Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Reuters, a Canadian company at last

This is kind of fun ... maybe Canada's going to take over the world by stealth after all. First, by comprising a big part of the American entertainment industry. Now ... the British press. It was announced this morning the venerable newswire Reuters, which started reporting on the stock markets over 150 years ago, has been sold to Thomson. The Thomson family, which once ran the chain of papers that included the Globe and Mail, already has a big foothold in the States with its ownership of West, the court reporting company that publishes every Supreme Court and appeals courts decision in that country.

With the combination, Thomson-Reuters will now be the size of Bloomberg, the newswire once run by the current mayor of New York City. And while its editorial stance is certainly well known, it will provide a good counterbalance to the shrillness and T&A first leanings of News Corporation, run by Rupert Murdoch and which includes Fox News. While I do not as a rule support media concentration this is a case where there are two companies whose lines of business compliment each other -- and with more people than ever playing the stock market access to unbiased information (not the hurray for Wall Street we get all the time from Neil Cavuto) is essential.

Thomson-Reuters, Bloomberg -- and Fox. Let the games begin.

Vote for this post at Progressive Bloggers.

No comments: