Betting on who’ll be the next Reuters editor in chief

Reuters news staffers are speculating about who will replace editor in chief Steve Adler, who announced he’s retiring, and placing bets on whether it will be someone internally or an outsider.

Adler announced Jan. 6 that he plans to retire in April after 10 years running the newsroom. The job was posted last week on the Reuters employment page.

The two leading internal candidates, say insiders, are global managing editors Alessandra Galloni and Gina Chua.

Galloni is global managing editor, overseeing the agency’s news coverage and journalists in 200 locations around the world.

She joined Reuters in September 2013 as editor of the Southern Europe bureau and enterprise editor at large, after spending 13 years at The Wall Street Journal as correspondent, economics and business writer, and editor in New York, London, Paris and Rome.

Last year, she received the Lawrence Minard Editor Award, which honors excellence in business, financial and economic journalism editing, and recognizes an editor whose work does not often receive public recognition.

Chua is global managing editor of operations, a role she has held since July 2019. Chua was previously chief operating officer of Reuters News, and executive editor of editorial operations, data and innovation.

Chua has been at Reuters since May 2011, and previously was editor in chief of the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. She also worked at the Wall Street Journal as a correspondent, deputy managing editor and assistant managing editor.

One Reuters staffer said that Chua has the digital and technology expertise that Reuters president Michael Friedenberg is looking for in the next editor. Another staffer said that Thomson Reuters CEO Steve Hasker, who took on that role last year, wants someone more financially savvy.

Adler joined Thomson Reuters in 2010 as senior vice president and editorial director if its professional division. He was named editor in chief a year later.

Before that, he was editor in chief at BusinessWeek magazine and worked at The Wall Street Journal.

Other insiders mentioned as potential candidates included Jonathan Leff, head of financial news strategy who has been at the company since 2000, and Amy Stevens, executive editor of professional news.

One staffer said that many Reuters employees believe the company will go outside for its next newsroom leader, hiring someone who is well-known in the field.

A Reuters spokeswoman declined to comment.