Group+7A



International News Agency





"Thomson Reuters is the world's **largest** __international__ multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms."- Reuters.com

Sebastian Betz

The Beginning :
The German-born Paul Julius Reuter founded Reuters in London in 1851. He ran a stock price information service using a combination of technologies.Included in these were telegraph cables and carrier pigeons between Dover (ENG) and Calais (FR). Very early Reuters managed to gain a reputation for speed, accuracy, integrity and imparity. This helped the company to expand all over Europe (1858) and has been sustained to the present day. In 1870 the company expanded to the Far East and America and became the first international operating news agency.

The Expansion and integration of technology :
In 1923 Reuters developed the use of radio to transmit news internationally and started a service of price quotations and exchange rates sent in Morse Code by long-wave radio. In 1941, as the business grew and the news became more international, Reuters established “The Reuters Trust Principles” to safeguard its independence, integrity and freedom from bias, in the gathering and dissemination of news and information. In the following 70 years, Reuters constantly watched and integrated new technological innovations, and extended its business through new services and acquisitions as listed below:


 * Services: **
 * 1971: Video editing system: Journalists uses VDUs instead of typewriters to write and transmit news
 * 1973: Reuter Monitor Rates Service: Electronic marketplace for Foreign Exchange
 * 1985: Reuter launches an international picture service
 * 1994: Reuters Financial Television Service: Provides traders live coverage of market moving elements
 * 2002: Reuters Messaging: Messaging service developed specifically for the global financial services industry, highly reliable and fast


 * Most important Cooperations, Acquisitions and Mergers: **
 * 1986: Acquisition of Instinet: electronic agency brokerage firm
 * 1999: Cooperation with Dow Jones: Combination of their interactive business services for the corporate and professional markets
 * 2005: Acquisition of Action Images: Specialist of sports photography
 * 2007: Merger with the Canadian Media Company “The Thomson Cooperation”: The new company operates today under the name Thomson Reuters.

Bibliography: "About us - company history" Thomson Reuters, Retrieved November 20, 2010, from www.thomsonreuters.com

Dorothea Hardy Reuters has integrated a global network through the communication and delivery of news from around the world. They provide information that is valuable to news consumers and business professionals in a global environment. In addition to being a viable source for news and information, Reuters makes this information extremely easy to take advantage in any part of the world that can obtain the source online. They offer online editions that are available in a wide variety of languages such as Arabic, Spanish, Japanese, and French. Reuters is a company that knows the value of news and the advantage of making it available globally.

As we have already established, Reuters was the first international operating news agency. This employment of foreign resources in creating news is an attribute of Reuters global presence. This global presence has most definitely established Reuters as a leading source of intelligent information, and one that many people have already testified to turn to. The companies success is amplified by their application of globalization.

Bibliography:
 * 1) Corporate Responsibility (2010), //Thompson Reuters//, Retrieved Nov. 15, 2010, from thompsonreuters.com.

Julianne Alarcio For the past 150 years, Reuters has been considered a reliable and highly reputable source of news and financial information (Reuters). Despite being named one of the world’s most ethical companies in 2010 for media, publishing and entertainment, in recent years, a shadow has been cast on Reuters’ credibility due to controversy over improperly edited photographs (Reuters).

In 2006, Reuters came under fire after one of their freelance photographers, Adnan Hajj, was discovered to have manipulated two photos from the ongoing fight in Lebanon (NPAA). One of the photos depicted the devastation after an Israeli airstrike on a civilian area in Beirut; it was later discovered that Hajj had used the “clone” tool in Photoshop to make the smoke from the attack look darker and larger. Hajj claimed that the alteration was not intentional and he had simply made a mistake while trying to remove dust marks from the picture (MSNBC). However, soon after, another doctored photo was discovered in which Hajj depicted three flares being dropped from an Israeli jet fighter over southern Lebanon instead of the original photograph, which showed one flare (MSNBC). These discoveries were made by bloggers. Specifically, the doctored photos were first exposed by ­­ Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs (NYTimes).The bloggers’ intense criticism of Reuters and the photographs lead to national coverage of the incident, and ultimately, Reuters fired Hajj and pulled more than 900 of Hajj’s pictures from its database that he had submitted over a period of 10 years (MSNBC). In reaction to the incident, Reuters established tighter regulations for images from the Middle East. The organization required that senior photo editors would be the only people to deal with sensitive images and Reuters invested in more training and supervision of photographers (Reuters).

Despite strengthened photo standards, another incident occurred in 2010, when Little Green Footballs again discovered that “politically sensitive” photos had been cropped in a way that many believed portrayed Israel badly. Reuters cropped photos of a clash between activists and Israeli commandos in Gaza. The photos were cut so that knives and the blood of were not depicted. Nine people were killed in the violence (Fox).

Similar to 2006, the powerful response of bloggers to these photos prompted Reuters to return to the original set of photos in which the weapons and blood were shown (Haaretz).

The major concern with these photograph edits is that the public is already skeptical of mainstream media; incidents such as these only reinforce their notion that media has a bias, in this case, an anti-Israeli slant (Time).

Bibliography:
 * 1) Awards and Recognition, Thomson Reuters, Retrieved Nov. 21, 2010, from [|www.thomsonreuters.com]
 * 2) Associated Press. ( August 7, 2006). Altered images prompt photographer’s firing, MSN, Retrieved Nov. 21, 2010, from [|www.msnbc.msn.com]
 * 3) Donald R. Winslow. (August 7,2006). Reuters Apologizes Over Altered Lebanon War Photos; Suspends Photographer. National Press Photographers association. Retrieved Nov. 21, 2010, from [|www.nppa.org]
 * 4) Ed Barnes. (June 8,2010). Reuters Admits Cropping Photos of Ship Clash, Denies Political Motive. Fox news, Retrieved Nov. 21, 2010 from [|www.foxnews.com]
 * 5) James Poniewozik. (August 9, 2006). Reuters’ Altered Photos: Overhyped? Dangerous? Both. Time in partnership with CNN. Retrieved Nov. 21, 2010 from [|www.time.com]
 * 6) (Jan 18,2007). Reuters toughens rules after altered photo affair. Reuters. Retrieved Nov. 21, 2010 from [|www.reuters.com]
 * 7) Katherine Seelye and Julie Bosman. (August 9, 2006). Bloggers Drive Inquiry on How Altered Images Saw Print. The New York Times. Retrieved Nov. 21, 2010 from [|www.nytimes.com]
 * 8) Natasha Mozgovaya. (August 6, 2010). Reuters under fire for removing weapons, blood from images of Gaza flotilla. Haaretz, Retrieved Nov. 21, 2010 from [|www.haretz.com]

Elena Hill People all around the world look to Reuters to provide objective news and reliable information. In order to ensure this dependency, Reuters mandates that its employees follow guidelines and abide by ethical standards. Reuters has created a single Founders Share, in which directors hold various voting powers. If the directors of the Founders Share Company believe that any person, together with any associates, is seeking to obtain or has obtained control of Reuters, they may require the special voting rights attaching to the Founders Share to be exercised (Stinkyjournalism). In other words, the directors of the Founders Share have the right to change a resolution or opposition that is being voted on. Reuters also wants to make sure their information is accurate and free from bias. J ournalists are subject to a “Handbook of Journalism," which includes standards, values, style guides, operations and other specialties. This book encourages employees to steer clear of unethical behavior such as: plagiarism, fabrication or bribe-taking. The book itself is more of a guideline, rather than a list of rules (Reuter's Handbook of Journalism).  In 1941, Reuters did however, construct a set of principles for its employees. These “Trust Principles” enforce that journalists act at all times with “integrity, independence and freedom from bias and fortified them in carrying out the difficult and delicate tasks with which they were faced” (Reuters).  __ The Trust Principles: __  1. that Reuters shall at no time pass into the hands of any one interest, group or faction;  2. that the integrity, independence and freedom from bias of Reuters shall at all times be fully preserved;  3. that Reuters shall supply unbiased and reliable news services to newspapers, news agencies, broadcasters and other media subscribers and to businesses, governments, institutions, individuals and others with whom Reuters has or may have contracts; 4. that Reuters shall pay due regard to the many interests which it serves in addition to those of the media; and 5. that no effort shall be spared to expand, develop and adapt the news and other services and products of Reuters so as to maintain its leading position in the international news and information business (Reuters).

Bibliography: 1. Reuter’s Handbook Of Journalism, [], Nov. 21, 2010 2. Reuter’s Interdependence & Trust Principles, [|stinkyjournalism.org], Nov. 20, 2010 3. Reuter’s website, [], Nov. 21, 2010 4. Photo via http://about.reuters.com/ar1998/items/reuters_162.html

Nevada Bodmer

Background on Fabrice Blanc :
Position: Business Development Manager EMEA at Thomson Reuters <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Location: Paris, France <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Education:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Université de Lausanne for Bac +3/4
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Université de Paris Sorbonne (Paris IV) for MBA in Management/ HR/ Communications / Strategies / Finance/ Marketing / Human Sciences
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">CELSA for Master in Business Communications

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Interview <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">: 11/21/10 at 8:00 A.M. via telephone (Conducted in French and translated into English) === 1. What does your job at Reuters entail? Blanc oversees the business development and the machine readable news process. He is in charge of the organization matrix and dotted line reports. Blanc is also in charge of the EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa) clients that are in those countries.

2. What is your opinion of the company and its journalistic methods? Reuters is very open and very humane. Reuters has great human resources. For example there are groups such as Group Diversity and Womens Affinity Group, which insures the incorporation or inclusion of every ethnicity, sexuality, and gender equally in relevant articles. Reuters’ journalistic methods are very impartial. They go to the source of the information and the heart of the issue. They strive to be the fastest to publish their information.

3. Do you think Reuters is an effective model of globalization? Why or why not? Reuters is a very good model of globalization. Blanc explains that Reuters serves 94 countries from 190 offices. With the information Reuters receives, Reuters transforms this raw data into magnificent articles that have the ability to be read everywhere in the world. This is because Reuters translates the news into English from 19 languages. Reuters does not translate every article into every language, but most articles are translated into English.

4. Does your company/department use outsourcing? Why or why not? Each office has its own outsourcing company, but Reuters as a whole uses ones that are based in Bangalore, India. The majority of the outsourcing consists of administrative duties such as bank transfers, source data, database management systems (DBMS), and accounting tasks.

5. How do you use social media in the workplace? Do you feel it is effective? Reuters has created its own internal social media site called Yammer, which is offered to its 50,000 employees. It is set up just like facebook. In general, Reuters does not need to use any other social media site to accomplish their goals. Online discussion groups might be used for intelligence purposes, but most Internal and external communications are conducted using, “Reuters Messaging", an instant messaging tool.

6. How effective/relevant do you feel your prior education in school was to your current job? Blanc finds that his MBA was very helpful because it is a toolbox he uses everyday for his business. It permits him to have a good understanding of the field and makes use of marketing and financial strategies he uses to work with different companies.