BEST PRACTICE BENCHMARKS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS JOURNALISM

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BEST PRACTICE BENCHMARKS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS
JOURNALISM

• REUTERS NEWS
• NIGEL STEPHENSON, EDITORIAL TRAINING MANAGER,
  EMEA
• AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT, OCTOBER 13, 2008

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NEWS THAT INFORMS THE WORLD

• Reuters is the largest international news agency
  -- providing professionals around the world with
  stories that move the markets
• Reuters News is seen on over 400,000 screens
  around the world and viewed by over 1 billion
  people every day.
• In 2007, Reuters filed over three million news
  items from 197 bureaus in 132 countries.

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REUTERS BY NUMBERS

• In 2007, Reuters produced
• 2.49 million headlines
• News in 19 languages
• 3 million news items
• 730,000 alerts
• 515,000 picture images
• 54,000 video stories

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BUSINESS NEWS

• Company news (microeconomics)
• Economic indicators (macroeconomics)
• Markets bonds, stocks, commodities
• Political risk

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WHO DO WE WRITE FOR?

• Business has moved to front page, TV news
• Tell the story for a broad audience
• No jargon
• More drama, more colour
• Real economy boots on the ground

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MORE NUMBERS

• Put numbers in context
• Think milestones biggest one day fall since
• But be careful with superlatives
• Dont use too many!

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WHERE IS THE VALUE?

• Breaking news for trading community
• Exclusives
• Analysis - ideas

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THOMSON REUTERS TRUST PRINCIPLES

• Independence
• Integrity
• Freedom from bias

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INDEPENDENCE

• fundamental to the trust that allows us to
  report impartially from all sides of a conflict
  or dispute.
• crucial to our ability to report on companies,
  institutions and individuals in the financial
  markets, many of whom are also our customers,
  without regard for anything other than accuracy,
  balance and the truth.
• our duty as journalists to avoid conflicts of
  interest or situations that could give rise to a
  perception of a conflict.

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CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

• Personal investments
• Before you report on a company in which you or
  your family has any kind of shareholding or other
  financial interest you must notify the interest
  to your manager or bureau chief.
• You must not deal in securities of any
  company, or in any other investment, about which
  you have reported in the previous month.
• If you are regarded as a specialist in a
  particular area of business or industry you must
  notify your manager or bureau chief of any
  financial interest you may have in that area or
  industry.

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GIFTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

• Journalists must not accept any payment, gift,
  service or benefit (whether in cash or in kind)
  offered by a news source or contact.
• We pay our own way and make our own travel
  arrangements.
• Under no circumstances should we take or offer
  payment (whether in cash or in kind) for a news
  story.
• No insider trading or tipping

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INTEGRITY

• Act within the law
• No news by deception
• We identify ourselves at all times as working
  for Reuters. We do not pass ourselves off as
  something other than a journalist
• Information must be properly obtained
• Purloining data and documents, breaking into
  premises, electronic eavesdropping, telephone
  taps, computer hacking and defeating passwords or
  other security methods on internet websites are
  all illicit and should not be used in the course
  of our work.

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FREEDOM FROM BIAS

• Take no sides, tell all sides
• In MA, allow target company to state its
  position
• Fair and balanced
• Seek (and seek again) the other side of the
  story. Especially important in stories about
  troubled companies
• No journalists opinion in news stories
• No investment advice
• Anything on the merits of an investment must
  be sourced

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ACCURACY

• Accuracy or speed? Which is more important?
• Brutal competition. Performance measured to the
  second.
• Win targets in every bureau
• But
• Accuracy is at the heart of what we do. It is
  our job to get it first but it is above all our
  job to get it right. Accuracy, as well as
  balance, always takes precedence over speed

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SPEED
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SOURCING

• Named sources wherever possible
• Push hard for on-the-record quotes
• Anonymous sources must have direct knowledge or
  represent an authority
• Use of anonymous sources strictly policed
• As specific as possible
• Negotiate hard with your source to agree a
  description that is sufficiently precise to
  enable readers to trust the reliability of our
  anonymous sourcing

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RUMOURS

• Reuters aims to report facts, not rumours
• Duty to explain market movements
• even if market moves on a rumour
• Do not spread the rumour
• Try to determine whether it is true
• Keep checking

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GLOBAL

• Markets are global
• 2,500 journalists in 150 countries
• When a big story happens, we are there

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EXCLUSIVE
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• Any questions?