Thomson Reuters to cut 3,200 jobs

Thomson Reuters is slashing jobs as it seeks to stay profitable.

On Tuesday, the media company announced it was cutting 12 percent of its global workforce in the next two years, slashing 3,200 jobs as it seeks to trim costs. The company will also shutter roughly 30 percent of its offices.

The Financial Times reported:

The overhaul comes after the company in January sold a controlling stake in its lucrative trading and data business to Blackstone for $17bn. That business — now known as Refinitiv — made up more than half of the company's sales.

Reuters reported:

The company, which is focusing on its legal and tax businesses following the Blackstone deal, declined to say where the job cuts were being made. However, Co-Chief Operating Officer Neil Masterson told investors that staff had already been informed about 90 percent of the planned cuts.

CBS Minnesota reported that downsizing was already underway:

According to The Star Tribune, some cuts already happened in Minnesota, at the company’s legal publishing operation in Eagan.

While the company didn’t tell the newspaper how many people were recently cut, former employees said that the number could be a few hundred workers.

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Thomson Reuters employs about 2,000 journalists, and it probably will continue to slash jobs in the newsrooms as it looks to cut down on its offerings to remain competitive and profitable. Savvy communicators should take note that shrinking newsrooms are becoming the norm as consumers’ needs change and attention spans become harder to capture.

ABS-CBN reported:

Thomson Reuters is also one of the world's largest news services, ahead of The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse, but its news operations account for only 6 percent of the company's total revenues.

Last month, it reorganized its European news bureaus, laying off journalists in France, Germany, and Italy.

CNN Business reported:

"Thomson Reuters is routinely looking at ways to run our global business operations more efficiently and effectively," a Reuters spokesman told CNN Business. "This disciplined approach sometimes includes the need to make personnel, or other, changes which allow us to balance our internal resources with the needs of our customers in a highly competitive environment."

The company sells a news wire service, financial software, images and services for the legal industry.

The company’s shares rose roughly three percent after the announcement.

Reuters reported:

“They laid out some good plans for the next couple of years,” said Edward Jones analyst Brittany Weissman. “I think there is still a long road ahead, but it was positive. They explained in more detail the pathway to more organic growth.”

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