Reuters 175th Anniversary – An Alma Artifex of Talal Malik, Alpha1Strategy & Alpha1Media
Official Reuters 175th Anniversary Page
Official Reuters 175th Anniversary Video on YouTube
Official Video on Reuters from Alpha1Strategy on YouTube from 169th Anniversary on October 10, 2020
Official Video on Reuters from Alpha1Media on YouTube from 169th Anniversary on October 10, 2020
Today, October 14, 2026, Reuters, my alma artifex for news, media and journalism, celebrates its 175th Anniversary, for it was on this very day in 1851, that German-born immigrant Paul Julius Reuter founded the news agency by opening a two-room office near the London Stock Exchange.
It was one day before the ending of the Great Exhibition in London, marking the symbolic peak of the British Empire’s industrial and global dominance.
Operating from London’s, and then the world’s, financial centre, Reuter’s “Submarine Telegraph Office” at 1 Royal Exchange Buildings initially focused on transmitting stock prices and commercial news between London and Paris.
Reuter combined technology, utilising the newly laid Calais-Dover cross-channel submarine telegraph cable from France to Britain – matching his business motto to “follow the cable” – but had also used a fleet of carrier pigeons to bridge gaps in the European telegraph network.
Today, with real-time live IP feeds serving billions of readers, Reuters has 2,600 journalists in 200 locations across 165 countries.
The mission of Reuters news agency is to convey the news that matters, of the world to the world in real-time, without fear or favour, all in accordance with its Trust Principles, and to do so simultaneously being first, fast and accurate.
When U.S. President Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, Halley and Tenzing reached the summit of Everest in 1953 or the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Reuters was first with the news scoop.
That’s why I joined Reuters, from 2005 to 2007. I’m a Reuterian, a term for a Reuters alumnus, which has been in circulation for a century.
More than two decades ago now, on September 5, 2005, I commenced my tenure at Reuters as part of its prestigious flagship Graduate Editorial Training Programme, selected as the only man selected from 1,200 candidates that year, after a rigorous full-day interview process at its editorial base at the famed Fleet Street.
I still remember emerging from the long escalator at Canary Wharf into the daylight of Canada Square with its vista of London’s financial behemoths in their glass and steel skyscrapers, standing opposite Reuters Group Plc’s new Global HQ at 30 South Colonnade, with the news agency from Fleet Street and other various department offices like Broadcast and Pictures across London having just moved in.
Global HQ had its Editorial Department all on the 4th Floor, where I would mainly be based with all the relevant news desks. It was also the most secure floor in the building, as if anyone logged into a computer there, they could literally message 2 billion end users directly via Reuters systems, which at that time was 3000 Xtra.
The Editorial Programme in my opinion was unsurpassable. I did assignments across the major news desks such as World News, UK News, Entertainment and Sports, classified as general and political news, and Equities, Bonds, Energy, Commodities and Forex, classified as journalism. Though Reuters was globally famous for its political and war zone reporting, At that time, 80 percent of Reuters’ revenue came from financial journalism, hence the Canary Wharf HQ.
My highlights at Reuters Global HQ included seeing my byline in the world’s top media, and newspapers; writing and producing the first-ever news story for Reuters published simultaneously across the newswire, internet and broadcast (about a record-setting popstar); seeing your interviewing the British Minister of Health in charge of the National Health Service on United Nations Green opposite the Houses of Parliament: interviewing Indian cultural and cinematic icon Amitabh Bachchan at the House of Lords, and interviewing members of the public in Chester on the day British actor Daniel Craig was announced as James Bond, exactly 21 years ago today on October 14, 2025, and being told I should play Bond myself
Other highlights included attending on December 12, 2005, the first visit to inaugurate the new HQ and our newsroom by the British Head of State HM Queen Elizabeth II, her first visit to Reuters in three decades; the first visit to the new HQ by the British Head of Government Prime Minister Tony Blair on March 21, 2006, where he spoken about the War on Terror being “about a clash of civilisation”; being selected as a global marketing face for Reuters and its Graduate Programme; attending and presenting foe the flagship programmes at my alma mater, Oxford University, as part of the milkround for Reuters to recruit new talent from the university.
At the end of my first year, I was headhunted to leave the flagship programme and join Reuters as a fully fledged news producer; but despite the amazing opportunity, I continued and was assigned to Middle East HQ in the then-diplomatic and cultural hub in the region at the time, the ‘Mother of the World,’ Cairo, Egypt.
Before I left for Cairo, Reuters arranged for me to undertake a hostile environment course to prepare anyone entering a war or conflict zone to help prepare them. Cairo and Egypt proved to be much-loved, with some highlights including visiting the Presidential Palace of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak frequently for a churn of political press conferences; awaiting a one page communique from the Arab League near Tahrir Square; exploring sea fossils near the desert near Suez with famed Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass; and producing a primer story on the fortunes of Egyptian cinema since the iconic Omar Sharif era, including a world premiere at the Pyramids of Giza; and witnessing amusing reactions to Hollywood actor, George Clooney, then anointed People Magazine’s ‘Worlds Sexiest Man’, visiting Cairo to campaign for victims of the famine in Darfur, Sudan.
In March and April 2007, the final year of the programme, Global HQ at Reuters became very keen for me, without many specifics, for me to return to the UK for a full-time role in financial journalism. I much rather preferred to stay in the Middle East, but at that time, the offices were not as large, and hence neither were the number of requires roles.
However, what I did know was that the Middle East, that is in 2007, was on the cusp of a transformation; and for me, the following applied.
To quote the iconic movies, ‘Heat’: “For me, the action is the juice.”
I had to be in the action, in the field, for good or for worse, or as U.S. President Jefferson said, aspire to be ‘The Man in the Arena.’
So May 1, 2007, I resigned.
Two weeks later, on May 15, 2007, Canada’s The Thomson Corporation acquired the publicly traded British multinational Reuters Group Plc, owners of the news agency, in a deal valued at US$17.6 billion, with Thomson controlling about 53% of the new company, named Thomson Reuters.
In August 2007, I returned to one of my ancestral motherlands and place of childhood, the Arabian Peninsula, and more specifically to the emerging metropolis of Dubai.
Journalism here was more promotional as per the terrain. By February 2008, I was flying in a helicopter around the then-Burj Dubai, now Burj Khalifa, after it had become the world’s tallest man-made structure and over The World Islands after their completions.
Action. Juice. Field. Arena.
On April 17, 2008, Reuters Group Plc became defunct and Thomson Reuters was born.
On July 1, 2008, I commenced my tenure as a senior management adviser for the Middle East with Global Mandates for the strategic management consultancy firm, McKinsey & Company, as headhunted by its Global HQ in London, where I spent the whole of August at “The Firm’s” then-publicly discreet Global HQ, not in Washington D.C. in the US, not at its famed No. 1 Jermyn Street in front of the Trocadero in Piccadilly Circus, but rather an unmarked building at 30 Kensington Church Street.
Reuters was an amazing training ground, and it was an immense privilege to have worked there, especially, at that historic juncture. Today, as mentioned, as of June 2026, according to the Oxford University Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 54% of global news consumers use social media and video networks for news weekly, narrowly surpassing traditional media (51%) for the first time.
For Alpha1Strategy, I used my experience at Reuters to look at moving beyond communications to influence, and how the public, private and social sectors can navigate the external space and global media. Each month at Alpha1Strategy, we publish the Global Overview, a schedule of the world’s most important political, economic and cultural events, which came out as a result of the strategic planning work I used to do at Reuters.
For Alpha1Media, it gave me a solid grounding in news, media and journalism as well as what makes the world move in terms of news. Each month, at Alpha1Media, we publish the A1Film Preview, a schedule of the top global popular movies to be released in cinemas all over the world, and the A1Film Calendar, a schedule of the most critical events, festivals, milestones and anniversaries relating to global popular cinema, which also came out as a result of the strategic planning work I used to do at Reuters.
One of my predecessors on the Reuters Editorial programme had joined in 1931, where he was first trained to write professionally, before becoming a correspondent in London and Moscow. His name was Ian Fleming, the author of James Bond. On July 4, 2026, America’s 250th anniversary, I published my own science-fiction geopolitical technothriller, NANO (Technopolis), with the film project currently in advanced development.
For me as an alma artifex, Reuters as a news agency for journalism, at its core, was about “Telling Truth to Power,” seated across the desk, with trust and independence.
In contrast, and also for me as an alma artifex, McKinsey, as a strategic management consultancy was about “Advising Truth to Power” now seated beside, with trust and integrity.
In one of my current roles relating to public policy, it is then about ultimately “Empowering Truth.”
Nothing emerges from a vacuum.
Happy 175th Anniversary Alma Artifex, Reuters.