Reuters' outsourcing strategy

Edmund Lee of Advertising Age wrote about how some media companies have been outsourcing their content, and he looks into what Reuters.com is doing publishing stories from Associated Content.

Lee writes, “Associated’s contributions to professional publishers, however, sometimes look more like ‘serious’ journalism. Reuters.com, for example, has published Associated stories on the economy .

“‘This is part of a series of personal accounts about small business and the recession,’ a label on the Associated stories for Reuters said, suggesting that the pieces within or near the domain of citizen reporting. ‘The writers are contributors to Associated Content.’ But some pieces in this section make a clear attempt at traditional journalism, including one that interviews the president of a local GM dealership in Idaho and tries to parse sales figures for other dealerships that GM shut down.

“‘This was not a business decision, but entirely an editorial one,’ said Keith McAllister, global online editor for Thomson Reuters. ‘We want to fill out the online offering as much as possible. We’re building Thomson Reuters to be a content candy store.’

“‘In the case where we’re going more niche content, it makes sense to do these kinds of partnerships,’ he added.”

Read more here.