Old truths

We learn from The Baron that editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni has appointed a new team to help drive “the new Reuters newsroom: speedy and smart, leveraging a global footprint with local expertise to deliver coverage of the most important stories in the world, for the world, without bias, both in real time and in depth, and with sophistication and insight.”

Isn’t that exactly what Reuters journalists and newsrooms had always aimed to do - maybe since the time of the Baron himself? It certainly sounds much like the pep-talk I had from my first bureau chief Sidney Weiland in Moscow in 1965. And, deprived of the management jargon, it also sounds very much like the message George Short drilled into the heads of his many trainee hopefuls over the years.

It would seem that Ms Galloni, who came to the job in April with real Reuter experience in contrast to her predecessor when he took on the job, has nevertheless fallen into the same trap as he did - reiterating old truths about the company’s journalistic ethos as though America has just been discovered. ■