Reuters Digital: '$20 mn revenue, $20 mn loss' yearly

The figure was given at a meeting in New York last week with Reuters Digital staff called by Riordan, appointed less than two weeks ago, and editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, according to some of those present, website Capital New York reported. Reuters would not comment on or confirm the figures or the profitability timetable.

The Newspaper Guild of New York said the company was seeking to eliminate five union positions – almost half of the current New York-based online team – from the Reuters Next web project recently cancelled by Reuters’ new chief executive Andrew Rashbass, by 29 November. They would be offered voluntary buyouts before involuntary layoffs were sought, according to the Guild.

Capital New York said that in killing off Reuters Next Rashbass was seen as “knocking the wind out of Reuters’ consumer-friendly sails, which had already lost some steam as a result of several recent high-profile departures. Those included Chrystia Freeland, who has been characterized both as the patron saint and black widow of Reuters Next, and Jim Impoco, who, in addition to his role as the executive editor of Reuters Digital, had conceived and edited a Reuters magazine for three issues.”

The website said one insider described the Reuters Digital staff as demoralised, saying: “The larger message is, ‘We’re really not investing in original content for the web.’”

Capital New York said Rashbass had also put the kibosh on Reuters’ nascent print ambitions. Months after Impoco’s resignation in January, Arlene Getz, a former Newsweek editor who joined Reuters in 2010, was named editor-in-charge, magazines. “But when Rashbass came aboard, he decided Reuters shouldn’t be devoting resources to print, sources with knowledge of the matter said. The project was scrapped and Getz was given a new job on the digital side, according to a Sept. 12 memo announcing her new title of ‘editor-in-charge, digital news.’”

Reuters spokeswoman Barb Burg told Capital New York there are no plans for any further Reuters magazines to be published at this time. ■