Principles and power

I just wanted to thank you for reminding us in The Baron that the Trust Principles still carry some weight in protecting Reuters as we knew it [Principles and power: an inquiry].

Recent dispiriting news from Thomson Reuters of large-scale voluntary layoff offers to our US Newspaper Guild colleagues, the humiliating performance improvement programmes and requirement for some of our most experienced journalists to re-apply for their jobs cast a grim light of squalor on the high standards that bound us to Reuters for so many years.

There is no question that technology brings conflict, opportunity and change to newsrooms as a cost centre and challenge to maintaining the standards of the Trust Principles. It is curious that the recent New York Times article on technology wealth turning to news content as a significant area of new investment makes no mention of Reuters [Tech Wealth And Ideas Are Heading Into News].

I must also add my personal gratitude to you for growing thebaron.info and providing us with a unique real-time sense of community after our years at Reuters. I am sure this comes at some personal cost to you - platform, technology and means have changed since you started this endeavour five years ago. If there is a simple way for us to contribute what we can to your efforts, please let us know bank account, sort code or PayPal means to keep thebaron.info viable. Small contributions have a pleasant way of adding up! ■