Reuters postpones website paywall

Reuters News postponed the launch of its website paywall following a dispute with financial data provider Refinitiv over whether the move would breach a news supply agreement between the two companies, reports Kenneth Li of Reuters.

Li reports, “Reuters, a unit of Thomson Reuters Corp, had been planning to start charging for news on Reuters.com from June 1. It was not immediately clear how long the delay would last.

“In a staff meeting on Thursday, Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni confirmed that the news agency had paused the launch of the website paywall as well as the introduction of a new legal news section on the website, while discussions with Refinitiv to resolve the dispute were ongoing.

“In a statement, a Reuters spokesman said, ‘We are still working through our plans for the relaunch of Reuters.com as a subscription service.’ Discussions with Refinitiv were ‘about our business approach and products, and how we can enhance our offer to all customers,’ the spokesman said.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.