Reuters to create financial news teams in New York and London

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Reuters deputy editor-in-chief Paul Ingrassia sent out the following announcement to the staff on Wednesday:

I want to let you know that we will soon be creating new editorial groups in New York and London to give our financial industry coverage the prominence and focus it deserves. The groups will cover banks, investment banking and M&A; wealth management and private banking; exchanges and trading; fund companies, hedge funds and insurance.

The editors of these groups will directly report to the regional editors in the Americas and EMEA. We’ll be considering internal and external candidates for the new roles. Knut Engelmann, who will spearhead coverage of Wall Street’s top investment banks, will report to the financial industry editor in New York.

The financial industry makes the world tick. Importantly, many of our clients earn a living in this industry. They want to know what their competitors are up to; who’s up, who’s down and who’s going where; what new services, technologies or rules are coming down the pipe. They know their own business, so our coverage needs to be smart and agenda setting. It makes sense, therefore, to separate coverage of financial firms from coverage of industrial companies — a huge area in itself, spanning everything from technology to automobiles to mining.

Less is more when it comes to editorial focus. I learned this first-hand some years back when, as Detroit bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, I “gave away” coverage of several major Michigan companies, including Dow Chemical and Kellogg, to beat reporters in other bureaus, allowing the Detroit bureau to focus on cars. It worked out very well for all the journalists involved and, most importantly, for our readers. We at Reuters need that type of focus on financial industry coverage – an incredibly competitive area in the news business.