Reuters.Com

Strategy of Reuters

Our goal is to transform Reuters into a focused information company that exploits its core skills, scale and brand to deliver the right products at the right price with great service.

We derive more than 90% of our revenues from customers in the financial services industry. Deteriorating financial markets over recent years have led to retrenchment and consolidation within the industry. Financial markets are undergoing fundamental change as a result of over capacity, growing data volumes and regulatory pressure. These changes will result in fewer people, with tighter budgets, working harder and handling more information under the increasingly watchful eyes of the regulators.

Despite the difficult market conditions, we believe the structural changes taking place in our marketplace create opportunities for us. We are accelerating our business transformation programme to build a more competitive, focused and profitable information company. Our Fast Forward plan is based on six key initiatives:

1. Make our information indispensable - build up content, analytics, community and openness
2. Move to a single product distribution architecture and business model
3. Simplify and segment our product line
4. Focus our Solutions business around our products
5. Reduce and reshape our cost base.
6. Reinvigorate culture and behaviour.

By indispensable information we mean information our customers can trust because of its depth, breadth, speed and accuracy, information that is easy to find, use, share and trade on. We will build up our content, our analytics, our trading and messaging capabilities and our open technology platform.

Our business is spread over many technical architectures which raise cost, introduce complexity and slow time to market. Moving to a coherent and unifying network will help solve this problem. Rationalising our systems will allow us to lower our operating costs, develop products faster and deliver improved customer service. We plan to have 3000 Xtra, Reuters Plus and our trading room systems products fed by the new network in 2004.

A segmented product line enables us to provide the specific products and solutions our customers need. Last year we introduced two new products aimed at clearly identified segments: Reuters Trader and Reuters Knowledge. These products, coupled with our ongoing product obsolescence programme, give us confidence that segmentation will translate into financial success.

We are re-focusing our Solutions business around areas which are complementary to our information products and where we can generate scale and margin. These are notably market data systems, risk and treasury solutions.

We will continue to drive out cost and streamline our business. In doing so, we will re-align our resources and investment in key areas to support our customers.

Reinvigorating the company's culture and behaviour has a vital link to our continuing programme to improve customer service.

Paul Julius Reuter

Paul Julius Reuter, the founder of Reuters, the world news and information organisation, died on 25 February 1899. For the modern Company, which has grown out of all recognition since its birth in 1851, it is an opportunity to take stock.

When Paul Julius Reuter died in Nice, the 19th century was about to come to an end. It was a century of entrepreneurship and rapidly advancing technology, during which Reuters built a world-wide reputation for competence and truthfulness in news. 100 years later, in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century, Reuters transformed itself through bold pioneering ventures which created a range of electronic information products for the world's rapidly growing financial markets.

As it enters the 21st century, Reuters is a large, dynamic, profitable company contending for first place among world leaders in the business of information.

Please call the following switchboard numbers:

UK +44 20 7250 1122
USA +1 646 223 4000

Australia - 1300360514

China - 108001100328
Malaysia - 1800803542
Singapore - 8004481338
Hong Kong - 800 903 086
Taiwan - 00801444236
Japan - 006633861033
Thailand - 0018006121105

The lines are open during standard business hours 9.00 to 18.00

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