Reuters: "There has never been a better time to be in the news business"

Posted by John Burke on June 6, 2006 at 10:15 AM

The London-based international news agency Reuters is at the forefront of new media innovation. Global Managing Editor for Customer Services Dean Wright talked of his company’s experiences, the changing media landscape and “Creating a Community of the Informed,” at the 13th World Editors Forum in Moscow.

Wright immediately pushed aside the idea that the issues being discussed at the Forum were worries for the future. Even now, he said, “The way the world gets its news has simply changed forever.”

He cited struggling circulation figures of American newspapers but optimistically added, “There has never been a better time to be in the news business.”

Instead of bickering between “old” and “new” media, Wright suggested that media organizations of all kinds should join forces to “build the kind of audience that will not only support us all, but build a smarter world of news consumers.”

In forming partnerships, news organizations must realize that, “Our users are loyal only to themselves,” and that “the so-called mainstream media no longer have a monopoly on truth and debate.”

Wright acknowledged that one news organizations cannot possibly give all consumers everything they’re looking for and thus news agencies, which cover global topics, need to point readers to the best commentary and local news. Traditional news organizations will provide the “spine of truth” for new media bloggers and citizen journalists to “facilitate the conversation.”

In broadening its coverage, Wright mentioned how Reuters had begun an affiliate video program as well as how it had partnered with the international blogging network based at Harvard University, Global Voices. Through this partnership, Wright said that Reuters was “engaging the blogospshere.”

When considering the diversity that new media combined with partnerships can bring to news, Wright said, “There is literally a world of opportunity for newspapers,” especially in producing the “best local coverage,” referring to the award-winning journalism produced by the New Orleans Times-Picayune during Hurricane Katrina.

Wright concluded on a political note, inferring that more participation in media by everyday people alongside citizen publishing will “fill the vacuum” that has been created over the past decades by low voter turnouts in democratic elections.

More news from the 59th World Newspaper Congress

And our video blog with Robb Montgomery and Visual Editors

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