Tag Archives: thomson reuters

Top five news, features and blog posts on Journalism.co.uk in 2010 (by page views)

OK, we know it’s quality not quantity that counts, but it’s still fascinating (to us at least) to learn which stories have attracted the most traffic over the course of a year.

Unsurprisingly, Wikileaks is prominent as was the televised leaders debate during the general election. And some old faithfuls continue to pull in traffic from jobseekers and ‘wannabe’ freelancers (this year that was probably mostly unemployed journalism graduates and recently ‘redundant’ journalists).

But stories about paywalls failed to even come close…

News:

  1. Reporters Without Borders to host mirror site for WikiLeaks
  2. Julian Assange: Financial threats to WikiLeaks are serious
  3. Sky News defends Kay Burley’s interview treatment of 38 Degrees director
  4. New tools for Sky journalists as social media strategy moves from one to many
  5. Dates announced for UK leaders’ election debates on Sky, BBC and ITV

Features:

  1. How to: Get started as a freelance journalist
  2. Daniell Morrisey: How to prepare a killer CV
  3. Daniell Morrisey: How to make the most of work experience
  4. How to: find contacts and information about people online
  5. How to: write the perfect press release for journalists

Blog posts:

  1. Ten things every journalist should know in 2010
  2. Wikileaks releases video showing Apache shooting of Reuters news staff
  3. The 100 most influential news media Twitter accounts
  4. Are you on the j-list? The leading innovators in journalism and media in 2010
  5. ‘A real free press for the first time in history’: WikiLeaks editor speaks out in London

Source: Google Analytics

Thomson Reuters acquires US banking analytics site Highline Financial

Thomson Reuters announced yesterday that it has acquired Highline Financial, a financial information analytics site which focuses on the US banking industry.

In a press release Reuters said the acquisition “supports Thomson Reuters strategy of providing timely, accurate and high quality information” through the expansions of its offering.

Market dynamics are creating a strong need for deep data and analytics as the financial sector experiences a tremendous level of new regulatory oversight, post crisis performance monitoring, bank closures and overall industry consolidation. The combination of Thomson Reuters and Highline Financial will provide Thomson Reuters clients with access to Highline Financial’s comprehensive public company and regulatory database which comprises 20 years of historical data covering 20,000 financial institutions, with over 24,000 filed and calculated financial data points and ratios maintained in the system on a daily basis. Highline Financial clients will benefit from having access to the depth and breadth of Thomson Reuters global content, support and infrastructure.

The information will be available next year the release adds. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Hatip: paidContent

WSJ: Thomson Reuters reports 66 per cent profit increase

The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported that Thomson Reuters had announced a 66 per cent increase in third-quarter profit, rising from $167 million (19 cents per share) in the same period last year to $277 million, or 32 cents a share.

But within the division which includes its news service profit fell 2.7 per cent, the report adds.

Based on the company’s year-to-date performance and improved momentum, Thomson Reuters now sees revenue being “flat to slightly up” this year, rather than “flat to slightly down.”

In the markets division, which includes the Reuters news service and sales-and-trading operations and makes up a majority of the company’s revenue, revenue edged down 0.5 per cent, to $1.85 billion, while profit fell 2.7 per cent. Revenue in the segment increased 1 per cent before the impact of currency translations.

#WEFHamburg: Danish newspaper showcases the iPad app built on a shoestring budget

“Think of a number, quarter it, and you’re still not there.”

This was Annemarie Kirk’s answer when asked what her budget was for developing Danish newspaper Berlingske‘s first iPad app to be launched later this month, which she showcased yesterday at the World Editors Forum in Hamburg.

A shoestring budget and a small team were both necessities in developing the business news app and driving forces behind it. Find talented people in your newsroom, young people who will see things differently and get them to work on it, said Kirk. Don’t overlook existing skills though: much of the design for the new app was done by a newspaper designer from Berlingske’s print edition who had never even worked on design for the website. He was set to work on the iPad app though, alongside an external web designer brought in for the project.

The application, which is awaiting approval by Apple, will combine content from the print and online editions of the business section through a semi-automated process, said Kirk. Concept design and project management were carried out in Denmark and technological development in Kiev, Ukraine following a study into what applications and devices Berlingske should be launching onto, that began back in March.

It’s clear from the development that has taken place this has been a tightly managed project, but Kirk said there has been a real need to get onto the iPad, despite the device not being on sale in Denmark, as traffic stats show a significant growth in the number of users accessing the Berlingske website via an iPad.

Fellow panellist at the WEF event, Alfredo Triviño, who as director of creative projects at News International has overseen many of the publisher’s iPhone and iPad application developments, said the success of building apps for “liquid media” devices relies on understanding the technological boundaries.

“Tablets are not websites, they’re not newspapers, magazines or books. Not all of our content we produce is consumed. (…) probably we need tablet newspapers,” he said.

“Loading time is critical and progressive downloading is a must (…) Success also grows from envisioning what is next.”

When developing apps for tablet devices, news organisations must look out how these apps will scale and be iterated.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk after the debate, he said news organisations will have to reassess their plans when the next wave of technology comes to tablet devices, including built-in cameras and better integration with social media. Hear more of what he had to say in our WEF podcast at this link.

Speaking more generally, president of media for Thomson Reuters, Chris Ahearn, said that “whether it’s a tablet or a smartphone or a device we haven’t seen yet” news organisations have to embrace change. As an industry they must “lean into the wind together” and, to make these new apps part of a successful business model to support journalism, “collectively rise”.

When designing apps or tablet propositions, news organisations must look at what their readers and consumers want and need, and build a subscriber base, he said.

How can we add unique value to each subscriber? The answer for us is not always more content. It has to include more services. We have to embrace the technological advances to build compelling user experiences. We have to put that content into context and develop a loyal customer base.

IHT and Reuters partner for Middle East coverage

The International Herald Tribune and Reuters have joined forces to provide an additional weekly section to the newspaper’s Middle East edition.

‘Middle East with Reuters’ will be launched tomorrow and according to a release from Thomson Reuters will feature four pages of “dedicated regional news, business, opinion and culture coverage from IHT, New York Times and Reuters correspondents”.

The additional section will be printed with the IHT in Kuwait City, Doha, Cairo, Dubai and Istanbul, for distribution throughout the Gulf, Egypt and Turkey.

Global Thinkers: Television is going vertical

Thomson Reuters’ global editor, multimedia, Chris Cramer on the future of broadcasting and why narrow-casting not linear television networks are the way forward:

The days of linear television networks are coming to an end. I think only people with very large amounts of money or people who are stupid will launch linear television networks in the future. People won’t be launching a single channel with programmes that go one after the other, you’re going to launch a vertical channel (…) So people want to play a part in media consumption these days, they don’t want to sit there and just take it. They’re not going to make appointments and sit there with their legs crossed and their faces washed and watch TV anymore. It doesn’t make it depressing, it makes it really exciting.

Full interview on Global Thinkers at this link…

FT.com: Thomson Reuters’ video product Insider to launch on 11 May

Thomson Reuters is planning to launch a series of new web products and overhaul its markets division as part of plans to streamline the company and reach growing audiences of younger, web-savvy readers and smaller business customers.

Among the developments:

  • An “enterprise platform” offering faster delivery of data to clients and online training and customer service support to smaller customers;
  • The launch of online video product Insider on May 11, which it has been testing since last year;
  • A new desktop platform, Eikon, to launch in autumn, offering a wider range of data and personalisation features.

Full story at this link…

Reuters Handbook of Journalism: Don’t scoop the wire

Reuters has published new social media guidelines in its Handbook of Journalism. As well as reminding journalists to keep the personal separate from the professional, it advises:

Can I break news via Twitter?

As with blogging within Reuters News, you should make sure that if you have hard news content that it is broken first via the wire. Don’t scoop the wire. NB this does not apply if you are retweeting; (re-publishing) someone else’s scoop.

Corrections

If a correction is required, a new tweet that begins “CORRECTION:…” should be published.

Full post at this link…

#IWD: International Women’s Day for journalists

Today is International Women’s Day, a global day “celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future,” partnered by Thomson Reuters.

in Mirror Ed's office working on International Women's Day su... on TwitpicLots of publications have related coverage, including the Mirror, with a special supplement out today. Here’s a twitpic from Sarah Brown (@sarahbrown10), who was a guest editor (left).

Journalism.co.uk will be publishing a number of themed articles throughout the day, addressing gender issues in journalism / media. If you’d like us to publish or link to your own piece, please get in touch: judith [at] journalism.co.uk or @jtownend on Twitter.

Pay cuts and Twitter policy leave Thomson Reuters facing union action in US

Thomson Reuters in the US has been referred to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by the Newspaper Guild of New York for planned cutbacks to the pay packages of journalists and other workers that are members of the union.

The reduced payments work out at roughly 10 per cent per worker, says the Guild, which has been in contract negotiations with the agency for more than a year, in a release.

In June 2009, Boston’s Newspaper Guild made a similar charge and challenged a pending 23 per cent pay cut proposed by The New York Times. The two parties reached an agreement in July with the pay cut reduced, but Guild members were left fearful for their jobs after the elimination of lifetime job guarantees for approximately 170 employees was also agreed.

But in this instance Reuters isn’t only facing charges by the Guild over changes to pay: the agency has also been brought to task by the Guild for its social media policy, which bans employees from updating personal Twitter accounts with posts which, in the words of the company, ‘would damage the reputation of Reuters News or Thomas Reuters’.

As the statement from the Guild points out:

A union activist was “reminded” of the policy after responding to a senior manager’s call to “join the (Twitter) conversation on making Reuters the best place to work” with a tweet that said: “One way to make this the best place to work is to deal honestly with Guild members.”