Reuters in the US: the background

Reuters had an agreement with Dow Jones dating back to 1937 under which Reuters exchanged its world financial news service for the Dow Jones Broad Tape of US financial news. In 1965 Dow Jones said it wanted to distribute the Broad Tape directly in the UK and proposed a joint venture with Reuters, an offer that was declined.

In 1966 AP gave notice that it was going to charge for the US domestic news it was providing Reuters in exchange for British news from the Press Association. “It’s like trading mice for elephants,” AP General Manager Wes Gallagher told Reuters’ Gerald Long.

A Reuters study found that it could run a US news-gathering operation more cheaply than the price AP wanted to charge. AP also announced that it was planning to start an international economic service with Dow Jones.

The Reuters agreement with Dow Jones ended in March 1967 and with AP six months later. The AP-Dow Jones partnership broke up in 2008 for the same reasons that Reuters’ arrangement with both collapsed - “financial considerations”. ■