Reuters’ Adler could face axe in profit push

Steve Adler, the president and editor-in-chief of Reuters, may be thꩵe man on the hot seat.

In late May, the Thꦕomson family — which is still the largest shareholder of the parent Thomson

Reuters media giant — brought in Andrew Rashbass from the Economist to ﷽be the CEO of the Reuters half.

On Wednesday Rashbass shut down the Next digital pr✱oject — which was intended to be a next-generation overhaul that was two years in the making. Jim Roberts, executive editor of Reuters Digital, is leaving, ending a seven-month stint.

Rashbass’ actions are just the most visible sign of the drive to wring more profits out of the $13 billion-a-year Thomson Reuter💦s operation.

L🤡ike its arch rival Bloomberg L.P., Reuters still derives the bulk of its revenue from its terminal customers and, like Bloomberg, many of its consu꧟mer-facing products lose money.

It’s been 20 month༒s since Tom Glocer was forced out as CEO, being replaced by Jim Smith, who has close ties to the Thomson family.

But the latest news suggests ಌthere is still unhappiness on the part of the Thoms🅺on family with the pace of the turnaround .

The Next site was a relatively small business — which one executive estimated had bu🦩rned through about $5 million before Rash🐻bass pulled the plug.

It was not an enormous sum to lose, but it does demonstrate a ne💮w era of fiscal care now under🥂way in the viciously competitive financial information world. And that could spell potential trouble for Adler, hired by the ousted CEO Glocer.

Adler had only been given th🌟e additional title of president in January — 🐠and then suddenly four months later, he had a new boss, who started in mid-July.

One insider said that Rashbass clearly is intent on boosting profit. “One of the quickest ways to boost profits is to 🦋eliminate waste,” said the insider.

Added another veteran, “I might be looking over my shoulder if I were St꧙eve Adler.”

Another well-connected sou🐲rce said, “I don’t think his job is in jeopardy, but he is going to be under tremendous pressure to cut costs.”

Rumblings that there may be a new round of bloodletting have circulated for months. One source said it would not surprise him if the 2,700-person editorial staff was chopped by several hundred by꧒ year end.

“If they are going to do it, this is thꦬe season, although we haven’t heard anything yet,” said Peter Szekely, the secretary-treasurer of the Newspaper Guild, who had earlier in his career worked at Reuters.

A Reuters spokeswoman insisted the mo♔ve to shut down Next did not impact Adler’s role whatsoever.

“The Next development is exactly what ♔💃Andrew said it was — an ambitious project that did not meet its deadlines or budgets. It had nothing to do with editorial quality or Steve Adler and his team.”