Reuters cancels web project, to develop Reuters.com

Digital executive editor Jim Roberts will leave after only seven months with the company.

“Next is a long way from achieving either commercial viability or strategic success,” chief executive Andrew Rashbass, pictured, announced in his first major move since joining the business from The Economist two months ago. “In fact, I believe the existing suite of Reuters.com sites is a better starting point for where we need to go. Therefore I have decided to cancel the Next project and put our efforts into enhancing and improving the existing Reuters.com sites. We will repurpose as much of the Next development work as we can for that.

“I know this will feel somewhat ‘Back to the Future’ but the existing Reuters.com has many strengths, which I recognise coming from the outside, that perhaps people here take for granted,” Rashbass told staff in an e-mail.

“Additionally, Jim Roberts, the executive editor of Reuters Digital, is leaving the company. Mr Roberts took a buyout from the [New York] Times in January and landed at Reuters in February. Design director Daniele Codega is also leaving. Bill Riordan has been promoted to publisher of Reuter.com.” He will report to Rashbass.

Roberts and Codega will stay on for a period to help with the transition as editor-in-chief Stephen Adler on the editorial side and Riordan, on his side, finalise their Reuters.com leadership teams.

Rashbass said the Reuters Next project had ambitious commercial and editorial goals and the team had worked incredibly hard. “As part of the project we have launched a well-received mobile app for iOS. However, the project as a whole has struggled to meet delivery deadlines and stay within its budget. Also, it does not capitalise on our strengths. We need to take advantage of the fact that we have a constant stream of high-quality, real-time news (something most news organisations lack), created by more than 2,000 journalists around the world; we need to focus on our unique photography and video to win in an increasingly visual media world; and we need to make our core strength of international news relevant to local audiences – which means, among other things, having local-language sites.”

Rashbass noted that Reuters.com is one of the world’s most visited business and news sites with 37 million visitors each month; it achieves premium advertising rates in a highly competitive market; it has responded well to changes in the ad market such as the growth of real-time bidding; it has versions in Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, French, German, Spanish and Italian. “And its dependence on automation is a virtue not a vice. Yes, it has issues and the team will now focus on fixing those and on taking the business forward.” ■