Paul Julius Reuter, the founder of Reuters, the world news and information organisation, died on 25 February 1899. For the modern Company, which has grown out of all recognition since its birth in 1851, it is an opportunity to take stock. When Paul Julius Reuter died in Nice, the 19th century was about to come to an end. It was a century of entrepreneurship and rapidly advancing technology, during which Reuters built a world-wide reputation for competence and truthfulness in news.

100 years later, in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century, Reuters transformed itself through bold pioneering ventures, which created a range of electronic information products for the world's rapidly growing financial markets. As it enters the 21st century, Reuters is a large, dynamic, profitable company contending for first place among world leaders in the business of information.

Baron Paul Julius von Reuter (1816-99), founder of Reuter’s Telegraph Company, b. Kassel, Germany, was born Israel Beer Josaphat. First a bank clerk, he started in 1849 a pigeon post service, which bridged a gap in the telegraph line between Aachen, Germany, and Verviers, Belgium.

In October 1851 Paul Julius Reuter, opened an office in the City of London which transmitted stock market quotations between London and Paris via the new Calais-Dover cable. Two years earlier he had used pigeons to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service which operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed.

Reuters, as the agency soon became known, eventually extended its service to the whole British press as well as to other European countries. It also expanded the content to include general and economic news from all around the world. The reputation of its service was enhanced by a succession of reporting scoops. For example, in 1865 Reuters was first in Europe with news of President Lincoln?s assassination in the United States.

As overland telegraph and undersea cable facilities developed, the business expanded beyond Europe to include the Far East in 1872 and South America in 1874. In 1883 Reuters began to use a ?column printer? to transmit messages electrically to London newspapers and in 1923 pioneered the use of radio to transmit news internationally. In 1927 it introduced the teleprinter to distribute news to London newspapers.

In 1925 the Press Association, the UK press agency, took a majority holding in Reuters Ltd. and in 1939 the company moved its corporate headquarters to its present location at 85 Fleet Street, London.

During both World Wars, Reuters came under pressure from the British government to serve British interests. In 1941 Reuters deflected this pressure by restructuring itself as a private company. The new owners, the British national and provincial press, formed the Reuters Trust, with independent trustees. The Trust preserves Reuters independence and neutrality. The principles of the Trust were maintained and the power to enforce them was strengthened when Reuters became a public company in 1984.

Reuters continued to modernise rapidly in the latter half of the 20th century. The introduction of a succession of computerised products for international traders transformed the business. The Stockmaster service (1964), which transmitted financial data internationally, quickly proved a success and began this transformation.

In 1973 a further innovative development was the launch of the Reuter Monitor which created an electronic marketplace for foreign exchange. This service expanded to carry news and prices covering securities, commodities and money and was further enhanced in 1981 with the launch of the Reuter Monitor Dealing Service.

Reuters continued to grow rapidly, widening the range of its business products and expanding its global reporting network for media, financial and economic services. In 1995, Reuters established its ‘Greenhouse Fund’ to take minority investments in a range of start-up technology companies, initially in the United States. Reuters announced in early 2000 a range of major initiatives designed to accelerate its use of internet technologies, open new markets and migrate its core business to an internet-based model.

In October 2001 Reuters completed the largest acquisition in its history, buying most of the assets of Bridge Information Systems. In March 2003, Reuters acquired Multex.com, Inc., a provider of global financial information.

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