Reuters

Reuters is a news agency that supplies reporting to media outlets and to businesses. Paul Julius Reuter started the service in London in 1851, first using telegraph lines and pigeons to send market prices. The operation grew into one of the three major global wire services.

Today it employs journalists in many countries who file stories, photos and video. Newspapers, broadcasters and websites buy this content. Reuters also provides news and data to financial firms through its business arm. In 2008 the Canadian group Thomson merged with Reuters, forming Thomson Reuters.

Thomson Reuters keeps the agency as one of its units, alongside legal, tax and accounting software. The company is publicly traded and headquartered in Toronto, while the news operation has a large base in London. The Reuters Trust Principles commit the agency to independence and freedom from bias. The Reuters Institute at Oxford studies journalism. The agency distributes text, pictures and video in many languages. It has won a number of Pulitzer Prizes. Reuters journalists report from conflict zones, markets and capitals, and their work often reaches readers through other news sites.