Reuters and the idea of a British Commonwealth news agency in the aftermath of World War II

Abstract

After World War II, Reuters was struggling to maintain its status as a leading world news agency. The prospect of Indian independence threatened a crucial source of income. Reuters faced vigorous competition from US agency, Associated Press, which was in a phase of rapid global expansion. In response, Reuters sought to consolidate its position by re-constituting itself as a ‘British Commonwealth’ agency which would be jointly owned by the national press associations of the UK, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa. This article analyses Reuters’ Commonwealth plan and the reasons for its very limited success.