Reuters cans experimental e-mail and linkblog service

Set up three years ago, Counterparties (logo) was billed as a curated snapshot of the best finance news and commentary on the web and claimed to be the first mainstream media website which consists of nothing but external links.

It was described as “… an experiment: what would a news website look like if it didn’t need to promote its own content, and just linked to the best stories and posts, regardless of source? We believe that the best way to get people to come back is to send them away: click on a headline, go straight to another site, and see for yourself.”

Its editors were financial blogger Felix Salmon and Ryan McCarthy. Salmon left Reuters in April and McCarthy joined The Washington Post where he is an assistant business editor. Other Counterparties staff, Shane Ferro and Ben Walsh, have also left.

Reuters told subscribers in an e-mail: “We wanted to let you know that this will be our last Counterparties email. We will still be bringing you breaking business and markets news at Reuters.com and cutting-edge analysis in our blogs. Thank you for subscribing.” ■