Thomson Reuters buys Breakingviews to boost comment

The website will be incorporated into the Thomson Reuters feed for users of its teminals under the brand Reuters Breakingviews. It will also continue to supply commentary for newspapers such as The New York Times.

Thomson Reuters refused to disclose the purchase price but reports put it at around £13 million, giving its founder and largest shareholder, journalist Hugo Dixon, £2.6 million.

Dixon will run the enlarged service, which will operate separately from Reuters' news reports. He is bringing over 20 journalists and taking over the existing Reuters Comment operation. Thomson Reuters said it is talking to Jonathan Ford, Dixon’s former business partner who was hired last year to start the Reuters commentary service, about taking on other roles at Thomson Reuters.

The Breakingviews board has recommended that shareholders in the privately held company accept the offer, Thomson Reuters said, adding that the transaction should close within eight weeks.

The decision to buy Breakingviews pushes Reuters News further into the world of commenting on business and financial news, Reuters’ own report on the purchase said. 

The separate stand-alone branding will allow Reuters to continue to ensure that there remains a clear distinction between its news service and commentary offering. "Breakingviews will continue to represent the commentary and opinion of the author, while Reuters reporting will continue to represent the traditional sourced news and analysis that has been its staple for more than 150 years," a Thomson Reuters press release said.

Reuters decided to buy Breakingviews even after starting its own service because the deal was at an attractive price and will accelerate the company's push into commentary, editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said.

He told the Financial Times that the new Reuters Breakingviews would combine the team built by Dixon since he founded the site in 1999 with Reuters’ similar-sized commentary team launched less than a year ago.

“Departures and reassignments” would lead to a combined team of “30-ish”, he said, without giving details of where cuts might fall. The combined service would continue with hiring plans in the Gulf, India and other parts of Asia, he added.

Reuters could have achieved its goals to expand in commentary “given enough time”, he said, but the acquisition allowed it to “short-circuit” the process.

“This is not a deal where we were buying revenue. This is a deal where we were buying [a] brand and people and capability,” he said. “My big worry has always been the commoditisation of factual news. There are many ways you can do to mitigate against that but [one is that] subscribers want facts and they want ideas.”

Dixon said the deal demonstrated “that high-quality financial commentary is extremely valuable.” It “should enhance the product as we’ll be plugged into a much bigger journalistic enterprise,” he said. ■