Reg Watts - a great communicator

Our paths rarely crossed during Reg’s lengthy career with Reuters, but we worked closely together after his formal retirement. That was when he joined the Reuter Foundation and threw himself with huge enthusiasm into a new career in journalism training.

As new Director of the Foundation just after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, I asked a number of specialist colleagues to help devise a new kind of editorial training programme, short and practical, that would be really useful for journalists emerging from the Communist system in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

With overall inspiration from George Short, the two key strategists were Reg Watts for business news and Sidney Weiland for general news. It was, I recall, a somewhat stressful relationship. Both men held strong views about their own field of interest. But whereas Sid was explosive by nature, Reg was naturally diplomatic, a quality I quickly learned to value very highly. He also had an engaging sense of humour that smoothed over the friction. 

The result was an innovative editorial training programme that has stood the test of time, as thousands of alumni in the ex-Soviet bloc and the developing world can testify.  

Reg’s contribution to this achievement was critical. He was a great communicator, keen to pass on his vast experience to the next generation of journalists. And the trainees loved him. It is fair to say that the “Reg Watts fan club” was a key component in establishing the Foundation’s global reputation for first-rate professional training. 

I should add that Reg was a strong supporter of the Reuter Society, serving with distinction on the Committee for many years, dispensing sound advice with great good humour.

For all these and other reasons - such as highly entertaining travels together in eastern Europe - I shall remember him and his delightful wife, Jean. ■