The Reuters Dream

I don't know if at some point in every journalists life Reuters means the top of the top, the thrill of a journalist's job. Journalism at its best wow "Reuters". Even though I had a preview of a Reuters bureau before, I still get so fascinated by it. On Monday, with my MA class we went to visit the headquarters of Reuters next to Canary Wharf Station. Just by getting out of the tube and seeing the tall business buildings you feel important. There it was, the huge Reuters building with the headlines, the stock market. We were all so excited we took pictures outside of the building we even took pictures of our badges (My name was spelled wrong as usual but it's fine it's Reuters!).

However, I guess some people with me may have had this impression after leaving the building : Wait, where are the reporters screaming with the latest scoop, the big TV screens with the latest event, this media rush we saw in the movies? Well this is not Reuters. When I went for a small internship at the Cairo Bureau, Jonathan Wright at the time the Bureau chief and the reporters there made me understand that this was just an image of Reuters that people often get especially eager little journalists like myself. What really happens is what we saw today: a big newsroom full of computers, people talking but mostly computers and phones.
It is kind of disappointing when you have these images to see the calm newsroom, all the people talking and discussing, all in a very serious atmosphere. But when you come to think about it. Those editors that we saw, they are responsible for all those instant headlines, those top stories that we see everyday from Reuters. Managing the world desk, managing the financial, equity and monetary policies stories etc... is a big job. Not only you need to be an experienced, quick editor but also an amazing writer and have so many communication and management skills. Great journalist, great editor, great everything! If you see the amount of stories that go on the wire every day it is simply amazing. It is like a big news factory.
Reuters might not be the experience of running in the streets with the latest scoop, hiding behind a car while a town is exploding but it is creating news in a major factory experience.
When you see how a news agency functions in such harmony, so quickly and so efficiently it just makes you confused as a journalist, thinking that the world is so big. Still, it is nice to know that there is always something going on. Something significant.
I don't like Financial news and the other types of it, I am trying to like it but it is so hard for me. Unfortunately what we usually don't know is that the major news from Reuters are financial and the rest is all media and general news.
Here are some facts Anne Senior told us when we were at the visit ( it might not be completely accurate but it is just and idea) and I just think it is amazing. Reuters works with around 20 languages in almost 22 different countries and they select around 800 pictures per day to publish!
So, after all Reuters still sounds "wow" to me.