Thomson Reuters Buys Opinionated News Site

by lisa ~ October 15, 2009

Oct. 14, 2009 - When did journalism stop being impartial and start being opinionated, divisive, even snarky?

Capping weeks of speculation, information giant Thomson Reuters announced today that it intends to acquire BreakingViews.com, an independent web site known for its in-depth and opinionated analysis of newsworthy issues that trend toward arcane financial topics.

Its subject matter is of keen interest to its readers. BreakingViews boasts about 15,000 subscribers who are largely employed in financial services. Select stories are picked up by the world’s best newspapers, reaching from the U.S. (The New York Times) to Europe (The Telegraph and Le Monde, among others) to Asia (Nikkei Veritas and The Business Times of Singapore) to the Middle East (The National of the United Arab Emirates).

News that other media outlets treat with either ignorance or dry objectivity is infused with real-world insight by its 22 correspondents, concentrated in New York and London. As its web site explains, BreakingViews “doesn’t tell you what’s happening; instead we explain why, providing genuine insight and provoking fresh ideas.” In other words, it says, “Our writers always make a call.”

But, in some respects, the popularity of BreakingViews is no different than that of another wildly popular media outlet, Fox News. FAIR, a media watchdog, commented on “Fox News Channel’s extraordinary right-wing tilt” and issued a report that identified it as “The Most Biased Name in News.” The Obama White House has gone so far as to identify Fox News as “the communications arm of the Republican Party.”

The L.A. Times‘ Top of the Ticket blog notes that Fox News Channel’s prime-time ratings jumped 34%, partially due to its high profile show “The O’Reilly Factor.” “Throughout the viewing day, Fox News did even better with its 1.2 million viewers, on average, more than doubling CNN’s 598,000 and more than tripling third-place trailer MSNBC’s average audience of 392,000,” wrote Andrew Malcolm.

It’s clear that this opinionated brand of journalism sells. If that’s the future of news coverage, the flack’s job just got a lot harder.

Lisa Tibbitts  is the principal of Tibbitts Creative, a public relations and marketing service that emphasizes corporate communications. She has an extensive background in financial services and an MBA in marketing. Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/FinancialPR.

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