Based in New York or London, and reporting to the President of Reuters, Michael Friedenberg, the Editor-in-Chief, Reuters will provide editorial and operational leadership to the organization. They will manage the day-to-day editorial operations for a worldwide news agency consisting of 2,500 journalists in 200 locations worldwide that encompasses text and visual, which serves the various customers (Refinitiv, Thomson Reuters, Agency, Professional and Machine) and platforms by which our editorial is experienced. The Editor-in-Chief is required to travel globally — to visit news bureaus, engage with governments in support of Reuters journalists abroad and support sales efforts as appropriate.
Candidate Profile
Thomson Reuters is seeking an experienced, transformational Editor-in-Chief who possesses the highest editorial standards and excels at leading a global multimedia team to produce fast, accurate, insightful and unbiased journalism. The Editor-in-Chief must be an outstanding people manager and a well-organized operating executive who directs, teaches and inspires the news staff to do its best work. They should be especially strong at leading through change and at marshaling innovative processes and technologies to shape the most exciting and effective newsroom to meet future user needs.
The Editor-in-Chief should have a strong grounding in business and financial news in order to serve Reuters largest customer, Refinitiv, and its financial-professional end users and should also have significant experience in political, economic and general news, essential aspect of our offerings to the news-media customers of our Agency business. Given that the majority of our Agency revenue is derived from visual content, the Editor-in-Chief should also have relevant experience in leading videographers and photojournalists.
The Editor-in-Chief must have a deep understanding of Reuters business and of the media industry and be a strong and constructive partner to the commercial team, with the common goal of driving growth without compromising editorial independence. They must be a numerate, sophisticated budget manager who can knowledgeably oversee the editorial budget process, working closely with the finance team, and reliably meet budget targets.
The ideal candidate possesses the following performance and personal competencies:
- Innovative Vision: outstanding creativity and insight; can oversee the plan and conception of written and visual content and come up with inventive solutions to difficult problems.
- Inspirational Leadership: a visionary leader who inspires followership and has a keen understanding of the balance between being part of a larger corporate entity while still motivating journalists. Passionate and committed to diversity and inclusion as a driver of excellence in the modern newsroom.
- Digital and Data: understanding and savvy on impact of digital skills and capability in the newsroom and modernization efforts, and how to leverage and further develop data enabled journalism.
- Operational Expertise: strong operational expertise coupled with deep commercial understanding.
- Management Experience: skilled at overseeing the daily tasks of publishing media and other content forms. Proven ability to attract, motivate and develop high caliber editorial and journalism talent.
- Interpersonal Skills: impeccable interpersonal and communication skills with a strong command of language and writing; can interact positively with members of their team and also feel comfortable representing Reuters.
- Domain Expertise: in-depth knowledge of news and current affairs at the local, regional, national and international level; a broad understanding of general reporting, with specific domain expertise in business, economics and financial news.
- Visuals: strong editorial and language skills and extensive experience creating and curating visuals across all content types, including video, pictures, texts, graphics, audio, live video and events for print and digital media outlets.
- Public Service: deep passion and understanding of the drivers for public service journalism and the role of impartial news in the world, as well as an ability to prioritize and balance the nuance of a news agency model and financial news platform.
- Technology: embraces new technology to create and enhance journalistic efforts, build audience and improve customer experience.
- Integrity and Authenticity: unquestionable reputation and integrity; able to stand by their own values and those of the organization with conviction and authenticity.
Additionally, the Editor-in-Chief will have a relevant bachelor’s degree in English, journalism, rhetoric, business or a related field. Graduate or post-graduate degree (i.e. JD, MBA, PhD) would be an asset.
The Editor-in-Chief will act as a change agent and will espouse the following future state newsroom principles:
- Establish Reuters as the world’s most innovative newsroom in the next 3-5 years
- A commercial mindset and understanding of the customer sets Reuters serves (Refinitiv, TR, Professional, Agency, Machines)
- Commitment to the Trust Principles with special focus on “integrity, independence and freedom from bias” and “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”
- A culture of transformation and change with a modern media mindset towards the production of world-class journalism that is enabled and enhanced by data, digitalization, CX, and technology (AI/ML/AR/VR/auto-translation, etc.)
- A newsroom structure that delivers professional news (financial, legal, etc.), global news and public service journalism at world-class quality and speed that is aligned and measured to the future weighting of Reuters customer base be it Professional (Refinitiv, TR, Reuters.com, Events), Agency or Machines
- A newsroom where text, video and photojournalism are integrated and seamless
- An inclusive team that represents the world we report on and delivers outcomes while driving continuous improvement and a relentless pursuit of the truth
To apply, go here.
