Reuters Holdings Plc has launched what it claims is the first full news service over the internet, with its web-enabled Business Briefing, the successor to the news service Textline. The Business Information division of the media company hopes the service will provide personalized news services across the corporate intranet and the internet, for companies or individuals that do not need the real time Financial Services that Reuters also offers. The main use it proposes is for businesses to track the news that affects them and their market sector. It believes the abundance of free news on the internet is driving forward the use of paid-for subscription services, and it expects businesses to pay a premium for high quality news. Business Briefing is the three year-old successor (CI No 2,392) to Textline, which Reuters has been lukewarm about for a while, and according to Michael Foster, the director of business information, Reuters is taking a business view as to whether Textline is a worthwhile service. The reciprocal news service agreements with media firms that currently operate with Textline will be also be re-negotiated and companies must have actual news to trade. Reuters expects significant double digit growth of around 20% in this sector of its business in the next year, which turned over 54m pounds last year. Reuters has had problems this year financially, with a profit slowdown announced in March (CI No 3,142) which, like many others, it attributed to the strength of sterling.
