REUTERS: The Baron, Homing Pigeons and an Illustrious Past – But What of the Future?
Authors: Jukes, S.
Publication Date: 01/01/2026
Pages: 97-108
DOI: 10.4324/9781032704210-11
Abstract:Each of the “big three” international news agencies, Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse, is steeped in tradition and exudes its own deep-seated culture; each can relate tales of celebrated scoops and the adventures of famous foreign correspondents; and each has a legendary story to tell about its origins. In the case of Reuters, Paul Julius Reuter, later ennobled as a baron by Queen Victoria, employed homing pigeons to relay stock prices between the bourses in Aachen and Brussels. It was the start of a long history in which Reuters developed into one of the world’s most powerful news organizations. This chapter, written by a former Reuters foreign correspondent and editor who spent more than 20 years across the world with the organization, reflects on the agency’s sometimes chequered past – the struggle to free itself from government influence following World War II; the boom years of the 1980s and 1990s when it expanded rapidly financial reporting and rode the wave of the dot.com boom; the lean years at the turn of the century as its upstart rival Bloomberg steadily stole market share and the subsequent takeover in 2008 by Canada’s Thomson Corporation. It concludes by examining the years after the takeover and Reuters attempt to meet the challenge of today’s social media landscape. Has Reuters been able to regain its confidence following the tumultuous disruption to its traditional markets and can it stay relevant in a media environment in which conspiracy theories and fake news abound and anyone with a smart phone can report for free on news stories anywhere in the world?
Source: Scopus