No room for rote in Reuters' sharper file

As Reuters has increased time and effort devoted to initiative coverage, many staffers have asked, quite logically, “What do we do less of?”, says Paul Ingrassia, deputy editor in chief.

“The Sharper File initiative provides the answer,” he told journalists in an internal note seen by The Baron. “The goal is to get away from rote coverage that clutters our file, makes it harder for our customers to find what they need, and wastes our own time. We provide much routine or recurring coverage that is important to customers, but rote coverage is different.” It includes:

• Writing a reflexive article about a simple fact when customers would be better off with a table or a chart
• Writing a story even though snaps and urgents have told readers everything they need to know
• Digging up a sell-side analyst to state the obvious about a company’s announcement and filing an update, when readers are certain to ignore that update
• Covering an event or announcement with a story just because it happened, not because it’s news
• Marginal updates that don’t change a story materially.

In other words, Ingrassia said, rote coverage consists of stories no one needs or wants. “The essence of the Sharper File initiative is not writing those stories so we can focus on meaningful coverage. 

“Sharper news judgments are the only way we can get rid of these stories and updates. Our challenge is exercising this judgment across a global news organization of more than 2,800 journalists in 200 or so bureaus. Fortunately, however, we have a strong foundation in our three regional editing desks.”

The initiative was piloted in Asia last year, significantly transforming the file.

“We have not slowed the file, nor will we,” Ingrassia said. “Snaps still move immediately; urgents, critical stories and important updates still move quickly. Because we have reduced the time devoted to marginal coverage, we have more time to produce stories that matter. In fact, they can now run more quickly, they can read better, and we can run more of them. This is what success looks like.

“This initiative is not about running fewer items overall, although that might be an outcome. If a smaller file was the only goal, we could achieve that overnight with a simple mandate reducing the size of the file by some arbitrary percentage. But such a blunt effort would reduce both the valuable and the marginal stories, hurting our customers as much as helping them. 

“Instead, sharpening our news judgment and then allocating our resources accordingly will only help – indeed, significantly help – our customers. It will also be more fun as conscious choice replaces reflexive behavior, and as faster and smarter snaps, richer stories and deeper insights replace marginal coverage.”

Ingrassia said that, given the experience gained in Asia, Jean Yoon, pictured, deputy editor, Asia and editor, Asia Desk in Singapore, would help to launch the initiative in London on 29 April and New York on 20 May. “I’ll be working right alongside her and our regional deskers.”

  ■