Editor's exit casts doubt on Reuters' social media effort

De Rosa became Reuters’ social media editor in July 2011. Earlier this month he was one of three editors reprimanded for failing to tell their superiors that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had raided the home of his deputy, Matthew Keys.

The Atlantic Wire said the move “reinforces that Thomson Reuters’ push into digital didn’t go precisely as planned”.

“It’s clear that De Rosa leaves Reuters feeling frustrated with how the position evolved,” the Atlantic Wire said. “While conversations with Circa and its co-founders began during a series of meetings over a year ago, the social media team faced turmoil when Mathew Keys, De Rosa’s deputy, was indicted for allegedly assisting the hacking of another news organization prior to starting at Reuters.” Reuters fired Keys in April. Kenneth Li, editor of Reuters.com, another of the reprimanded editors, has moved to a new role with Reuters that, as yet, doesn't have a title, the Atlantic Wire said.

“Neither De Rosa nor Li blames the Keys events for De Rosa’s decision to leave, although, in a telephone conversation, Li indicated that he wasn’t surprised by the move, saying he’d known De Rosa had ‘thought about it for a little while.’ De Rosa’s enthusiasm about joining Circa, which has about 20 employees, betrayed his frustrations. ‘I'm looking forward to getting back to a startup,’ he said in an interview, noting that it offered ‘less internal politics.’ Being with a small company ‘allows you to do a lot of things you can’t do inside corporations.’ De Rosa repeatedly indicated that he’d pushed for additional staff, noting that other organizations, like The Times and the Huffington Post, had far larger social media teams than Reuters. At its peak, the team had three members: De Rosa, Keys, and Margarita Noriega, who holds the position of community manager. ‘If they're serious about making [social media] a focus of what they’re doing,’ he said, ‘I hope they’re serious about putting people behind it. It’s not something that you can do with one or two people.’ The fallout from the Keys affair, he said, might be that the company would be less interested in growing that department.” 

“Anthony leaving will be an immense loss for Reuters,” Li said. “We built a small team and we coached the entire newsroom on what it means to be engaged in social media. Now he’s leaving, and it’s heartbreaking.” ■