AP - Michael Nelson

Bob Evans’ interesting story about Reuters beating AP with AP’s own story of the assassination of President Kennedy [Reuters JFK beat] brings to mind the two occasions in 1966 when I accompanied Gerald Long, General Manager of Reuters, in meetings with Wes Gallagher, General Manager of AP, after Gallagher had given notice on the Reuters-AP exchange agreement. “We are trading mice for elephants”, Gallagher told us. He was right, but did not realise that by ending the exchange he was giving Reuters the best present it had had since the Baron had signed the agreement with Heinrich Geller to supply him with pigeons in Brussels a century before. Only now, with independent reporting of the United States, could Reuters become a truly international news agency and produce revenues beyond those the AP could ever dream of. The story is told more fully in my Castro and Stockmaster: A Life in Reuters, which has just been published in paperback and is available for pre-order on Amazon at the bargain price of £9.06. ■