From the outside, it looks like everything is about to change. From the inside, I am confident that any changes are for the better.
The deal with Thomson will transform the size and scale of Reuters and provide new fuel for growth. That is exciting and it offers a new world of opportunities.
Yet at the same time the best thing about it is that the things which are vital will remain unchanged.
My vision of Reuters is to deliver news that gives customers global reach and understanding; a news department that is insightful and innovative with a strong ethical foundation: That’s the way it was yesterday; that’s the way it is today; that’s the way it will be tomorrow and into the future.
The Reuter Trust Principles, the foundation of our reporting, approach and style, are core to the new company that has been announced today, just as they have been so crucial to Reuters all these years.
Our commitment to integrity, independence and freedom from bias is reinforced. Our mission to supply unbiased and reliable news services to newspapers, news agencies, broadcasters and other media subscribers and to businesses, governments, institutions, individuals and others is reinvigorated. And the larger group’s resources and scale will give new support to our pledge 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.
Clearly, the Directors of the Reuters Founders Share Company had to approve of this new company. They did it because our partner and its controlling shareholder have similar values to the values Reuters has always been proud of and espoused. More importantly, they did it because the Reuter Trust Principles will now apply across the combined company, and not simply the part that came from Reuters. That gives the Trust Principles new power and life, and allows us to build on 156 years of tradition as a platform for a new century of growth.
Reuters in the combined company will be independent of vested interests trying to influence our reporting; our expanded shareholding structure will ensure that we will never become aligned with any creed or political view. The Founders Share structure will continue to guide us with the new Board.
As part of Thomson–Reuters, we will have the resources and a renewed will to expand our news coverage to inform and give insight to customers in their professional and personal lives.
Our integrity, independence and freedom from bias are the very things that are giving this deal its value and power, creating a powerhouse in the financial and media arenas where we have been strong up until now.
The deal also opens up tremendous new avenues for our reporting.
Thomson’s strength in health care, legal, science and tax & accounting: these will be an asset for us. These areas have been adjacent to our reporting strengths until now. They are important parts of a new company that has the resources to pursue them with news, data, research and analytics.
In the core areas of news and information, our 2,400 journalists are an unbeatable strength and one of the key attributes that Reuters is bringing to this deal. Our partner has been very innovative with technology and new approaches to news gathering, providing know-how that we can learn from and use to great advantage.
Our mission remains the same: report the news, help customers make important decisions and understand their world, be the core tool and partner for influential people to gain insight and advantage.
In our new guise, all that changes is that we will have a company and a platform well placed for the future and for the opportunities and challenges the changing world is throwing in front of us.
We have all the building blocks: Global news. Insightful news. Innovative approaches to the news. Great reporters. Strong ethics.
Let’s be really bold in putting the pieces together for a strong new company built on the solid foundation of the old.
