Power of News: The History of Reuters [Hardcover]

Donald Read (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0756762219 | ISBN-13: 978-0756762216 | Publication Date: November 1999 | Edition: 2nd

This is the story of Reuters, the international news agency. In 1851 Julius Reuter set up the London organization which was eventually to extend throughout most of the world. The Power of News is a fascinating account of the company which for over 140 years has brough us history as it is being made. For a century Reuters was especially the news agency of the British Empire. As Britain's imperial power faded, Reuters moved into selling economic information to the world trading community, a venture that generated annual pre-tax profits of $L280 million by the end of the 1980s. Equally lucrative was the flotation of Reuters as a public company in 1984, the full story of which is told here for the first time. Throughout all these exciting changes Reuters has tried to remain committed to 'truth in news' a commitment watched over by the Reuter Trust, created in 1941. 'The remarkable history of an institution and its visionary founder' , Financial Times 'a fascinating account' , Sunday Telegraph 'Reuters was to news what Rolls-Royce is to cars and Lords is to cricket ...the biggest story to come out of Reuters is its own' , Daily Mail 'a fascinating, solidly-researched, and well written book' , Scotsman 'The first thing that must strike anyone opening this well-produced book . ..is the wonderful harvest of illustrations' , London Review of Books This book is intended for historians of the 19th and 20th centuries; historians of technology and communications; readers with an interest in news, business, and finance.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Donald Read is Emeritus Professor of Modern English History at the University of Kent.
--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 540 pages
• Publisher: Diane Pub Co; 2nd edition (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756762219
• ISBN-13: 978-0756762216
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,745,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Carrier piegon to computer:140 yrs of a global news agency, September 15, 2003

By 

Govindan Nair (Vienna, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Power of News the History of Reuters (Paperback)

I grew up closely following, and at times getting involved in, the professional life of my father, a foreign correspondent for one of the world's four major news agencies, including at one time Reuters, the focus of this particular book. I was therefore excited to find and read this history of a major player in one of the most competitive businesses in the world - providing the world's newspapers, TV and radio stations, and the general public with comprehensive up-to-minute news from all corners of the globe 24 hours a day.

Reuters is a British news agency named after the German who opened an office in London in 1851 after several false starts in continental Europe to provide a news service using telegraph. From these modest beginnings, the author traces the growth of Reuters through 140 years of major events and major technological changes which fundamentally transformed the way news became reported around the world. The book is however much more than a corporate history of Reuters and is full of fascinating anecdotes of how various historical events got sent over the wires.

If you have an interest in the history of global news media, you will enjoy this book. My only regret is that the book does not convey a strong sense of how this inherently global business - and not just a single player - evolved. It would be a much more ambitious, but certainly greatly fascinating undertaking, to analyze the growth of the global news agency industry and the forces and stories which shaped it, including equally fasinating stories from the American and French equivalents of Reuters which are also major players - and globally known by their acronyms such as AP, AFP, and UPI.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very poor book, April 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Power of News: The History of Reuters, 1849-1989 (Hardcover)

Donald Read is Reuters' "official" historian. It is clear in this dull and pointless book that being their "pet" is a position that he is completely happy with. Not for him the ivory towers of serious academic research, instead he churns out company ideology intermingled with inconsequential detail. Ever wonder what happens to 2nd rate historians? Well now you know- at least the university system doesn't have to support his banal ponderings. Why on earth a company like Reuters would want to bother with this sort of stuff (or kind of guy) is beyond me.