Thomson Reuters names new editor-in-chief

He is Stephen Adler, pictured, who joined the company a year ago from BusinessWeek where he was editor-in-chief. He left the magazine after it was purchased by Bloomberg. Adler replaces David Schlesinger who held the post since January 2007 and now returns to China to oversee group strategy in that country as chairman of Thomson Reuters China. The moves are effective immediately.

Chief executive Tom Glocer said the appointment of a relative outsider to the company’s top editorial job showed “not everything has to be invented here”.

Adler, 56, a former investigative editor at The Wall Street Journal and one-time editor of The American Lawyer, joined Thomson Reuters in January 2010 to set up dedicated news services for its legal, tax and accounting and healthcare and science divisions, fulfilling a goal set when Thomson acquired Reuters in April 2008. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School.

Glocer said Thomson Reuters’ fledgling professional news initiative, which employs 12 journalists, is “ready to be integrated into mother Reuters”.

Pointing to AOL’s acquisition of Huffington Post and The Daily Beast’s Newsweek deal, he added: “If you look at the outside world, there’s a need to accelerate change even in venerable and well-respected news organisations.”

“Journalistic excellence will continue to be our hallmark,” Adler said in a statement, “and our goal is to become a must-read among global professionals. To that end, we will continue to develop our extraordinary internal talent as well as hiring strategically from outside.”

He told the Financial Times his appointment to the new role of executive vice president of news for Thomson Reuters, reporting to the heads of both the markets and professional divisions, signalled a decision “to view Reuters News as an asset for the whole company”.

“There is going to be one news organisation to serve all the businesses,” Adler said. “The goal is to have a united news organisation.”

Glocer said: “My biggest hope and goal for him is we maximise the amount of time and resource that truly goes to journalistic excellence. Reuters developed its reputation when no one could do what we did. We should do that again.”

In a message to staff, Glocer said Adler would be a member of the executive committee and would report jointly to Devin Wenig and James Smith, chief executives of Thomson Reuters’ markets and professional divisions respectively. “This reporting relationship will help ensure that news will become a central asset for both divisions – the very heart of our company. Steve is the ideal choice to lead the next phase in the development of Reuters News as a core capability for Thomson Reuters.”

Schlesinger, 50, joined Reuters in 1987 as a correspondent in Hong Kong. He is a fluent Mandarin speaker and former head of Reuters’ editorial operations in China. “He’s far better known in China than I am,” Glocer said, adding that it would have taken him 20 years to build the same level of trust within a market where relationships matter were he just visiting twice a year from his New York head office. 

Glocer said it was the perfect moment for Schlesinger to return to China in a senior strategic role to support the development of the group’s businesses in this key market. “David brings extraordinary passion and experience to this mission.”

He added: “Our news organisation is now poised to advance to new levels of excellence in an industry which is moving very fast. Please join me in thanking David for getting us here and supporting Steve as he takes us forward.” ■