Layoffs atop Reuters

Thomson Reuters has fired the business chief of its news division along with four other top executives, reports The Wrap. The move is part of a three-year rolling reorganization aimed at catching Bloomberg and Dow Jones. From my vantage point, Reuters has hired good writers and reporters but remains hard to find.

The Wrap has a vested interest in this news, as the entertainment and media website partnered with Reuters America last year (not mentioned in the breaking news update above).

*Meantime, Gannett is hiring executives.

Reuters America created, Tribune Co. interested*

Thomson Reuters has launched a wire service, called Reuters America, to compete with the Associated Press. The content comes more cheaply and that caught the attention of the still-bankrupt Tribune Co., which signed up to be RA's first client. According to fishbowlLA, the contract could save Tribune, which owns the Los Angeles Times, up to $4.5 million a year - any effect on quality is yet to be determined.

*Noted: For those who worry Thomson Reuters might do its work on the cheap... Remember when head of Thomson Reuters said this about foreign coverage?: "Why does The New York Times need to have 600-700 journalists? Why not 30 journalists with 30 apprentices?"

Guerrila journalism

The head of Thomson Reuters wondered aloud why the New York Times needs 700 journalists to cover the world - Why not 30 journeymen journalists with 30 apprentices? I'm sure CEO Tom Glocer has no financial interests in shrinking the New York Times, but if he feels so strongly about the idea of asymmetrical coverage, maybe he should go first. (via Romenesko)