Reuters prepares to bury Coyote

“This will benefit us all because the news data contained in Sys77 is completely stale,” said Stuart Karle, chief operating officer for Reuters news agency. “We can move swiftly on this because even after Sys77 disappears, we will still have back-up editorial systems to support Lynx Editor,” he said in a note to editorial staff.

The shutdown will begin in Asia, where the Singapore node of Coyote will be shut down on 17 March. In the rest of the world, the shutdown will be on 16 June.

“We understand that this is a big change for people who have had Coyote or Decade on their desktops since they joined Reuters, but we are ready to move forward with the Lynx suite of editorial tools, which we can use to enhance our stories in ways that the old system simply could not manage,” Karle added.

He invited ideas for “a suitable burial ceremony for this system, which has served Reuters well over more years than anyone ever expected”. ■