Categories: OLD Media Moves

Changing the culture at Reuters with stars

Joe Pompeo of The Business Insider writes Thursday about how Reuters has been hiring some big-name business journalists for its newsroom, which is changing not just its coverage but also its culture.

Pompeo writes, “They follow other well-branded bylines Reuters has scored in the past year-and-a-half, including Felix Salmon (late of Portfolio), Jim Impoco (late of Portfolio and The New York Times) and Chrystia Freeland, a frequent TV news pundit whose poaching from The Financial Times back in March was perhaps Reuters’ biggest coup yet.

“All in all, the recruitment spree is adding a new element to Reuters: recognizable names and faces.

“‘We are very much used to promoting from within and being somewhat anonymous,’ said Betty Wong, Reuters’ global managing editor. ‘We really want to transform our news organization and move away from the old mentality of thinking of it as a wire service.’

“It reflects a changing culture at Reuters — which until now has not been focused on luring established talent into its fold — as it expands both its newsgathering and information operations. (The company recently launched a new financial web video service, Reuters Insider, and a terminal-like financial information platform, Reuters Eikon; the reporting staff is up to around 3,000 from 2,400 at the time of the 2007 Thomson merger, according to Wong.)”