Bascobert, former Gannet CEO, named president of Reuters

Thomson Reuters announced Tuesday that Paul Bascobert will be the next president of Reuters, effective Sept. 19.

Bascobert’s news and digital platform experience includes executive roles at Gannett, XO Group, Yodle, Bloomberg and Dow Jones

The appointment comes after an extensive global search and follows the departure of former Reuters President Michael Friedenberg at the end of last year.

“Paul is a seasoned leader with deep media experience,” said Alessandra Galloni, Reuters editor-in-chief, in a statement. “I am delighted to welcome him to Reuters and look forward to working with him to uphold Reuters as the most trusted and influential news organization in the world. I would also like to thank Matt, who has been a brilliant partner of the past few months.”

Bascobert will be based in New York. Editorial content will continue to be led by Galloni, who will report to Bascobert.

Bascobert is currently co-founder and CEO of Blue Ocean Acquisition Corp, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company focused on media, marketplace and tech platform businesses.

Prior to this, he was CEO of Gannett Co. – one of the largest local media companies, which owns more than 700 daily and weekly publications in the US and UK – from August 2019 until June 2020, where he introduced and piloted a marketplace business model for local services and led the company through the sale to New Media Investment Group.

Bascobert was president of XO Group from September 2016 until April 2019, where he helped lead the transition from an advertising to marketplace model and doubled the stock price in two years. From March 2014 to July 2016, Paul was president of local for Yodle Inc, where he helped lead the launch and growth of the SaaS marketing platform.

In December 2009, he joined Bloomberg as president of the newly acquired Businessweek. He returned the business to growth and helped launch the mobile business, conferences and built partnerships in Asia. In March 2011, he was named head of business operations for the newly created Bloomberg Media Group.

Prior to Bloomberg, he was senior vice president of operations and then chief marketing officer at Dow Jones, where he launched WSJ Wine, WSJ Mobile and transformed the subscription strategy, which led to the doubling of consumer revenue.