first presidential debate? Respondents were split evenly between Barack Obama and John McCain.
“Reuters is a phenomenal agency,” Eccles said. “The technology we’ve got can make the experience for their readers really interesting. We’re really excited about the editorial content that comes out of it.”
He said Hubdub’s growth has “been very, very quick” and the relationship with Reuters took just two months to finalise after a “chance encounter” with the organisation in the United States.
Asked whether people could make predictions to better their own shares, Eccles said: “We’ve been running the markets for about 8 months now, and we’ve become pretty good at catching most of them. In general, we catch the vast majority of it.”
The Inquirer commented: “Apparently the combined fortune-telling powers of Hubdub members is far greater than all of the hacks in all of the world.”
The Washington Post, which launched a similar current events-related prediction market in July, said Reuters’ Hubdub connection could have a more significant impact: “If the site can grow a large and diverse user base, it could potentially help pollsters and news organizations quickly get a feel for the public’s perception on a given issue.”
Hubdub is not Reuters’ first foray into the virtual world. Two years ago it launched the first ever virtual news bureau on Second Life, an online world inhabited by hundreds of thousands users with its own virtual economy. The opening of the bureau was described as part of Reuters’ strategy to embrace new digital platforms to deliver next generation news and information.
“Reuters is all about innovation – new technologies, new audiences, and new ways of presenting the news,” CEO Tom Glocer said at the time. “In Second Life, we’re making Reuters part of a new generation. We’re playing an active role in this community by bringing the outside world into Second Life and vice versa.”
Reuters’ Second Life bureau has a virtual bureau chief known as Adam Reuters and a reporter called Erik Reuters. In real life they are Reuters journalists Adam Pasick, a technology and media correspondent, and Erik Krangel, who covers technology from New York.
● SOURCE The Inquirer | Journalism | Hubdub | The Washington Post | The World Editors Forum | Reuters | Reuters Second Life News Center
Reuters Institute names new director
Wednesday 17 September 2008
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University has named David Levy, former BBC head of policy, as its new director.
The Institute, whose core funder is the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was launched in November 2006 and developed from the Reuters Fellowship Programme established at Oxford in 1983. It provides a leading forum for scholars from a wide range of disciplines to engage with journalists from around the world.
“I am delighted to be taking over as Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and hope to use my background as a journalist, an academic and a media policy expert to build on the strengths of the team and deliver new insights over the coming years,” Levy said.
“With rapid change affecting the whole global media industry, the Institute’s unique mission to create links between scholars and practitioners from around the world is more relevant than ever before.”
Levy has been responsible for the BBC’s public policy, public affairs and European policy teams, and for developing the policy for the BBC’s charter review in 2006. His areas of expertise include public service reform, the impact of digital technology, media ownership and regulation in the UK and Europe.
Monique Villa, chief executive of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said: “The Thomson Reuters Foundation is wholly committed to the development of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and we are delighted that Dr Levy has been appointed as its Director. He brings with him first hand journalistic knowledge and a thorough understanding of the dynamics of the media industry. Dr Levy will be pivotal in ensuring the continued success of the Institute as it looks to evaluate the ongoing challenges faced by the world of journalism in the 21st century.”
Levy is an associate fellow in media communications at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University and will continue in that role. He began his BBC career as a journalist at BBC World Service.
● SOURCE Reuters Institute
The Institute, whose core funder is the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was launched in November 2006 and developed from the Reuters Fellowship Programme established at Oxford in 1983. It provides a leading forum for scholars from a wide range of disciplines to engage with journalists from around the world.
“I am delighted to be taking over as Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and hope to use my background as a journalist, an academic and a media policy expert to build on the strengths of the team and deliver new insights over the coming years,” Levy said.
“With rapid change affecting the whole global media industry, the Institute’s unique mission to create links between scholars and practitioners from around the world is more relevant than ever before.”
Levy has been responsible for the BBC’s public policy, public affairs and European policy teams, and for developing the policy for the BBC’s charter review in 2006. His areas of expertise include public service reform, the impact of digital technology, media ownership and regulation in the UK and Europe.
Monique Villa, chief executive of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said: “The Thomson Reuters Foundation is wholly committed to the development of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and we are delighted that Dr Levy has been appointed as its Director. He brings with him first hand journalistic knowledge and a thorough understanding of the dynamics of the media industry. Dr Levy will be pivotal in ensuring the continued success of the Institute as it looks to evaluate the ongoing challenges faced by the world of journalism in the 21st century.”
Levy is an associate fellow in media communications at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University and will continue in that role. He began his BBC career as a journalist at BBC World Service.
● SOURCE Reuters Institute
Former CNN chief to head multimedia
Monday 15 September 2008
Reuters appointed former CNN International president Chris Cramer to the newly created role of global editor for multimedia.
He will oversee multimedia projects including the reuters.com website and act as the main liaison between the news organisation and media business.
He will be based in New York and report to editor-in-chief David Schlesinger, who said: "Cramer's distinguished track record of driving innovations in news gathering will be key to building on our recognised multimedia ventures and century and a half of journalist excellence."
Cramer spent 20 years at the BBC prior to joining CNN.
● SOURCE Reuters
He will oversee multimedia projects including the reuters.com website and act as the main liaison between the news organisation and media business.
He will be based in New York and report to editor-in-chief David Schlesinger, who said: "Cramer's distinguished track record of driving innovations in news gathering will be key to building on our recognised multimedia ventures and century and a half of journalist excellence."
Cramer spent 20 years at the BBC prior to joining CNN.
● SOURCE Reuters
Irish mortgage lender may sue Reuters
Monday 08 September 2008
Irish Nationwide Building Society is considering legal action against Reuters over an inaccurate report that the home loan firm was holding talks with its lenders to avoid insolvency.
Reuters retracted the story late on Friday night, admitting that material elements were incorrect and that it contained false information.
A spokesman for Irish Nationwide confirmed to The Irish Times on Sunday that "the society is discussing the matter with legal advisers".
The society's chief executive, Michael Fingleton, told the Sunday Independent that the story was "irresponsible, false and untrue", adding that "in the present highly sensitive economic, financial and commercial climate, the putting out of such statements is tantamount to commercial sabotage".
Reuters did not check the story "in the way that you would expect", Fingleton said, adding: “The society will, of course, be vigorously pursuing the matter – including legal action. We believe that we have the evidence to support our case and that what Reuters did was indefensible.
“It took Reuters 2 hours to put up the Irish Nationwide’s denial, and it was another hour-and-a-half before they withdrew the original story because, they said, ‘material elements were incorrect’. They also withdrew the denial story because, they said, it contained ‘incorrect information’.”
A spokeswoman for Thomson Reuters, quoted by The Irish Times, said the reporter had misinterpreted the source of the story, which was filed out of London.
The spokeswoman added: "Accuracy, reliability and integrity are at the heart of the Reuters operation – and we deeply regret that our standard operating procedure in this case was not followed."
● SOURCE Irish Times | Irish Independent
Reuters retracted the story late on Friday night, admitting that material elements were incorrect and that it contained false information.
A spokesman for Irish Nationwide confirmed to The Irish Times on Sunday that "the society is discussing the matter with legal advisers".
The society's chief executive, Michael Fingleton, told the Sunday Independent that the story was "irresponsible, false and untrue", adding that "in the present highly sensitive economic, financial and commercial climate, the putting out of such statements is tantamount to commercial sabotage".
Reuters did not check the story "in the way that you would expect", Fingleton said, adding: “The society will, of course, be vigorously pursuing the matter – including legal action. We believe that we have the evidence to support our case and that what Reuters did was indefensible.
“It took Reuters 2 hours to put up the Irish Nationwide’s denial, and it was another hour-and-a-half before they withdrew the original story because, they said, ‘material elements were incorrect’. They also withdrew the denial story because, they said, it contained ‘incorrect information’.”
A spokeswoman for Thomson Reuters, quoted by The Irish Times, said the reporter had misinterpreted the source of the story, which was filed out of London.
The spokeswoman added: "Accuracy, reliability and integrity are at the heart of the Reuters operation – and we deeply regret that our standard operating procedure in this case was not followed."
● SOURCE Irish Times | Irish Independent
Freelance photographer held in Iraq
Wednesday 03 September 2008
Reuters is seeking additional information on the detention of a freelance photographer in Iraq.
Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, an Iraqi who has supplied photos and video to Reuters on a freelance basis for about two years, was detained in a raid on his home in Mahmudiya, 30 km south of Baghdad, by US and Iraqi forces early on Tuesday morning, his family said.
They also confiscated photographic equipment, his sister Eman told Reuters.
A US military spokesman declined comment on any charges Jassam may be facing, saying only that he is in US custody.
"He was detained because he was evaluated as a security threat, and his case is now being evaluated," spokesman Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll told Reuters.
"We are concerned to hear about Jassam's detention, and urge the US military to either charge or release him once an initial investigatory stage is concluded," editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said.
"Any accusations against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to counsel and present a defence. Iraqi journalists like Jassam play a vital role in telling this story to the world," Schlesinger said.
Reuters and international media rights groups have previously criticised the military's refusal to deal more quickly with suspicions apparently arising from reporters' legitimate activities covering acts of violence.
The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press rights group, urged the military to reveal where Jassam is being held and to say why he was arrested.
● SOURCE Reuters
Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, an Iraqi who has supplied photos and video to Reuters on a freelance basis for about two years, was detained in a raid on his home in Mahmudiya, 30 km south of Baghdad, by US and Iraqi forces early on Tuesday morning, his family said.
They also confiscated photographic equipment, his sister Eman told Reuters.
A US military spokesman declined comment on any charges Jassam may be facing, saying only that he is in US custody.
"He was detained because he was evaluated as a security threat, and his case is now being evaluated," spokesman Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll told Reuters.
"We are concerned to hear about Jassam's detention, and urge the US military to either charge or release him once an initial investigatory stage is concluded," editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said.
"Any accusations against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to counsel and present a defence. Iraqi journalists like Jassam play a vital role in telling this story to the world," Schlesinger said.
Reuters and international media rights groups have previously criticised the military's refusal to deal more quickly with suspicions apparently arising from reporters' legitimate activities covering acts of violence.
The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press rights group, urged the military to reveal where Jassam is being held and to say why he was arrested.
● SOURCE Reuters
US frees detained Iraqi cameraman
Thursday 21 August 2008
The US military freed detained Iraqi cameraman Ali al-Mashhadani on Thursday after holding him for three weeks without charge.
He was arrested in Baghdad on 30 July while he was in Baghdad's Green Zone government compound for routine checks for a US military press card. The US military said he was seized "because he has been assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces," but did not elaborate.
They have detained Mashhadani, who also works freelance for the BBC and Washington-based National Public Radio, twice before. At one point he was held for five months, but no charge has ever been filed against the cameraman, who is based in Ramadi, capital of western Anbar province.
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said: "While I am pleased at Ali al-Mashhadani's release, I am extremely concerned that this was the third time he was detained without explanation.
"If there are legitimate issues about him or any other journalist, let's have them aired openly and tested. If there are none, let them pursue their profession free from intimidation and fear."
Reuters, the BBC, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and Iraqi journalist groups had called for the military either to explain the accusations against Mashhadani or free him.
The US military says that under the UN mandate governing the presence of foreign forces in Iraq it can detain anyone considered a security risk indefinitely.
US forces have held other Iraqi reporters working for Reuters and journalists from different media groups for long periods without charging them.
● SOURCE Reuters
He was arrested in Baghdad on 30 July while he was in Baghdad's Green Zone government compound for routine checks for a US military press card. The US military said he was seized "because he has been assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces," but did not elaborate.
They have detained Mashhadani, who also works freelance for the BBC and Washington-based National Public Radio, twice before. At one point he was held for five months, but no charge has ever been filed against the cameraman, who is based in Ramadi, capital of western Anbar province.
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said: "While I am pleased at Ali al-Mashhadani's release, I am extremely concerned that this was the third time he was detained without explanation.
"If there are legitimate issues about him or any other journalist, let's have them aired openly and tested. If there are none, let them pursue their profession free from intimidation and fear."
Reuters, the BBC, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and Iraqi journalist groups had called for the military either to explain the accusations against Mashhadani or free him.
The US military says that under the UN mandate governing the presence of foreign forces in Iraq it can detain anyone considered a security risk indefinitely.
US forces have held other Iraqi reporters working for Reuters and journalists from different media groups for long periods without charging them.
● SOURCE Reuters
Killing was ‘more than just a tragedy’
Wednesday 13 August 2008
The killing of cameraman Fadel Shana on the basis of such little Israeli certainty was more than just a tragedy, editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said after the Israel Defence Forces cleared the tank crew who killed him in Gaza four months ago.
For a little more investigation, a little more military intelligence, would have shown clearly that he was just a professional doing his job and that his camera was a weapon only for the truth, Schlesinger wrote in a Reuters blog posting.
“I’ve written before that a camera is not a weapon, that a journalist is not a combatant, that the pen and the sword should not be confused,” he wrote.
“Yet the Israel Defense Forces seem to be putting the camera very much in the category of weapon in a report on the death in April of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana.
“I’ve given a quote to our reporters about my disappointment in the report.
“That it does state that the death was a ‘tragedy’ does not counteract the fact that it condoned the firing of two deadly shells at people it admitted had not been identified clearly and whose only crime was to put a camera on a tripod.
“Said the report: ‘Two persons were spotted leaving the vehicle, carrying a large black object. The black object was placed on a tripod above a dirt mound, and directed at the tank… The tank crew reported the spotting to its superiors. The latter authorized firing a tank shell at the characters, in light of the genuine suspicion that the object mounted on the tripod and directed at the tank was an anti-tank missile or mortar, a suspicion consistent with the characteristics of that day’s hostilities…’
“I do understand the stresses of the battlefield,” Schlesinger wrote.
“I do understand that wars are horribly dangerous – Reuters has had close calls in Georgia; colleagues from other organizations have been killed.
“I do not understand the deliberate decision to fire on the basis of suspicion and uncertainty.
“I wonder how journalists can do their job if doing that job raises such suspicion in the eyes of the Israeli or any other military.
“The dangers seem too great.
“And yet, the stakes of not reporting a war to the world are too high as well.
“‘…the tank crew was unable to determine the nature of the object mounted on the tripod and positively identify it as an anti-tank missile, a mortar, or a television camera,’ the report said.
“To me, killing on the basis of such little certainty makes the death of Fadel Shana much more than just a tragedy.
“For a little more investigation, a little more military intelligence, would have shown clearly that he was just a professional doing his job.
“And that his camera was a weapon only for the truth.”
● SOURCE Reuters Editors blog
For a little more investigation, a little more military intelligence, would have shown clearly that he was just a professional doing his job and that his camera was a weapon only for the truth, Schlesinger wrote in a Reuters blog posting.
“I’ve written before that a camera is not a weapon, that a journalist is not a combatant, that the pen and the sword should not be confused,” he wrote.
“Yet the Israel Defense Forces seem to be putting the camera very much in the category of weapon in a report on the death in April of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana.
“I’ve given a quote to our reporters about my disappointment in the report.
“That it does state that the death was a ‘tragedy’ does not counteract the fact that it condoned the firing of two deadly shells at people it admitted had not been identified clearly and whose only crime was to put a camera on a tripod.
“Said the report: ‘Two persons were spotted leaving the vehicle, carrying a large black object. The black object was placed on a tripod above a dirt mound, and directed at the tank… The tank crew reported the spotting to its superiors. The latter authorized firing a tank shell at the characters, in light of the genuine suspicion that the object mounted on the tripod and directed at the tank was an anti-tank missile or mortar, a suspicion consistent with the characteristics of that day’s hostilities…’
“I do understand the stresses of the battlefield,” Schlesinger wrote.
“I do understand that wars are horribly dangerous – Reuters has had close calls in Georgia; colleagues from other organizations have been killed.
“I do not understand the deliberate decision to fire on the basis of suspicion and uncertainty.
“I wonder how journalists can do their job if doing that job raises such suspicion in the eyes of the Israeli or any other military.
“The dangers seem too great.
“And yet, the stakes of not reporting a war to the world are too high as well.
“‘…the tank crew was unable to determine the nature of the object mounted on the tripod and positively identify it as an anti-tank missile, a mortar, or a television camera,’ the report said.
“To me, killing on the basis of such little certainty makes the death of Fadel Shana much more than just a tragedy.
“For a little more investigation, a little more military intelligence, would have shown clearly that he was just a professional doing his job.
“And that his camera was a weapon only for the truth.”
● SOURCE Reuters Editors blog
Israel clears cameraman’s killers
Wednesday 13 August 2008
Israeli tank crew who killed Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana in Gaza four months ago acted properly and will not face legal action, Israel's senior military lawyer has concluded.
The military advocate-general told Reuters in a letter sent on Tuesday that troops could not see whether Shana was operating a camera or a weapon but were nonetheless justified in firing a shell packed with darts that killed him and eight other Palestinians aged between 12 and 20.
Reuters said on Wednesday it was deeply disturbed by a conclusion that severely curtails the freedom of the media to cover the conflict by effectively giving soldiers a free hand to kill without being sure they were not firing on journalists.
Shana, 24, filmed two tanks positioned about 1.5 km from where he was standing for several minutes before, in a chilling final two seconds of video, his camera captured one tank firing a shell that burst overhead, showering him and others with thousands of metal darts known as flechettes.
"The tank crew was unable to determine the nature of the object mounted on the tripod and positively identify it as an anti-tank missile, a mortar or a television camera," Brigadier General Avihai Mendelblit of the Israel Defence Forces wrote.
But the military lawyer cited an attack that killed three IDF soldiers in another part of the enclave earlier in the day, a separate grenade attack on a tank, the fact that Shana and his soundman who was wounded were wearing body armour – "common to Palestinian terrorists" – among reasons for suspicion.
Their blue flak jackets, like the car, were marked "PRESS". The army said the troops could not see those signs. Journalists in Gaza say they have rarely seen militants wear flak jackets.
Mendelblit wrote: "In light of the reasonable conclusion reached by the tank crew and its superiors that the characters were hostile and were carrying an object most likely to be a weapon, the decision to fire at the targets ... was sound ...
"There is no doubt that Fadel Shana's death is a tragedy...
"A journalist in action was killed by IDF fire, along with others not involved in the hostilities.
"However ... the available evidence does not suggest misconduct or criminal misbehaviour ... I have therefore decided ... that no further legal measures will be taken."
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said: "I'm extremely disappointed that this report condones a disproportionate use of deadly force in a situation the army itself admitted had not been analysed clearly.
"They would appear to take the view that any raising of a camera into position could garner a deadly response."
Reuters wrote to Mendelblit on Wednesday with a number of questions, including asking precisely why the soldiers ruled out the possibility that Shana was a cameraman, why the fact he stood in full view of the tanks for some minutes did not suggest he had no hostile intent and why the tank crew, if concerned but unsure, did not simply reverse a few metres out of sight.
In Jerusalem, the Foreign Press Association said it was disappointed with a report that seemed to give soldiers licence to fire on journalists without being sure of their target.
In New York, Joel Campagna of the Committee to Protect Journalists said: "These findings mean that a journalist with a camera is at risk of coming under fire and there's not that much that can be done. That's unacceptable.
"It's difficult to believe ... that the IDF took the necessary precautions to avoid causing harm to civilians – as it is obliged to do under international law."
● SOURCE Reuters
The military advocate-general told Reuters in a letter sent on Tuesday that troops could not see whether Shana was operating a camera or a weapon but were nonetheless justified in firing a shell packed with darts that killed him and eight other Palestinians aged between 12 and 20.
Reuters said on Wednesday it was deeply disturbed by a conclusion that severely curtails the freedom of the media to cover the conflict by effectively giving soldiers a free hand to kill without being sure they were not firing on journalists.
Shana, 24, filmed two tanks positioned about 1.5 km from where he was standing for several minutes before, in a chilling final two seconds of video, his camera captured one tank firing a shell that burst overhead, showering him and others with thousands of metal darts known as flechettes.
"The tank crew was unable to determine the nature of the object mounted on the tripod and positively identify it as an anti-tank missile, a mortar or a television camera," Brigadier General Avihai Mendelblit of the Israel Defence Forces wrote.
But the military lawyer cited an attack that killed three IDF soldiers in another part of the enclave earlier in the day, a separate grenade attack on a tank, the fact that Shana and his soundman who was wounded were wearing body armour – "common to Palestinian terrorists" – among reasons for suspicion.
Their blue flak jackets, like the car, were marked "PRESS". The army said the troops could not see those signs. Journalists in Gaza say they have rarely seen militants wear flak jackets.
Mendelblit wrote: "In light of the reasonable conclusion reached by the tank crew and its superiors that the characters were hostile and were carrying an object most likely to be a weapon, the decision to fire at the targets ... was sound ...
"There is no doubt that Fadel Shana's death is a tragedy...
"A journalist in action was killed by IDF fire, along with others not involved in the hostilities.
"However ... the available evidence does not suggest misconduct or criminal misbehaviour ... I have therefore decided ... that no further legal measures will be taken."
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said: "I'm extremely disappointed that this report condones a disproportionate use of deadly force in a situation the army itself admitted had not been analysed clearly.
"They would appear to take the view that any raising of a camera into position could garner a deadly response."
Reuters wrote to Mendelblit on Wednesday with a number of questions, including asking precisely why the soldiers ruled out the possibility that Shana was a cameraman, why the fact he stood in full view of the tanks for some minutes did not suggest he had no hostile intent and why the tank crew, if concerned but unsure, did not simply reverse a few metres out of sight.
In Jerusalem, the Foreign Press Association said it was disappointed with a report that seemed to give soldiers licence to fire on journalists without being sure of their target.
In New York, Joel Campagna of the Committee to Protect Journalists said: "These findings mean that a journalist with a camera is at risk of coming under fire and there's not that much that can be done. That's unacceptable.
"It's difficult to believe ... that the IDF took the necessary precautions to avoid causing harm to civilians – as it is obliged to do under international law."
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters Olympics team is 200 strong
Monday 04 August 2008
Reuters is fielding a team of 200 for the Beijing Olympics with 100 text reporters, 80 photographers and TV crews, technicians, logistics and other supporting teams.
Reuters has 24 correspondents stationed in China with a much larger local support team working on the ground.
“It’s definitely one of the biggest foreign media presences in China,” editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said on the eve of his departure for Beijing.
For Reuters, “the biggest problem and challenge is to find reporters who understand both the language, culture and Chinese society,” he told China’s Xinhua News Agency.
Schlesinger, formerly a correspondent in Beijing, was speaking in a telephone interview with Xinhua on the eve of his departure for a 15-day stay. He will be the guest of Li Congjun, president of Xinhua, at Friday’s opening ceremony.
“I’ll meet Xinhua’s new president during my stay in Beijing for constructive dialogue, in addition to meeting officials from the Information Office of the State Council as well as other friends,” Xinhua quoted him as saying.
Schlesinger said Reuters would offer “fair, unbiased, responsible coverage” of the Games, Xinhua said. Besides covering sports it would also report on the political, social and economic scene in China.
“We are interested in how China prepares for the Games, the facilities, how the city works during the Games, traffic and pollution, whether the stadiums are full, how athletes are made to feel welcome, media and visa regulations in the run-up to the Games, etc,” Schlesinger said.
● SOURCE Xinhua
Reuters has 24 correspondents stationed in China with a much larger local support team working on the ground.
“It’s definitely one of the biggest foreign media presences in China,” editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said on the eve of his departure for Beijing.
For Reuters, “the biggest problem and challenge is to find reporters who understand both the language, culture and Chinese society,” he told China’s Xinhua News Agency.
Schlesinger, formerly a correspondent in Beijing, was speaking in a telephone interview with Xinhua on the eve of his departure for a 15-day stay. He will be the guest of Li Congjun, president of Xinhua, at Friday’s opening ceremony.
“I’ll meet Xinhua’s new president during my stay in Beijing for constructive dialogue, in addition to meeting officials from the Information Office of the State Council as well as other friends,” Xinhua quoted him as saying.
Schlesinger said Reuters would offer “fair, unbiased, responsible coverage” of the Games, Xinhua said. Besides covering sports it would also report on the political, social and economic scene in China.
“We are interested in how China prepares for the Games, the facilities, how the city works during the Games, traffic and pollution, whether the stadiums are full, how athletes are made to feel welcome, media and visa regulations in the run-up to the Games, etc,” Schlesinger said.
● SOURCE Xinhua
Free cameraman or charge him - CPJ
Monday 04 August 2008
The Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday the United States must charge or immediately release Reuters cameraman Ali al-Mashhadani, detained in Iraq.
He was detained in Baghdad on 26 July while he was in the Green Zone government compound for routine checks for a US military press card.
“This is the third time US forces have detained Ali al-Mashhadani without charge,” Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the New York-based press rights group said.
“The military has never substantiated any wrongdoing by him. The authorities must make evidence again him public or release him immediately.”
Reuters and the BBC, for whom Mashhadani also works, have urged the US military to release him immediately or produce evidence to justify his detention.
A US military spokesman said he was being held at Camp Cropper, an American prison near Baghdad airport, because he “has been assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces”.
The spokesman said the case will be reviewed this week.
Mahoney is a former Reuters correspondent and editor. He joined the CPJ in 2005.
● SOURCE Reuters
He was detained in Baghdad on 26 July while he was in the Green Zone government compound for routine checks for a US military press card.
“This is the third time US forces have detained Ali al-Mashhadani without charge,” Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the New York-based press rights group said.
“The military has never substantiated any wrongdoing by him. The authorities must make evidence again him public or release him immediately.”
Reuters and the BBC, for whom Mashhadani also works, have urged the US military to release him immediately or produce evidence to justify his detention.
A US military spokesman said he was being held at Camp Cropper, an American prison near Baghdad airport, because he “has been assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces”.
The spokesman said the case will be reviewed this week.
Mahoney is a former Reuters correspondent and editor. He joined the CPJ in 2005.
● SOURCE Reuters
US forces say they hold cameraman
Friday 01 August 2008
American forces in Baghdad said on Friday they are holding an Iraqi cameraman working for Reuters. Reporters Sans Frontières/Reporters Without Borders, the media rights group, said he had been held for nearly a week without charge.
Ali al-Mashhadani was arrested last Saturday at the Iraqi parliament press centre in Baghdad’s government and diplomatic Green Zone.
A spokesman for the US military confirmed to AFP that he was in custody.
RSF said he “must be freed at once. It is unacceptable that US troops hold him on security grounds”. It cited the US military as saying Mashhadani was held because “he has been assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces”.
Reuters has urged the US military to release Mashhandani immediately or publicly produce evidence to justify his detention.
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said any accusations against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to counsel and to present a defence.
● SOURCE AFP
Ali al-Mashhadani was arrested last Saturday at the Iraqi parliament press centre in Baghdad’s government and diplomatic Green Zone.
A spokesman for the US military confirmed to AFP that he was in custody.
RSF said he “must be freed at once. It is unacceptable that US troops hold him on security grounds”. It cited the US military as saying Mashhadani was held because “he has been assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces”.
Reuters has urged the US military to release Mashhandani immediately or publicly produce evidence to justify his detention.
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said any accusations against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to counsel and to present a defence.
● SOURCE AFP
Free our man, Reuters tells US forces
Thursday 31 July 2008
Reuters urged the US military to release an Iraqi cameraman immediately or publicly produce evidence to justify his detention.
Ali al-Mashhadani was detained on Saturday while he was in the Green Zone government compound in Baghdad for routine checks for a US military press card. It was the third time he had been detained. No charges have ever been filed against him.
“Any accusations against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to counsel and present a defence,” editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said.
“Iraqi journalists like Mashhadani play a vital role in telling this story to the world.”
A US military spokesman said Mashhadani was being held at Camp Cropper, an American prison near Baghdad airport.
“He is being detained because he has been assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces,” the spokesman said. He said the case would be reviewed by early next week.
US forces have held other Iraqi journalists working for Reuters and other news organisations for long periods without charge.
Mashhadani was previously detained from August 2005 to January 2006 and for two weeks in mid-2006.
Mashhadani also works freelance for the BBC and Washington-based National Public Radio.
● SOURCE Reuters
Ali al-Mashhadani was detained on Saturday while he was in the Green Zone government compound in Baghdad for routine checks for a US military press card. It was the third time he had been detained. No charges have ever been filed against him.
“Any accusations against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to counsel and present a defence,” editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said.
“Iraqi journalists like Mashhadani play a vital role in telling this story to the world.”
A US military spokesman said Mashhadani was being held at Camp Cropper, an American prison near Baghdad airport.
“He is being detained because he has been assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces,” the spokesman said. He said the case would be reviewed by early next week.
US forces have held other Iraqi journalists working for Reuters and other news organisations for long periods without charge.
Mashhadani was previously detained from August 2005 to January 2006 and for two weeks in mid-2006.
Mashhadani also works freelance for the BBC and Washington-based National Public Radio.
● SOURCE Reuters
Business TV channel coming - report
Thursday 24 July 2008
Thomson Reuters is preparing to launch a business television news channel to rival those of Bloomberg and CNBC, The Daily Telegraph reported.
It will appear both on the Internet and some form of cable or digital platform. The launch could be as early as January but may be pushed back as the company is conscious of Reuters’ earlier unsuccessful foray into television, the UK newspaper said.
Thomson Reuters wants an extra avenue through which to channel content and raise revenues, The Daily Telegraph said.
“Going head-to-head with the other rolling business channels is a brave move by chief executive Tom Glocer, as it is an already crowded market,” it said.
The newspaper said the New York newsroom, which will act as the main studio for the channel, was opened yesterday by Devin Wenig, chief executive of the markets division.
It quoted David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, as saying in an internal memorandum that the new newsroom was all about “multi-media opportunities”.
● SOURCE The Daily Telegraph
It will appear both on the Internet and some form of cable or digital platform. The launch could be as early as January but may be pushed back as the company is conscious of Reuters’ earlier unsuccessful foray into television, the UK newspaper said.
Thomson Reuters wants an extra avenue through which to channel content and raise revenues, The Daily Telegraph said.
“Going head-to-head with the other rolling business channels is a brave move by chief executive Tom Glocer, as it is an already crowded market,” it said.
The newspaper said the New York newsroom, which will act as the main studio for the channel, was opened yesterday by Devin Wenig, chief executive of the markets division.
It quoted David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, as saying in an internal memorandum that the new newsroom was all about “multi-media opportunities”.
● SOURCE The Daily Telegraph
Editorial automation set to advance
Tuesday 22 July 2008
Automatically-generated financial news and data is set to increase, freeing up journalists to develop exclusives or write analyses.
A Thomson Reuters survey has found that financial firms using advanced algorithmic trading techniques expect IT-driven news analysis tools to substantially shorten the time it takes them to act on new information.
Ventanta Research spoke to 113 specialist financial professionals and found that two-thirds expect increased automation in the analysis of news.
Prior to the April take-over, both Thomson and Reuters were working on products which deliver data and other news to financial services customers in a format that can be read and acted on automatically by computers. Much of that content is also created automatically.
“It’s still the same news – we’re not really providing a different piece of news, we’re just providing it in a different format,” said James Chenery, Thomson Reuters’ business development manager for quantitative and event-driven trading products.
“We’re providing particular pieces of data, which used to be very much textual in their delivery, in a much more structured message whether it’s XML or Reuters’ real time for the market feed.”
“Earnings releases are primarily numerical in nature, but when they are covered by text – a sentence – then it becomes more difficult for a machine to understand and comprehend that information,” Chenery said.
Reuters has begun adding machine-interpretable semantic data to otherwise conventional, human-readable news stories.
Thomson Reuters expects machine-readable news to become an increasingly important part of the company’s business and has said that the automated extraction and delivery of data used by these tools will free journalists to do other, less mechanic work.
“By providing that kind of automation and technology, it allows the journalists to spend more time developing exclusives or writing up more information,” Chenery said.
“We don’t want a relatively highly paid journalist putting a textual number into some sort of system to send it out when we can do that automatically and probably faster and would rather have that journalist writing an analysis piece or something like that.”
● SOURCE Press Gazette
A Thomson Reuters survey has found that financial firms using advanced algorithmic trading techniques expect IT-driven news analysis tools to substantially shorten the time it takes them to act on new information.
Ventanta Research spoke to 113 specialist financial professionals and found that two-thirds expect increased automation in the analysis of news.
Prior to the April take-over, both Thomson and Reuters were working on products which deliver data and other news to financial services customers in a format that can be read and acted on automatically by computers. Much of that content is also created automatically.
“It’s still the same news – we’re not really providing a different piece of news, we’re just providing it in a different format,” said James Chenery, Thomson Reuters’ business development manager for quantitative and event-driven trading products.
“We’re providing particular pieces of data, which used to be very much textual in their delivery, in a much more structured message whether it’s XML or Reuters’ real time for the market feed.”
“Earnings releases are primarily numerical in nature, but when they are covered by text – a sentence – then it becomes more difficult for a machine to understand and comprehend that information,” Chenery said.
Reuters has begun adding machine-interpretable semantic data to otherwise conventional, human-readable news stories.
Thomson Reuters expects machine-readable news to become an increasingly important part of the company’s business and has said that the automated extraction and delivery of data used by these tools will free journalists to do other, less mechanic work.
“By providing that kind of automation and technology, it allows the journalists to spend more time developing exclusives or writing up more information,” Chenery said.
“We don’t want a relatively highly paid journalist putting a textual number into some sort of system to send it out when we can do that automatically and probably faster and would rather have that journalist writing an analysis piece or something like that.”
● SOURCE Press Gazette
London newsroom strike threat lifted
Wednesday 16 July 2008
The threat of strike action in the London newsroom has been lifted. Some 70 editorial staff have taken voluntary redundancy, avoiding the need for compulsory job losses.
Worldwide, some 140 editorial jobs are being scrapped as part of the process of merging the Thomson and Reuters editorial operations.
The newly merged company had originally refused to rule out compulsory job cuts. National Union of Journalists members called for a ballot on industrial action.
The NUJ said the company has agreed to share with the union the results of quarterly reviews of staffing levels. The union said it believes this offers “a valuable opportunity to monitor the impact of the merger on editorial standards”.
“Months of hard work by the chapel officials has finally removed the threat of compulsory redundancy,” NUJ national organiser Barry Fitzpatrick said. “We can now concentrate on the real task of working with the new company to achieve editorial excellence.”
A Thomson Reuters spokeswoman, speaking to The Guardian, could not rule out compulsory redundancies outside the UK. Talks between staff and management continue at other European bureaux.
The job reduction exercise will leave Reuters News with around 2,500 staff by the end of this year. Up to 700 posts in sales and technical support are also to be eliminated as part of the integration.
● SOURCE CNN/Dow Jones | Press Gazette | The Guardian
Worldwide, some 140 editorial jobs are being scrapped as part of the process of merging the Thomson and Reuters editorial operations.
The newly merged company had originally refused to rule out compulsory job cuts. National Union of Journalists members called for a ballot on industrial action.
The NUJ said the company has agreed to share with the union the results of quarterly reviews of staffing levels. The union said it believes this offers “a valuable opportunity to monitor the impact of the merger on editorial standards”.
“Months of hard work by the chapel officials has finally removed the threat of compulsory redundancy,” NUJ national organiser Barry Fitzpatrick said. “We can now concentrate on the real task of working with the new company to achieve editorial excellence.”
A Thomson Reuters spokeswoman, speaking to The Guardian, could not rule out compulsory redundancies outside the UK. Talks between staff and management continue at other European bureaux.
The job reduction exercise will leave Reuters News with around 2,500 staff by the end of this year. Up to 700 posts in sales and technical support are also to be eliminated as part of the integration.
● SOURCE CNN/Dow Jones | Press Gazette | The Guardian
New Americas managing editor named
Tuesday 15 July 2008
Brian Rhoads has been named managing editor for the Americas following Betty Wong’s promotion as global managing editor.
He will take up the new role in New York on 29 September after overseeing Reuters’ coverage of next month’s Beijing Olympics.
Rhoads, 42, a Beijing-based Mandarin speaker, has been North Asia Editor responsible for China, Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong since 2007. He joined Reuters in 1996 and served as China bureau chief, Shanghai bureau chief and a senior editor on news production desks in Hong Kong and Singapore.
His new role involves leading an editorial team of 650 journalists across text, video and pictures.
“Brian’s deep knowledge of China and the region will be an asset in the Americas for our journalists as well as our customers,” Wong, 44, said.
“I look forward to his joining the managing editors group which also includes Europe, Middle East and Africa managing editor Mark Thompson based in London and Asia managing editor Adrian Dickson based in Hong Kong.”
● SOURCE The Guardian
He will take up the new role in New York on 29 September after overseeing Reuters’ coverage of next month’s Beijing Olympics.
Rhoads, 42, a Beijing-based Mandarin speaker, has been North Asia Editor responsible for China, Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong since 2007. He joined Reuters in 1996 and served as China bureau chief, Shanghai bureau chief and a senior editor on news production desks in Hong Kong and Singapore.
His new role involves leading an editorial team of 650 journalists across text, video and pictures.
“Brian’s deep knowledge of China and the region will be an asset in the Americas for our journalists as well as our customers,” Wong, 44, said.
“I look forward to his joining the managing editors group which also includes Europe, Middle East and Africa managing editor Mark Thompson based in London and Asia managing editor Adrian Dickson based in Hong Kong.”
● SOURCE The Guardian
Baghdad staff remember dead friends
Saturday 12 July 2008
Baghdad bureau staff marked the first anniversary on Saturday of the deaths of their colleagues Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, photographer, and Saeed Chmagh, 40, driver, in a US helicopter air strike in eastern Baghdad.
About 80 people including other foreign media in Baghdad and members of the two families attended the commemoration.
“Namir and Saeed’s deaths were a tragedy,” editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said in remarks read on his behalf. “Their energy, their professionalism, their friendship, their personalities – these are the memories that represent all that is best about our colleagues in Iraq and our colleagues around the world.”
A collection of Namir’s news pictures was shown during the commemoration and the Iraqi Photographers Association presented the bureau with a plaque.
Reuters is seeking US military video footage of the killings shot from the two Apache helicopters on 12 July 2007. The U.S. military said in an e-mail on Friday it was still processing Reuters’ year-old request.
Nine other people were also killed in the attack.
Four other journalists working for Reuters – Taras Protsyuk, Mazen Dana, Dhia Najim and Waleed Khaled – have been killed by American soldiers in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.
● SOURCE Reuters
About 80 people including other foreign media in Baghdad and members of the two families attended the commemoration.
“Namir and Saeed’s deaths were a tragedy,” editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said in remarks read on his behalf. “Their energy, their professionalism, their friendship, their personalities – these are the memories that represent all that is best about our colleagues in Iraq and our colleagues around the world.”
A collection of Namir’s news pictures was shown during the commemoration and the Iraqi Photographers Association presented the bureau with a plaque.
Reuters is seeking US military video footage of the killings shot from the two Apache helicopters on 12 July 2007. The U.S. military said in an e-mail on Friday it was still processing Reuters’ year-old request.
Nine other people were also killed in the attack.
Four other journalists working for Reuters – Taras Protsyuk, Mazen Dana, Dhia Najim and Waleed Khaled – have been killed by American soldiers in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters seeks US video of staff killing
Friday 11 July 2008
The US military said on Friday it was still processing a Reuters request for video footage from US helicopters and other materials relating to the killing of two Iraqi staff in Baghdad a year ago.
Photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, much loved members of the Reuters Baghdad bureau, were killed in a US helicopter air strike in eastern Baghdad on 12 July 2007.
Reuters wants all the materials to be able to study what happened. Access to the video, taken from helicopters involved in the attack, could also help improve Reuters’ safety policies in Iraq, the world’s most dangerous country for journalists.
Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh had gone to eastern Baghdad after hearing of a military raid on a building around dawn that day, and were with a group of men at the time. It is believed two or three of these men may have been carrying weapons, although witnesses said none were assuming a hostile posture.
The US military said the helicopter attack, in which 9 other people were killed, occurred after security forces came under fire.
Video of the incident from two US Apache helicopters and photographs taken of the scene were shown to Reuters editors in an off-the-record briefing in Baghdad on 25 July 2007.
US military officers who presented the materials said Reuters had to make a request under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to get copies. This request was made the same day.
"It has now been approximately one year since our original request was submitted and we still have not received a formal response or written initial determination in accordance with FOIA's statutory requirements," Reuters News chief counsel Thomas Kim wrote in a letter to the US Central Command.
In an e-mail on Friday, the Central Command said the request was still being processed, adding it could not give a timeframe for when this would be completed.
Kim noted that a recent Pentagon probe into the killing of another Reuters journalist by US troops in Baghdad in 2005 identified a serious inconsistency between media safety practices and the expectations of US forces in Iraq.
That report, by the Defense Department's inspector general, the Pentagon's watchdog agency, predicted additional shootings were likely to re-occur unless the situation was resolved.
"The materials requested by this FOIA request may contain information relevant to the recommendations for avoiding a re-occurrence of this tragedy; accordingly, we believe that there is a compelling need for their release and that such release should be made as quickly as possible," Kim wrote.
There had been reports of clashes between US forces and gunmen but there was no fighting on the streets in which Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh were moving about with the group of men.
Besides Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh, four other journalists working for Reuters have been killed by American soldiers in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.
The US military has said its troops acted lawfully in all those cases. An Iraqi working as a translator for Reuters was also shot dead by unknown gunmen in Baghdad on 11 July 2007.
At least 179 reporters and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the invasion, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
● SOURCE Reuters
Photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, much loved members of the Reuters Baghdad bureau, were killed in a US helicopter air strike in eastern Baghdad on 12 July 2007.
Reuters wants all the materials to be able to study what happened. Access to the video, taken from helicopters involved in the attack, could also help improve Reuters’ safety policies in Iraq, the world’s most dangerous country for journalists.
Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh had gone to eastern Baghdad after hearing of a military raid on a building around dawn that day, and were with a group of men at the time. It is believed two or three of these men may have been carrying weapons, although witnesses said none were assuming a hostile posture.
The US military said the helicopter attack, in which 9 other people were killed, occurred after security forces came under fire.
Video of the incident from two US Apache helicopters and photographs taken of the scene were shown to Reuters editors in an off-the-record briefing in Baghdad on 25 July 2007.
US military officers who presented the materials said Reuters had to make a request under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to get copies. This request was made the same day.
"It has now been approximately one year since our original request was submitted and we still have not received a formal response or written initial determination in accordance with FOIA's statutory requirements," Reuters News chief counsel Thomas Kim wrote in a letter to the US Central Command.
In an e-mail on Friday, the Central Command said the request was still being processed, adding it could not give a timeframe for when this would be completed.
Kim noted that a recent Pentagon probe into the killing of another Reuters journalist by US troops in Baghdad in 2005 identified a serious inconsistency between media safety practices and the expectations of US forces in Iraq.
That report, by the Defense Department's inspector general, the Pentagon's watchdog agency, predicted additional shootings were likely to re-occur unless the situation was resolved.
"The materials requested by this FOIA request may contain information relevant to the recommendations for avoiding a re-occurrence of this tragedy; accordingly, we believe that there is a compelling need for their release and that such release should be made as quickly as possible," Kim wrote.
There had been reports of clashes between US forces and gunmen but there was no fighting on the streets in which Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh were moving about with the group of men.
Besides Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh, four other journalists working for Reuters have been killed by American soldiers in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.
The US military has said its troops acted lawfully in all those cases. An Iraqi working as a translator for Reuters was also shot dead by unknown gunmen in Baghdad on 11 July 2007.
At least 179 reporters and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the invasion, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters to pull plug on AAP?
Thursday 26 June 2008
Reuters stories are set to disappear from Australian newspapers on 10 July because of a contract dispute with the country’s big publishers.
Reuters has abandoned an agreement for its stories to be distributed exclusively by Australian Associated Press and instead is seeking deals with individual publishers, The Age reported.
It said there is little likelihood of a new deal before the deadline because Fairfax Media and News Ltd, which own more than 90 per cent of AAP, are resisting separate deals.
AAP pays Reuters A$600,000 a year to distribute a limited selection of Reuters’ stories, the newspaper said. But Reuters wants to increase the fee progressively over 5 years, starting with a 117 per cent jump to A$1.3 million in the first year.
AAP rejected the increase, prompting Reuters to cancel the partnership.
Reuters already supplies video and pictures directly in Australia.
Joachim Schmaltz, Reuters’ vice-president for Asia, said direct distribution of news stories was “a natural progression”.
Pay TV broadcaster Sky News has agreed to the new terms and will have access to the entire Reuters news feed.
● SOURCE The Age
Reuters has abandoned an agreement for its stories to be distributed exclusively by Australian Associated Press and instead is seeking deals with individual publishers, The Age reported.
It said there is little likelihood of a new deal before the deadline because Fairfax Media and News Ltd, which own more than 90 per cent of AAP, are resisting separate deals.
AAP pays Reuters A$600,000 a year to distribute a limited selection of Reuters’ stories, the newspaper said. But Reuters wants to increase the fee progressively over 5 years, starting with a 117 per cent jump to A$1.3 million in the first year.
AAP rejected the increase, prompting Reuters to cancel the partnership.
Reuters already supplies video and pictures directly in Australia.
Joachim Schmaltz, Reuters’ vice-president for Asia, said direct distribution of news stories was “a natural progression”.
Pay TV broadcaster Sky News has agreed to the new terms and will have access to the entire Reuters news feed.
● SOURCE The Age
Army probe of Reuters death ‘flawed’
Monday 16 June 2008
US soldiers who killed a Reuters journalist in Iraq acted within military rules, but the Army’s probe of the incident was flawed by its failure to preserve evidence, a Pentagon investigation said.
The Defense Department’s inspector general, the Pentagon’s watchdog agency, found that US soldiers who fired on a Reuters car in west Baghdad in August 2005, killing Reuters Television soundman Waleed Khaled, reasonably responded to what they thought was a threat.
But the inspector general criticised the Army investigator for losing a critical piece of evidence – video from a Reuters cameraman in the car that captured events leading up to and including the shooting.
The Army investigator’s actions rightfully led Reuters to believe the investigation was not thorough or independent, the inspector general’s report said.
“We found that although the (investigating officer) who conducted the Army investigation did not pursue some logical investigative actions, he properly concluded that during an ongoing enemy attack the soldiers thought a video camera and external microphone held out of an indigenous, unmarked vehicle was a rocket propelled grenade,” the inspector general said.
“The soldiers reasonably believed that act constituted a threat to United States forces and as such were obligated to act and did so in accordance with the (rules of engagement).”
The inspector general also faulted Reuters and its safety practices. The car carrying Khaled and cameraman Haider Kadhem was not marked “press”, for example, and Kadhem wrongly stuck his camera out of the car window, according to the military.
That made it difficult for soldiers to distinguish the journalists from combatants, the inspector general said.
Reuters said it disagreed with the Pentagon agency’s findings but appreciated its recommendation that the US military work with news organisations on safety procedures to avoid similar incidents.
“I am never satisfied when a journalist is killed in the course of covering a story,” editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said. “I am satisfied that the inspector general took this case seriously and came up with useful and positive recommendations.”
Khaled and Kadhem were inside a Reuters car while Kadhem, in the front passenger seat, filmed the aftermath of an insurgent ambush on Iraqi police. The car was not marked “press” due to worries that Iraqi insurgents were targeting reporters, Schlesinger said.
The U.S. military confiscated Kadhem’s camera, which contained video of the shooting. The U.S. military showed the footage to Reuters staff but later lost that video, characterised by Reuters as a “key piece of evidence” and one that corroborated the Reuters version of events.
Reuters’ chief counsel Thomas Kim called the video “the only piece of objective evidence” available in the incident.
An independent inquiry commissioned by Reuters concluded in April 2006 that the shooting appeared “unlawful” and said nothing Khaled or Kadhem did could have been mistaken as hostile.
Iraq is the world’s most dangerous country for journalists. At least 179 reporters and media assistants have been killed since the US-led invasion in 2003, more than in World War II and during fighting in Vietnam, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
● SOURCE Reuters
MP meets management over job cuts
Monday 16 June 2008
British MP Austin Mitchell is to meet Thomson Reuters management in an attempt to help resolve a union wrangle over possible compulsory redundancies, Press Gazette reported.
Mitchell, a Labour politician, is chairman of the National Union of Journalists Parliamentary Group.
NUJ official Barry Fitzpatrick said Mitchell would be discussing options for the company. Some 70 UK editorial positions are under threat, the weekly magazine said. Worldwide, the number of journalists’ jobs to be axed is 140. The losses are part of the shake-out from Thomson’s takeover of Reuters in April.
The NUJ was meeting the company today and Fitzpatrick said it has formally initiated a disputes procedure which gives a deadline of 15 July to resolve differences.
● SOURCE Press Gazette
Mitchell, a Labour politician, is chairman of the National Union of Journalists Parliamentary Group.
NUJ official Barry Fitzpatrick said Mitchell would be discussing options for the company. Some 70 UK editorial positions are under threat, the weekly magazine said. Worldwide, the number of journalists’ jobs to be axed is 140. The losses are part of the shake-out from Thomson’s takeover of Reuters in April.
The NUJ was meeting the company today and Fitzpatrick said it has formally initiated a disputes procedure which gives a deadline of 15 July to resolve differences.
● SOURCE Press Gazette
Journalists protest over Fadel Shana’s killing
Monday 16 June 2008
Journalists in the Gaza Strip laid down their cameras during a symbolic work stoppage as part of a protest to demand Israel explain why its troops killed Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, 24, in the Palestinian enclave two months ago.
The journalists, who work for Palestinian and foreign media in Gaza, agreed not to publish images on Monday of any Israeli military operations in the enclave. About 50 journalists also attended a brief demonstration in the city of Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said her government would publish the results of an inquiry into the 16 April incident, possibly within days.
“I would like ... to express our sorrow for this event,” she told a news conference. “Clearly there is a full investigation by the Israeli army ... I don’t have the result of this investigation.”
Livni added: “When we gather results – we hope in the next few days – we can share with the international community.”
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said before meeting Livni in Luxembourg: “About the killing, I will certainly condemn that.
“Journalists are always in a very, very difficult situation and therefore we want to see understanding, we want to see also a sensitivity about it.”
Reuters’ Middle East managing editor Mark Thompson said: “We are deeply disappointed that the Israeli army has failed to provide an account of the circumstances in which Fadel Shana was killed by a tank shell on April 16, nor any evidence to support its claim that they could not identify him as a journalist.
“Fadel had taken all reasonable precautions while filming that day and the refusal of the Israeli army to work with the media on safety issues since his death has forced us and others to curtail reporting in Gaza.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon unveiled a memorial in London dedicated to journalists killed while reporting on wars.
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters renews call for Israeli answers
Sunday 15 June 2008
Reuters renewed a call on the Israeli army to explain its killing of cameraman Fadel Shana in the Gaza Strip two months ago.
Shana, a 24-year-old Palestinian, was killed on 16 April by flechettes that burst from a tank shell in mid-air. Eight bystanders aged 12 to 20 also died and at least seven others aged from 10 to 18 were hit in the incident, about 1.5 km from two Israeli tanks. Soundman Wafa Abu Mizyed, 25, was wounded in the wrist.
Reuters called on the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to release immediately the findings of its internal investigation in the interests of journalists’ safety. The IDF has yet to offer an account but has said its soldiers followed their orders and did nothing wrong.
It said it aims to avoid killing journalists but cautioned that they work in conflict zones at their own risk.
Reuters has written to the IDF to ask how, in that case, the troops failed to identify Shana as a cameraman.
“We have a duty to our employees and their families to determine exactly what happened on that day, both to establish the exact cause of Fadel’s death and to identify any action we can take to improve the safety of Reuters News staff on assignment in hostile environments,” Middle East managing editor Mark Thompson wrote last week.
“The IDF has had plenty of time to conduct a thorough investigation into the killing of Shana.”
One of the questions Reuters has asked the IDF’s senior law officer is what specific information led the soldiers to dismiss the possibility that Shana was a television cameraman.
Israeli army spokesman Major Avital Leibovich said: “We are in the process of checking a few more details in order to complete the picture. As soon as we have the conclusions we will share them.”
An independent investigation commissioned by Reuters found there was no fighting in the area where Shana was working in view of the tanks. Shana’s car and blue body armour bore “Press” markings. The investigation found that Shana observed safety guidelines and took all reasonable precautions. He complied with Reuters’ own safety policy and his actions could not be interpreted as irresponsible or negligent in any way.
The delay in clarifying Shana’s death has made it difficult for media groups to set guidelines for staff in Gaza on how to avoid a repetition of the incident, creating problems for coverage of army activity in the Palestinian enclave.
Gaza journalists plan to demonstrate on Monday in protest at the lack of an Israeli explanation for Shana’s death.
● SOURCE Reuters
UK editorial staff call for strike ballot
Tuesday 10 June 2008
London newsroom staff are to hold a ballot over possible industrial action, The Guardian reported. It said the decision follows the refusal of management to delay planned redundancies and rejection of an offer from National Union of Journalists’ officials to bring in the UK Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.
NUJ officials met Thomson Reuters management on Monday but staff concerns about the technicalities of the redundancy process were not met, the newspaper said.
“As a result, the Thomson and Reuters NUJ chapels have now moved to hold strike ballots,” it said.
Thomson Reuters wants to cut 70 journalists from the London newsroom as part of job reductions following the recent merger.
“The NUJ said it had made several requests for management to explain the reasons for the cuts but has not received a satisfactory answer,” The Guardian said.
“Union officials also asked for ACAS to be invited to help resolve the dispute but the conciliation service cannot get involved until after the 90-day consultation period, by which time the job cuts will have taken place.”
The Guardian quoted editor-in-chief David Schlesinger as saying management has “maintained a transparent and cooperative dialogue with staff and relevant global unions” during the merger.
“We are trying the minimise the uncertainty for our UK journalists and we are continuing our ongoing consultation with the NUJ.”
● SOURCE The Guardian
NUJ officials met Thomson Reuters management on Monday but staff concerns about the technicalities of the redundancy process were not met, the newspaper said.
“As a result, the Thomson and Reuters NUJ chapels have now moved to hold strike ballots,” it said.
Thomson Reuters wants to cut 70 journalists from the London newsroom as part of job reductions following the recent merger.
“The NUJ said it had made several requests for management to explain the reasons for the cuts but has not received a satisfactory answer,” The Guardian said.
“Union officials also asked for ACAS to be invited to help resolve the dispute but the conciliation service cannot get involved until after the 90-day consultation period, by which time the job cuts will have taken place.”
The Guardian quoted editor-in-chief David Schlesinger as saying management has “maintained a transparent and cooperative dialogue with staff and relevant global unions” during the merger.
“We are trying the minimise the uncertainty for our UK journalists and we are continuing our ongoing consultation with the NUJ.”
● SOURCE The Guardian
Journalists in UK edge towards strike
Friday 06 June 2008
Journalists at Thomson Reuters in London moved closer to strike action over planned job cuts and attacked management over plans to reshape the company, The Guardian reported.
“At a well-attended union meeting today, journalists from both Thomson and Reuters passed a resolution that could set the wheels in motion as soon as next week for industrial action,” it said.
Reporters are angry about plans to cut jobs in the UK, 73 of them journalist posts, The Guardian said. National Union of Journalists officials argue that management have shortened the window for voluntary redundancies and have not ruled out compulsory job cuts.
“At today’s meeting, staff passed a resolution that will be put to management on Monday: ‘This chapel is prepared to take industrial action in the event the company tries to impose compulsory redundancies and instructs its officers to move ahead with a strike ballot if the company imposes timelines for redundancies without consultation.’”
The Guardian said Thomson Reuters has told staff that the group will ultimately be expanding with new ventures such as web TV and more comment writing.
“However, employees say they are angry at the job cuts, which many believe show reporters are paying for an unjustified expansion into areas not traditionally associated with Reuters or Thomson.
“They argue more comment and new TV ventures will come at the expense of the core coverage of basic financial, general and sports news.”
In two other resolutions, union members said they had no confidence in editorial strategy as explained by management and they believed it will lead to a deterioration in the quality of the service, The Guardian said.
● SOURCE The Guardian
“At a well-attended union meeting today, journalists from both Thomson and Reuters passed a resolution that could set the wheels in motion as soon as next week for industrial action,” it said.
Reporters are angry about plans to cut jobs in the UK, 73 of them journalist posts, The Guardian said. National Union of Journalists officials argue that management have shortened the window for voluntary redundancies and have not ruled out compulsory job cuts.
“At today’s meeting, staff passed a resolution that will be put to management on Monday: ‘This chapel is prepared to take industrial action in the event the company tries to impose compulsory redundancies and instructs its officers to move ahead with a strike ballot if the company imposes timelines for redundancies without consultation.’”
The Guardian said Thomson Reuters has told staff that the group will ultimately be expanding with new ventures such as web TV and more comment writing.
“However, employees say they are angry at the job cuts, which many believe show reporters are paying for an unjustified expansion into areas not traditionally associated with Reuters or Thomson.
“They argue more comment and new TV ventures will come at the expense of the core coverage of basic financial, general and sports news.”
In two other resolutions, union members said they had no confidence in editorial strategy as explained by management and they believed it will lead to a deterioration in the quality of the service, The Guardian said.
● SOURCE The Guardian
Photographer fined for using satphone
Wednesday 04 June 2008
Reuters photographer Howard Burditt was convicted in Zimbabwe on 3 June for using a satellite phone.
Harare magistrate Archie Wochionga fined him ZWD$20 billion (about US$28). He suspended a two-month prison sentence on condition that Burditt does not contravene the Broadcasting Services Act within the next five years. The satellite phone was forfeited to the state.
Burditt was arrested in the Zimbabwean capital on 5 May when he was found in possession of the satellite phone. He spent three nights in police custody. In a court appearance on 28 May he pleaded guilty.
The state argued that the Post and Telecommunications Authority of Zimbabwe had licensed Reuters to cover the Zimbabwean elections and it was specified in the contract that they were not to use “big machines” like satellite phones.
● SOURCE Media Institute of Southern Africa
Harare magistrate Archie Wochionga fined him ZWD$20 billion (about US$28). He suspended a two-month prison sentence on condition that Burditt does not contravene the Broadcasting Services Act within the next five years. The satellite phone was forfeited to the state.
Burditt was arrested in the Zimbabwean capital on 5 May when he was found in possession of the satellite phone. He spent three nights in police custody. In a court appearance on 28 May he pleaded guilty.
The state argued that the Post and Telecommunications Authority of Zimbabwe had licensed Reuters to cover the Zimbabwean elections and it was specified in the contract that they were not to use “big machines” like satellite phones.
● SOURCE Media Institute of Southern Africa
The future of news - by Tom Glocer
Wednesday 28 May 2008
CEO Tom Glocer has spelt out his vision of the future of news and it involves “citizen journalists” – non-professionals snapping pictures with mobile phones and reporting on websites.
“I’ve been a big advocate of opening the doors and make it one long continuum between citizen journalist and somebody who might be on staff at 20 years publishing at Reuters under the Reuters name...” he said in an on-stage interview at D: All Things Digital, an annual conference in California’s Silicon Valley sponsored by The Wall Street Journal.
“We have 2,600 journalists on staff, and several thousand stringers. And then there is a third concentric circle, which is citizen journalist. In video or still photography, for instance...the eyewitness who blogs has value if no one else is there.”
How will news be delivered in five years’ time?
“I see agency business end up just an electronic exchange platform, purely mutualised. We’ll see a mix of arguably more comments from high-talent sources, and openness to aggregate other voices.”
Where will people get their news?
“Mobile will be very important. I get most of my information on where Thomson Reuters is trading off of a mobile app.”
Glocer said it is a scary time to be in the traditional news business but fantastic for the agency world. Everyone is pulling reporting staff back to home base and is ever more dependent on news agencies, whether Reuters or AP.
They have to make their Web sites 24 hours and need copy. “And they need video and photos, all of which we have.”
Glocer said the Thomson Reuters agency business has been growing five to 10 per cent a year for the past few years and is three per cent of the total company’s revenues.
● SOURCE D: All Things Digital | Barron’s Tech Trader Daily
“I’ve been a big advocate of opening the doors and make it one long continuum between citizen journalist and somebody who might be on staff at 20 years publishing at Reuters under the Reuters name...” he said in an on-stage interview at D: All Things Digital, an annual conference in California’s Silicon Valley sponsored by The Wall Street Journal.
“We have 2,600 journalists on staff, and several thousand stringers. And then there is a third concentric circle, which is citizen journalist. In video or still photography, for instance...the eyewitness who blogs has value if no one else is there.”
How will news be delivered in five years’ time?
“I see agency business end up just an electronic exchange platform, purely mutualised. We’ll see a mix of arguably more comments from high-talent sources, and openness to aggregate other voices.”
Where will people get their news?
“Mobile will be very important. I get most of my information on where Thomson Reuters is trading off of a mobile app.”
Glocer said it is a scary time to be in the traditional news business but fantastic for the agency world. Everyone is pulling reporting staff back to home base and is ever more dependent on news agencies, whether Reuters or AP.
They have to make their Web sites 24 hours and need copy. “And they need video and photos, all of which we have.”
Glocer said the Thomson Reuters agency business has been growing five to 10 per cent a year for the past few years and is three per cent of the total company’s revenues.
● SOURCE D: All Things Digital | Barron’s Tech Trader Daily
Montreal bureau closes
Wednesday 28 May 2008
Thomson Reuters closed its Montreal bureau with immediate effect, affecting one journalist and several sales people, The Canadian Press reported.
It said the news was given in an internal e-mail circulated to staff on Tuesday.
Most of the company’s Canadian workforce is located in Toronto.
● SOURCE Canadian Press
It said the news was given in an internal e-mail circulated to staff on Tuesday.
Most of the company’s Canadian workforce is located in Toronto.
● SOURCE Canadian Press
Staff given job search tips
Monday 26 May 2008
Thomson Reuters staff have been sent guides on how to apply for internal jobs, UK Press Gazette magazine reported.
Journalists at Thomson Financial Newswires were advised to read two documents on the company’s intranet this month, it said. One was titled Thomson Reuters Introduction to Interviewing, the other Filling Roles: Competency Based Interviewing Guide.
“According to a well-placed source within the company, human resources staff have been holding workshops on tackling interviews for the new company,” Press Gazette said.
Reuters interviews take place in several stages, often before a panel of four or five senior management staff.
“The competence guide advises interviewees to expect tough questions such as: “Give an example of a time when you had to strive hard and make personal sacrifices to achieve an aim which was important to you/the business.”
● SOURCE Press Gazette
Journalists at Thomson Financial Newswires were advised to read two documents on the company’s intranet this month, it said. One was titled Thomson Reuters Introduction to Interviewing, the other Filling Roles: Competency Based Interviewing Guide.
“According to a well-placed source within the company, human resources staff have been holding workshops on tackling interviews for the new company,” Press Gazette said.
Reuters interviews take place in several stages, often before a panel of four or five senior management staff.
“The competence guide advises interviewees to expect tough questions such as: “Give an example of a time when you had to strive hard and make personal sacrifices to achieve an aim which was important to you/the business.”
● SOURCE Press Gazette
New questions on Iraq hotel deaths
Tuesday 20 May 2008
Reuters wants a fresh inquiry into the killing of two journalists in Baghdad by a US tank crew five years ago.
A report has raised new questions about the deaths of cameraman Taras Protsyuk and a Spanish Telecinco network cameraman, Jose Couso. They were killed by a tank shell that hit the Palestine Hotel on 8 April, 2003.
Reuters said on Tuesday it would write to the US Senate Armed Services Committee to push for another inquiry.
US Internet news and current affairs broadcaster ● Democracy Now on 15 May posted an interview with a former US Army sergeant in military intelligence who said that prior to the invasion of Iraq she had been given a list of targets for potential attack that included the Palestine Hotel.
A large foreign media contingent stayed at the Palestine Hotel in the lead-up to the invasion and then during the war that toppled Saddam Hussein.
A Reuters investigation into the killings identified a breakdown in communications between US military commanders and troops on the ground.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a media watchdog, also investigated the incident and said the attack “while not deliberate, was avoidable”.
● SOURCE Reuters
A report has raised new questions about the deaths of cameraman Taras Protsyuk and a Spanish Telecinco network cameraman, Jose Couso. They were killed by a tank shell that hit the Palestine Hotel on 8 April, 2003.
Reuters said on Tuesday it would write to the US Senate Armed Services Committee to push for another inquiry.
US Internet news and current affairs broadcaster ● Democracy Now on 15 May posted an interview with a former US Army sergeant in military intelligence who said that prior to the invasion of Iraq she had been given a list of targets for potential attack that included the Palestine Hotel.
A large foreign media contingent stayed at the Palestine Hotel in the lead-up to the invasion and then during the war that toppled Saddam Hussein.
A Reuters investigation into the killings identified a breakdown in communications between US military commanders and troops on the ground.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a media watchdog, also investigated the incident and said the attack “while not deliberate, was avoidable”.
● SOURCE Reuters
140 editorial jobs go by end 2008
Monday 19 May 2008
Some 140 editorial jobs will be cut by the end of this year as Reuters News absorbs Thomson Financial News, editor-in-chief David Schlesinger told staff.
More than half the cuts will be in Europe while the rest will be scattered, he said.
At the same time Reuters will add about 50 new jobs in growth areas making for 2,500 editorial employees by year’s end.
“When two similar and once competing organisations come together, there is natural overlap and duplication in coverage,” Schlesinger told staff in a memo.
“Wherever possible, we have worked to minimize job losses and to avoid redundancy by moving people into new roles and cancelling open posts that don’t fit within the new organisation,” he added.
The National Union of Journalists said it had not ruled out a strike but would negotiate with the company first.
“The NUJ has been pressing hard to have any job cuts carried out through voluntary redundancies and will continue to do so,” said Myra MacDonald, Mother of the NUJ Chapel in London.
A BBC report said Thomson Reuters could lose about 1,500 jobs from its 50,000-strong payroll in total. The company is cutting as many as 650 jobs in its content, technology and operations division.
● SOURCE Reuters
More than half the cuts will be in Europe while the rest will be scattered, he said.
At the same time Reuters will add about 50 new jobs in growth areas making for 2,500 editorial employees by year’s end.
“When two similar and once competing organisations come together, there is natural overlap and duplication in coverage,” Schlesinger told staff in a memo.
“Wherever possible, we have worked to minimize job losses and to avoid redundancy by moving people into new roles and cancelling open posts that don’t fit within the new organisation,” he added.
The National Union of Journalists said it had not ruled out a strike but would negotiate with the company first.
“The NUJ has been pressing hard to have any job cuts carried out through voluntary redundancies and will continue to do so,” said Myra MacDonald, Mother of the NUJ Chapel in London.
A BBC report said Thomson Reuters could lose about 1,500 jobs from its 50,000-strong payroll in total. The company is cutting as many as 650 jobs in its content, technology and operations division.
● SOURCE Reuters
Up to 700 jobs go in first round
Friday 16 May 2008
Thomson Reuters unveiled details of planned job losses with up to 700 posts to be axed in the first round of cuts.
Internal e-mails to staff seen by mediaguardian.co.uk said the company would be cutting 45 jobs from sales teams in its central Europe, Middle East and Africa division out of a total of 1,305 posts.
“Thomson Reuters announced much more wide-ranging job reductions in its content, technology and operations division, where up to 650 posts will go, with around 250 redundancies,” the website said.
Journalists in the 2,500-strong global news operation, part of the new company’s markets division, are still waiting to hear full details of redundancy plans in their area.
Mediaguardian.co.uk quoted a memo from Peter Moss, head of content, technology and operations, as telling staff: “As the integration proceeds and we are able to remove duplication, this will inevitably mean a reduction in the number of jobs within content, technology and operations. Over the course of 2008, we will reduce approximately 600-650 jobs within our group overall.”
However, he said the number of people leaving the company through redundancies would be “significantly less than this, with our current projections being approximately 250 people”.
A note from Loris Barisa, head of sales and service for continental Europe, Middle East and Africa, quoted by The Guardian said: “You may see some colleagues leave right away, while others will be notified and be transitioning out over a period of weeks as we work through local legal requirements.
“It’s difficult to say goodbye to people who have contributed so significantly to our successes, and that’s why I feel strongly that we conduct this process with the utmost dignity.”
● SOURCE The Guardian
Internal e-mails to staff seen by mediaguardian.co.uk said the company would be cutting 45 jobs from sales teams in its central Europe, Middle East and Africa division out of a total of 1,305 posts.
“Thomson Reuters announced much more wide-ranging job reductions in its content, technology and operations division, where up to 650 posts will go, with around 250 redundancies,” the website said.
Journalists in the 2,500-strong global news operation, part of the new company’s markets division, are still waiting to hear full details of redundancy plans in their area.
Mediaguardian.co.uk quoted a memo from Peter Moss, head of content, technology and operations, as telling staff: “As the integration proceeds and we are able to remove duplication, this will inevitably mean a reduction in the number of jobs within content, technology and operations. Over the course of 2008, we will reduce approximately 600-650 jobs within our group overall.”
However, he said the number of people leaving the company through redundancies would be “significantly less than this, with our current projections being approximately 250 people”.
A note from Loris Barisa, head of sales and service for continental Europe, Middle East and Africa, quoted by The Guardian said: “You may see some colleagues leave right away, while others will be notified and be transitioning out over a period of weeks as we work through local legal requirements.
“It’s difficult to say goodbye to people who have contributed so significantly to our successes, and that’s why I feel strongly that we conduct this process with the utmost dignity.”
● SOURCE The Guardian
Reuters demands Israeli account
Thursday 15 May 2008
A month after Fadel Shana was killed by an Israeli tank crew in the Gaza Strip, Reuters renewed its demand for a prompt explanation from the Israeli army of why it fired on the cameraman.
Shana, 24, a Palestinian, was killed on 16 April along with eight mostly teenage bystanders by darts known as flechettes that burst out of a tank shell in mid-air. He had been filming about 1.5 km from two Israeli tanks.
He was wearing blue body armour bearing the word “Press” on fluorescent strips. His vehicle also bore “TV” and “Press” markings.
The Israeli army said it had completed an initial field investigation that had determined the soldiers had followed orders and acted appropriately. But military lawyers still had to study the case before the army could give a full account.
“A month has passed since Fadel Shana was killed by Israeli forces while responsibly going about his professional duties,” said Reuters’ Middle East managing editor Mark Thompson.
“We urge the IDF to release its report on the incident now so that media organisations and the military can cooperate on ways to ensure journalists can continue to cover this conflict.”
Independent investigators commissioned by Reuters have prepared their own preliminary report on the incident, which raises serious questions over why the tank opened fire.
● SOURCE Reuters
Journalists said to consider strike
Monday 12 May 2008
Thomson Reuters journalists, bracing for job cuts this week, are contemplating strike action over the way managers are slashing costs, The Guardian reported.
Staff expect CEO Tom Glocer to make an internal announcement on how many jobs will be axed before, or most likely on, 19 May, it said.
“Reports from the newsrooms of both (Thomson and Reuters) news wires tell of an increasingly anxious atmosphere as journalists fear they will be forced out of their jobs because management is expected to opt for compulsory rather than voluntary redundancies to cut out overlap,” The Guardian said.
National Union of Journalists officials say managers have so far refused to commit to using voluntary redundancies, it said. “As a result, staff at Thomson have already voted unanimously to hold a strike ballot.
“Last month a separate proposed ballot for industrial action among Reuters staff was suspended by the NUJ pending further negotiations with the management.
“Once they get details on job cuts from Glocer, union members at Reuters and Thomson say they will meet to discuss possible industrial action,” The Guardian said.
It said management will be under pressure to cut as many costs as possible given rising concerns over the outlook for financial markets.
● SOURCE The Guardian
Staff expect CEO Tom Glocer to make an internal announcement on how many jobs will be axed before, or most likely on, 19 May, it said.
“Reports from the newsrooms of both (Thomson and Reuters) news wires tell of an increasingly anxious atmosphere as journalists fear they will be forced out of their jobs because management is expected to opt for compulsory rather than voluntary redundancies to cut out overlap,” The Guardian said.
National Union of Journalists officials say managers have so far refused to commit to using voluntary redundancies, it said. “As a result, staff at Thomson have already voted unanimously to hold a strike ballot.
“Last month a separate proposed ballot for industrial action among Reuters staff was suspended by the NUJ pending further negotiations with the management.
“Once they get details on job cuts from Glocer, union members at Reuters and Thomson say they will meet to discuss possible industrial action,” The Guardian said.
It said management will be under pressure to cut as many costs as possible given rising concerns over the outlook for financial markets.
● SOURCE The Guardian
Photographer freed from jail
Thursday 08 May 2008
Reuters photographer Howard Burditt was released on Thursday from three days’ detention in Zimbabwe.
Burditt, a Zimbabwean national covering the aftermath of the country’s elections, had been in jail since Monday after officials accused him of illegally using a satellite phone to send pictures.
David Schlesinger, Reuters editor-in-chief, said: “I am extremely relieved that Howard has been released but disturbed that he should have been held in jail for so long on such a charge.”
● SOURCE The Guardian
Burditt, a Zimbabwean national covering the aftermath of the country’s elections, had been in jail since Monday after officials accused him of illegally using a satellite phone to send pictures.
David Schlesinger, Reuters editor-in-chief, said: “I am extremely relieved that Howard has been released but disturbed that he should have been held in jail for so long on such a charge.”
● SOURCE The Guardian
FT marks a Reuters milestone
Thursday 17 April 2008
On the first day of the new Thomson Reuters company the Financial Times carried the following report under the headline “Journalists shrink under Thomson”:
“Some 157 years after Paul Julius Reuter abandoned a trial with carrier pigeons and began telegraphing share prices between the London and Paris stock exchanges, Reuters’ newswire business accounts for less than 7 per cent of its revenues, writes Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson.
“Last night, as the company’s journalists faced the prospect of becoming an even smaller part of a larger empire, they met at The Old Bell, their favoured pub when they were based on Fleet Street – once the heart of London’s newspapers and agencies.
“The gathering, described as ‘a wake’ by some insiders, came the day before a celebration at the ExCel centre in Docklands for more than 3,500 staff.
“The Thomson takeover, which will see the company’s far smaller wire business merge with Reuters media division, has triggered many staff moves and renewed questions about morale that last surfaced when the shares touched 100p in 2003.
“Some of the rumblings boil down to annoyances such as changes of e-mail address, but there is another factor, according to David Anderson, editor of IMD Reference.
“‘Anecdotally, one of the worries doing the rounds has been that because Reuters share options would vest, a lot of them [the staff] would become pretty well off and could depart,’ he said.”
● SOURCE Financial Times
Reuters cameraman killed in Gaza
Wednesday 16 April 2008
Fadel Shana, a Reuters News cameraman, was killed in Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip.
Shana, 24, had stepped from his car, an unarmoured sport utility vehicle bearing "TV" and "Press" markings, to film an Israeli tank dug in several hundred meters away.
Video from his camera showed the tank opening fire. Two seconds after the shot raises dust around its gun, the tape goes blank – seemingly at the moment he was hit.
Witnesses said two youths passing by died in the same explosion that killed Shana.
Reuters soundman Wafa Abu Mizyed, 25, sustained a shrapnel wound and was being treated in a Gaza hospital.
Editor-in-chief David Schlesinger called for an immediate and complete investigation into the incident by the Israeli Defence Forces.
“We know, of course, that journalism is a dangerous business. We know, of course, that we rush into danger when others rush away. We know, of course, that accidents happen,” he said.
“But I also believe sincerely and absolutely that all of us – news organizations, governments and the military – have an obligation to make reporting safer and to take the utmost care when professional journalists are doing their jobs.
“It is, of course, striking that this tragedy occurred on the last day for Reuters as has been and the day before Thomson Reuters begins as a news and information power in the world. I can but reflect on our more than century and a half of bravery and sacrifice in the service of the news, and to vow that Reuters news in the new company will forge a new tradition, building on the old, that we can all be incredibly proud of.”
The Israeli army declined immediate comment on what caused Shana’s death. It expressed sorrow but also said journalists were putting their lives at risk in areas of combat.
An Israeli military official said: "We wish to express sorrow for the death of the Palestinian cameraman... It should be emphasized that the area in which the cameraman was hurt is an area in which ongoing fighting against armed, extreme and dangerous terrorist organizations occurs on a daily basis.
"The presence of media, photographers and other uninvolved individuals in areas of warfare is extremely dangerous and poses a threat to their lives."
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and Paris-based Reporters Without Borders mourned Shana’s death.
"We are asking the Israeli authorities to publicly commit to carrying out an exhaustive investigation into this incident and to make its findings public," said CPJ executive director Joel Simon in a statement.
Shana, who was unmarried, was described as a gentle and popular figure among the 15-strong Reuters news team in the Gaza Strip. The bureau was honoured by Britain's Royal Television Society for its coverage of last year's factional fighting in Gaza.
● SOURCE Reuters
Reuters photographer wins Pulitzer
Thursday 10 April 2008
Reuters photographer Adrees Latif has won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography. It is the first time Reuters has scooped one of the awards.
Latif won for "his dramatic photograph of the Japanese videographer, sprawled on the pavement, fatally wounded during a street demonstration in Myanmar," the Pulitzer Prize board said.
His exclusive photograph, taken during a demonstration in Myanmar, dominated the front pages around the world and played a role in public outrage.
David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, said: "I'm extremely proud that the great work of one of our best photographers got this recognition.
"Our photography is a key part of Reuters global multimedia journalism with 2,400 men and women dedicated to telling the story in the best possible way under sometimes very dangerous conditions."
Latif was born in Pakistan and lived in Saudi Arabia before emigrating to the United States in 1980. He started working for Reuters in Houston and Los Angeles and has been based in Bangkok since 2003.
"Adrees is one of those rare talents whose presence on an assignment puts the mind of the editor at ease knowing that the picture coverage will be not only competitive but exceptionally high quality," said Thomas Szlukovenyi, Reuters global pictures editor. "The combination of his talent, experience, hard work and his news sense makes Adrees an outstanding photo journalist and a great colleague. We are all incredibly happy for him."
● SOURCE Reuters
Latif won for "his dramatic photograph of the Japanese videographer, sprawled on the pavement, fatally wounded during a street demonstration in Myanmar," the Pulitzer Prize board said.
His exclusive photograph, taken during a demonstration in Myanmar, dominated the front pages around the world and played a role in public outrage.
David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, said: "I'm extremely proud that the great work of one of our best photographers got this recognition.
"Our photography is a key part of Reuters global multimedia journalism with 2,400 men and women dedicated to telling the story in the best possible way under sometimes very dangerous conditions."
Latif was born in Pakistan and lived in Saudi Arabia before emigrating to the United States in 1980. He started working for Reuters in Houston and Los Angeles and has been based in Bangkok since 2003.
"Adrees is one of those rare talents whose presence on an assignment puts the mind of the editor at ease knowing that the picture coverage will be not only competitive but exceptionally high quality," said Thomas Szlukovenyi, Reuters global pictures editor. "The combination of his talent, experience, hard work and his news sense makes Adrees an outstanding photo journalist and a great colleague. We are all incredibly happy for him."
● SOURCE Reuters
