REUTERS

British news agency that was founded in 1851 and became one of the leading news wire services in the world. It was established by Paul Julius Reuter, a bank clerk who became a partner in a book-publishing firm. He initiated a prototype news service in Paris in 1849, using electric telegraphy as well as carrier pigeons in his network. Upon moving to England, he launched Reuter's Telegram Company two years later. The company was concerned with commercial news service at its inception and had headquarters in London serving banks, brokerage houses, and leading business firms. The agency expanded steadily, and in 1858 its first newspaper client, the London Morning Advertiser, subscribed. Newspapers bulked ever larger in the Reuters clientele thereafter. Reuter saw the possibilities of the telegraph for news reporting and built up an organization that maintained correspondents throughout the world. The Press Association (PA), an organization representing the provincial press of Great Britain, acquired a majority interest in Reuters in 1925 and full ownership some years later. In 1941 the PA sold half of Reuters to the Newspaper Proprietors' Association, representing Britain's national press, and in 1947 co-ownership was extended to associations representing the daily newspapers of Australia and New Zealand. Reuters had become one of the world's major news agencies, supplying both text and images to newspapers, other news agencies, and radio and television broadcasters. Directly or through national news agencies, it provided service to most countries, reaching virtually all of the world's leading newspapers and many thousands of smaller ones. In the 1960s Reuters became one of the first news agencies to use computers to transmit financial data overseas, and in 1973 it began making computer-terminal displays of foreign-exchange rates available to clients. In 1981 Reuters began providing the capacity to make electronic transactions over its network, and it went on to develop a wide array of electronic trading and brokering services. In 1984 Reuters became a publicly listed company on the London Stock Exchange. In addition to its traditional news-agency business, Reuters is now a major provider of financial information, both historical and current, to businesses, governments, and individuals worldwide. Additional reading Donald Read, The Power of News: The History of Reuters, 18491989 (1992).