100 Reuters staffers to lose jobs to outsourcing

Tuesday, 14 December 2004, 20:30 IST
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LONDON: Reuters is to cut up to 100 jobs from news bureaux around the world as it expands its editorial operations in China and India. Reuters said about four percent of its 2,300 editorial staff would be affected as it moves into the final year of a 440- million pound restructuring programme. David Schlesinger, global managing editor of Reuters, told journalists via email that 100 jobs would be affected. He later told the Guardian that some bureaux would lose "a journalist or two", while about 50 posts would be affected by "migrating jobs" to offices in Bangalore, Toronto and Singapore. The hiring of journalists in China and India would make good most of the losses, leaving the group with "roughly" the same number of editorial staff at the end of 2005, Schlesinger added. "It's very traumatic but in terms of the coverage we are able to give to subscribers and in terms of the size of the organisation there is virtually no change." Union representative Victoria Barrett said the biggest concern was for staff on the sports desk who could become victims of a change in editorial focus. Schlesinger's email left questions unanswered, she said. "What is interesting is what it doesn't say. The staff is still very concerned about the sports desk. It is quite clear that sports is under threat." Reuters recently announced that 10 jobs would go in a reorganisation of the photographic desk and centralising online operations in Canada. About 50 jobs would be affected by the move, but Reuters insisted the net loss would be 10. The news operation in Bangalore opened this year, with 20 journalists covering 2,000 small to medium-sized companies listed in the US. Reuters' operating costs in Bangalore are said to be 60 percent less than in London and New York, with journalists there earning 75 percent less than their counterparts in Britain and the US. Bangalore already houses the group's data unit, employing a 300-strong work force that is expected to double in size next year. Schlesinger said the Bangalore newsroom would grow in 2005. The group is searching for cheaper ways of doing business as part of a three-year restructuring programme, dubbed Fast Forward. Reuters expects to save 440 million pounds by 2006, cutting the payroll from 15,500 to about 13,000 in the process. Gert Linnebank, editor-in-chief of Reuters, said in a staff email that the group had to cut costs to compete in an increasingly difficult market and pointed to this week's announcement of thousands of job cuts from the BBC - "its own version of Fast Forward". "The changes to editorial we're making under Fast Forward are essential for our competitiveness and to position us for growth in markets old and new. Our industry is facing unprecedented challenges. Last month alone, CNN closed down its financial network and there has been cost-cutting at the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal."
Source: IANS