Reuters names Tobin head of global news desk

Reuters global managing editor Simon Robinson sent out the following on Tuesday morning:

Colleagues, I’m very pleased to announce that Ed Tobin will become Head of our Global News Desk.

This is one of the most crucial roles in our newsroom. The Global News Desk is responsible for editing and publishing our global text file and has become the production hub for more and more of what we do. Over the past couple of years, after we unified the regional news desks into a single 24/7 operation, the Global News Desk has built up more multimedia and fast-turn initiative capabilities and become better at addressing the specific needs of our different customer groups.

Under Ed, I want the desk to go further. Ed and his team will continue to make sure we deliver a fast, smart financial and general news file, work even more closely with our digital team, including on initiatives such as newsletters, and play a key role as text and visual colleagues coordinate better in our bureaus and breaking news hubs.

Ed’s experience both in newsgathering and on the editing desk makes him the perfect person to take on this position. In his current post as Global Desk Editor for Business, Finance and Markets, he has edited some of the biggest business stories of the day, week and month. He has also helped us make significant strides with news planning and developing our Front-Page publishing schedule – something we intend to push further in the coming months – and has been critical in the effort to build up the Reuters.com franchises, which got off to a very strong start last year.

Ed joined Reuters in 1997 as a news assistant and cut his teeth filing snaps from the famous “Pit” in the New York bureau. He went on to report on everything from paper companies to food, tobacco, and health care before running the company news team in the Americas, a role in which he worked closely with Bangalore. He has also driven coverage on general news and Reuters Insider, and served as deputy of the Top News desk in the Americas, where he was awarded Editor of the Year honors at the Reuters Journalist of the Year Awards in 2019.

Anyone who has worked with Ed knows that he achieves a rare balance: being one of our most sought-after editors in the newsroom while also one of our most rigorous, a testament to his ability to make stories better and get them in front of as wide an audience as possible. Ed is a true publishing editor. He’s great at working with reporters to hone their ideas, understands our customer base and when and how their stories will have maximum impact, and is adept at working with other teams, including dotcom, to make that happen.

Ed starts in his new role today and will continue to be based in New York. We plan to advertise for a London-based deputy on the desk in the near future.

Sincerely, Simon