Web traffic

Reuters has always been schizophrenic about retail publishing [Bloomberg web traffic ‘surpasses Reuters’]. They were against it before they were for it, and in my time refused to go all in. That might still be the case. There are also a number of stakeholders (news division verticals) whose poobahs probably still have influence over what reuters.com can or can’t be. So, it can’t be all it can be - and I think this uneasiness somehow conveys to the reader in intangible ways.

Compare and contrast to Bloomberg, which is always all-in, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. One of my favorite metrics from the old days: In the early 90s Bloomberg bought WINS all-news radio in New York, and then spent a couple of million dollars just promoting it. That same year, Reuters did nothing of the kind - and spent a couple of million on idiotic “vision” off-sites at a resort in Florida where the only thing I recall is Brian Vaughn almost weepily urging us to teach our elephants to dance.

Just wait until preview.reuters.com becomes the new landing page. It, shall we say, “channels” Bloomberg’s look-and-feel quite effectively. ■