Reuters history

The repeal of the newspaper stamp duty--a tax on the sale of newspapers--in 1855 was to transform the British press, making way for the penny daily papers and the rise of popular journalism.

He gradually widened his geographic range and in 1857 made a contract with the recently established telegraphic news agency in Russia.

The agency expanded steadily, and in 1858 its first newspaper client, the London Morning Advertiser, subscribed.

The value of Reuters to newspapers lay not only in the financial news it provided but in its ability to be the first to report on stories of international importance, as in 1865 when the service broke the news of the assassination of United States Pres.

After several unsuccessful attempts to lay a cable across the Atlantic, a transatlantic line was finally laid in 1866.

In 1869 he and Baron Émile d'Erlanger, a Paris banker, financed a French cable across the Atlantic.

Reuter was created a baron by the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1871 and later was given the privileges of this rank in England.

He retired as managing director of Reuters in 1878.

25, 1899, Nice, France), German-born founder of one of the first news agencies, which still bears his name.

Reuters Taken Private in 1916

In 1920 Reuters set up a trade department to expand the distribution of business news.

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 1927 Reuters started using teleprinters to distribute news to London newspapers.

From 1941 the company was jointly owned by the PA and the Newspaper Proprietors' Association (NPA). A commonwealth dimension was added when the Australian Associated Press (AAP) and the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA) joined the partnership in 1947. It followed this in 1930 by purchasing the remainder of the Reuter shares, except for 1,000 retained by Roderick Jones.

In 1941 the PA directors forced Jones to resign.

In partnership with Ultronic Systems Corporation of the United States, Reuters started a desktop market-quotation system called Stockmaster in 1964.

In 1968 an Automatic Data Exchange (ADX)--a computerized message-switching system for faster handling and distribution of news throughout the world--went into operation in the London editorial offices.

The agency subsequently afforded the capacity to make electronic transactions over its network (1981) and went on to develop a wide array of electronic trading and brokerage services.

1984 IPO Presages Rapid Growth

A 1989 reorganization categorized Reuters' services under five areas--real-time information, transaction products, trading room systems, historical information, and media products.

Reuters launched the next-generation versions of its core product lines--Markets 3000, Treasury 3000, Securities 3000, and Money 3000--in 1996.