Desk shake-up

Any announcement [Reuters editorial desk shake-up in drive for quality] that volunteers the defensive and unsolicited statement that a reorganisation is “not about saving money or cutting staff” should be taken as a piece of fluff. Reuters journalists are expected to see through such announcements when they come from the companies they cover so it is not clear why they shouldn’t see through this one.

Why should anyone believe this announcement when it says that the reorganisation of Reuters desks will improve quality when the only steps it specifies are shutting overnight shifts and moving more routine tasks to cheaper locations? The rest is puff. 

Good organisations always look at ways to be more efficient and effective, as they should, but improvements to quality come from giving people the skills and incentives they need and making sure you have enough of the right people to do the job well. 

It’s especially troubling that the announcement, which purports to come from the heads of the desks in Asia, the Americas and EMEA, contains a split infinitive, tautology and a non-sequitur, and uses “between” where it should use “among”. Perhaps the announcement was vetted by a third-rate PR firm. It certainly reads that way, bullet points and all. ■