Thomson Reuters: details of job losses
Jinfo Blog

26th May 2008

Item

In VIP 52 (March 2008) we wrote about the potential job losses at the newly merged company. In this article we pointed to the statement by Reuters’ editor-in-chief, David Schlesinger, where he stated that job cuts could not be ruled out http://digbig.com/4wygm. Schlesinger’s comments did not reassure his readers and now http://digbig.com/4wygn we have the detail of what is planned. Up to 835 jobs will go in total: 140 Reuters News division editorial jobs by the end of 2008, 600-650 jobs in Thomson Reuters’ content, technology and operations divisions, and 45 in sales and service in Europe, Middle East and Africa. In our March article we quoted from The Guardian article http://digbig.com/4wpqg where Tom Glocer stated that ‘there would be job reductions to make an estimated $500m in savings’, but he hoped these could be achieved through natural attrition. Despite also saying at the time ‘there will undoubtedly be some more people who go as part of this but we’re not targeting it’, it seems that Mr Schlesinger’s earlier view has prevailed. According to an email seen by staff at AFP http://digbig.com/4wygp David Schlesinger has confirmed his previous opinion by stating: ‘Unfortunately, the overlap we've found (since creation of the new group) and our need to run the operation efficiently means that we will have to eliminate around 140 (editorial) jobs world wide by the end of the year.’

« Blog