Identity crisis for Reuters

Stephen Foley of the Independent in London writes Wednesday about the growing changes at the Reuters news service and how it is no longer emphasizing being first with the news.

Foley writes, “The news operation is facing questions of its own now it has lost its champion in Mr Glocer who steeped himself in its history and traditions. Stephen Adler, who was appointed editor-in-chief last year, set out his philosophy after two months on the job: ‘We must be second-to-none in speed, accuracy, relevance, and fairness, but also – and crucially – in enterprise, insight, analysis and originality.’

“Mr Adler has set Reuters to compete for other consumers of news beyond the confines of the feeds into financiers’ desktops, and engaged in what Mr Taylor called a ‘byline arms race’ with Bloomberg, hiring commentators such as Anatole Kaletsky from The Times.

“Mr Taylor said: ‘It is the perennial debate within Reuters, how important is the news operation to the value of the financial data business… Now Twitter and other places on the web serve as a place where events are announced, and you are as likely to hear about an earthquake somewhere else before Reuters or Bloomberg.’

“Meanwhile, as news is being re-evaluated in the context of the Financial & Risk business, that division is being re-evaluated in the context of the wider Thomson Reuters group.

“Mr Casey asks: ‘Is the financial business going to have more capital allocated to it, or will they take capital out of it? My guess is that it will be a relatively smaller part of the business.'”

Read more here.