Accuracy first, speed second

When Canon David Meara of the Church of St. Bride’s bade Reuters farewell from Fleet Street at a service marking its move to Canary Wharf in 2005, he noted with admiration the standards of “accuracy, speed and impartiality” that had been set by its founder. Somewhere on the journey east to South Colonnade and then west to 3 Times Square, speed overtook accuracy. For some years now, every public pronouncement by Thomson Reuters about Reuters lists speed before accuracy among the defining qualities of the news service - from a quote attributed to Andrew Rashbass in a news release announcing his appointment as chief executive of Reuters to marketing materials for potential customers. This is a subtle communications shift and possibly not a conscious one, but it would be nice to see accuracy placed ahead of speed again in the way Reuters talks about itself.

England exulted 114 years ago this month when a Reuters despatch bearing news of the relief of Mafeking reached London. Thanks to Reuters, Londoners knew the news before the British military commander in South Africa was even aware the siege was over. This historic scoop was trusted not because it was fast but because the Reuters reputation for accuracy was such that people understood the news to be true. Information travels immeasurably faster today than it did then, but speed but does not make it any more reliable. Trust, on the other hand, matters just as much as it ever did and it rests on accuracy. ■