Reuters editor in chief sees opportunities

David Schlesinger, the editor in chief at Reuters, said he sees ways to improve its business reporting as a result of its proposed merger with Thomson Corp.

In a memo posted on the Financial Times’ Alphaville site, Schlesinger stated, “The deal also opens up tremendous new avenues for our reporting.

“Thomson’s strength in health care, legal, science and tax & accounting: these will be an asset for us. These areas have been adjacent to our reporting strengths until now.  They are important parts of a new company that has the resources to pursue them with news, data, research and analytics.

“In the core areas of news and information, our 2,400 journalists are an unbeatable strength and one of the key attributes that Reuters is bringing to this deal. Our partner has been very innovative with technology and new approaches to news gathering, providing know-how that we can learn from and use to great advantage.

“Our mission remains the same: report the news, help customers make important decisions and understand their world, be the core tool and partner for influential people to gain insight and advantage.”

Read more here. What the memo doesn’t mention is that Thomson’s public relations operations for companies is in direct conflict with Reuters’ mission.