Reuters is making a push to cover general, entertainment and sports news in the United States in addition to its core international and financial news offerings, reports Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson of The Financial Times.
Edgecliffe-Johnson writes, “It aims to have staff or freelance reporters in 100 cities across all 50 US states, and to offer an ‘on-demand’ service by ’embedding’ Reuters journalists in some customers’ newsrooms to understand their requirements.
“The offering, part of an initiative dubbed Project Apollo, represents a change of definition for the traditional news agency business, a push into services and a march into territory traditionally dominated by the Associated Press news network.
“In a break with tradition, Reuters America will include content from partners, starting with sports results and news from Sports Direct; sports photography from US Presswire; game reports and team analysis from Sports Xchange; and fans’ coverage from SB Nation. It will also feature professional and amateur local reporting from Examiner.com; and entertainment coverage from The Wrap, Sharon Waxman’s Hollywood blog.
“‘This is the beginning of Project Apollo; the transformation of our news agency business from being only about Reuters content to being about supplying clients with more of the content and services they need,’ Chris Ahearn, president of Reuters Media, told the Financial Times.”
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