November 5, 2007

Brush-off from Reuters

on Thomson ‘integration’

Unions push to join planning talks

Since Reuters and Thomson announced their planned deal on May 8, union leaders at both companies in the United States, Canada and Britain have been working to find out as much as we can about the merger, especially the terms of “integration” – the way the two companies will actually mesh and whether there will be losses or gains of jobs. In conference calls with Reuters managers, the company’s message has been consistent: We don’t know anything (and we wouldn’t tell you even if we did).

Plainly, this is unacceptable. So the Reuters Alliance – union leaders at Reuters in the United States, Canada and Britain and at Thomson in Britain – told executives at both companies that the unions should be represented at a meeting of the Thomson-Reuters Decision-Making Forum set for November. Integration will be on the agenda.

“We believe the involvement of union representatives at this stage can only assist in making the integration process smoother and limiting the potential for unnecessary conflict later,” union leaders, including Reuters Guild Unit Chair Debby Zabarenko, wrote on October 26 to Tom Glocer, Devin Wenig and David Schlesinger at Reuters and Richard Harrington and Andrew Meagher at Thomson.

Sounds like a reasonable idea, right? You’d think they’d want to square things away with the unions at the get-go. But you would be wrong.

Wenig, global head of Reuters business divisions, wrote back. “We are in the midst of getting regulatory clearance and that limits our ability to do detailed planning and thus in the communications we can have … I believe any management meetings we may schedule are best attended by members of the management structure; however I do think we are providing and will continue to provide appropriate ways for you to get information and to present your views.”

The “appropriate ways” Wenig cited consist of those unsatisfying conference calls and the quasi-public Thomson Reuters Update site at http://www.ime.reuters.com/thomson-reuters/ . We think our members deserve better. Potential problems that may affect our members are best addressed at the earliest stages, before positions solidify. So the Reuters Alliance is pushing for another meeting and a free flow of information as Thomson acquires Reuters. We’ll keep you posted as things go forward.

Thomson’s North American Adventure

For a glimpse of what Thomson Financial has in store for its U.S. editorial operations, here’s an excerpt from an internal memo dated October 22: “Today sees the start in earnest of Thomson Financial News’s North American operations,” wrote John Manley of Thomson Financial News. 

“Under the auspices of Frank Sannella, head of The IFR screens business in North America, TFN’s US operations will provide flashes and fills on US company news and market news out of New York, and macroeconomic news and analysis out of Washington.” Wading through the alphabet soup here, TFN is Thomson Financial News and IFR is International Financing Review, Thomson’s specialist publication for the investment finance community.

“The North American file will be made up of copy from the new TFN team, along with the full output of Associated Press, including the APFN financial news service, and elements of the IFR real time screens service and other Thomson editorial assets.  The TFN staff will provide the service with its sharp edge in terms of timeliness and targeted coverage and analysis.

“Until now, the TFN service on Thomson screens in North America has been provided by MarketWatch. That service, unique to TFN, was created before MarketWatch’s takeover by Dow Jones. The deal with MarketWatch is due to expire later this year. After Thomson Financial’s takeover of AFX, and during the expansion of TFN in Europe, it was decided not to renew the MarketWatch contract. Instead, Thomson Financial’s North American operation was given the job of building its own news service to run alongside AP. Editorial staff were hired specifically on the basis of their specialist knowledge and experience: for instance, some key personnel were hired from MarketWatch to cover US company news and Wall Street.”

This helps explain why Thomson has been recruiting editorial staff in the United States for its own sake, even as its takeover of Reuters looms. It looks like the company is just trying to develop a fledgling in-house news service after the Marketwatch contract ends.