TY - JOUR
T1 - Reuters and the idea of a British Commonwealth news agency in the aftermath of World War II
AU - Putnis, Peter
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Australian Research Council. This article is based on research at the Reuters Company Archive (London) and the Fairfax Company Archive (Sydney). I greatly appreciate the assistance of staff of these organisations in accessing relevant documents.
Funding Information:
Following their successful negotiations in Australia, Chancellor and Cole, joined by Henderson, travelled to New Zealand to propose that NZPA become a part-owner of Reuters. The plan was supported by AAP on condition that its financial interests in its NZPA contract were protected. On the advice of their Directors, NZPA members unanimously agreed to Chancellor’s plan. The NZPA took up 2,500 shares thus providing Reuters a capital injection of £11,250. Its annual assessment was set at £4,888 pounds per year though this was offset by a £1,500 annual rebate on its AAP contract (costing, by this time, £14,000 per year) to ensure that NZPA was not paying twice for Reuters news. Given its small shareholding, NZPA was not allocated its own seat on the Reuters Board. Rather, its interests were to be represented by the AAP Board member, an arrangement facilitated by AAP’s invitation to NZPA to appoint a director to attend AAP board meetings. NZPA was given the right to appoint a Reuters Trustee.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2021/7/3
Y1 - 2021/7/3
N2 - After World War II, Reuters was struggling to maintain its status as a leading world news agency. The prospect of Indian independence threatened a crucial source of income. Reuters faced vigorous competition from US agency, Associated Press, which was in a phase of rapid global expansion. In response, Reuters sought to consolidate its position by re-constituting itself as a ‘British Commonwealth’ agency which would be jointly owned by the national press associations of the UK, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa. This article analyses Reuters’ Commonwealth plan and the reasons for its very limited success.
AB - After World War II, Reuters was struggling to maintain its status as a leading world news agency. The prospect of Indian independence threatened a crucial source of income. Reuters faced vigorous competition from US agency, Associated Press, which was in a phase of rapid global expansion. In response, Reuters sought to consolidate its position by re-constituting itself as a ‘British Commonwealth’ agency which would be jointly owned by the national press associations of the UK, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa. This article analyses Reuters’ Commonwealth plan and the reasons for its very limited success.
KW - British Commonwealth
KW - Indian independence
KW - International news
KW - news agencies
KW - Reuters
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089444671&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13688804.2020.1804346
DO - 10.1080/13688804.2020.1804346
M3 - Article
VL - 27
SP - 314
EP - 330
JO - Studies in Newspaper and Periodical History
JF - Studies in Newspaper and Periodical History
SN - 1368-8804
IS - 3
ER -