Categories: OLD Media Moves

Union says Reuters is re-emphasizing speed

The News Guild of New York has posted an item on its website noting that Reuters is emphasizing speed and accuracy among its reporters after several years of focusing on investigative stories.

The guild wrote:

Regional Editor, Americas, Dayan Candappa, who led the management side of the discussion, emphasized that speed is of primary importance in serving Reuters clients. According to Candappa, there are only two ways to win: “Be first or be alone with a story.” Guild participants, led by Unit Chair Dan Grebler, agreed that speed has always been a Reuters fundamental but expressed frustration with the ways in which lack of training and structure can get between a reporter and the clock. New hires no longer go through a Reuters boot camp, so there’s no formal training in snaps and technology.
The Guild’s solution? Monthly review sessions in all bureaus on snapping and urgents to give staff hands-on training. Management agreed, and Editorial Learning Manager Ed Tobin said there would be expanded use of “Super Users” in bureaus as well as more and shorter Webex sessions on the Editorial Learning Hub, which he said would be revamped soon. The Guild urges members to press their managers for the in-bureau training and to access the online sessions. If neither option is available, let us know.

Read more here.

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.