Reuters in Australia: The Supply and Exchange of News, 1859-1877
Author(s)
Putnis, Peter
Abstract
Attempts by the international news agency Reuters to break into the Australian news market begin in the early 1860’s. The provision of telegraph cable lines to Australia, initially from Bombay and then in 1871 with a direct cable link to Britain, provided the impetus for entering into agreements with Australian press representatives to provide international and British news summaries for Australasian consumption. Initial agency agreements in 1861, brokered through the Australian telegraphic agency Greville and Bird, faced competition from rival operations established by the Argus and Sydney Morning Herald. In 1871 an agreement was made between Reuters and the Argus and Sydney Morning Herald syndicate, which enmeshed Reuters in local rivalries and press politics and highlighted resistance to Reuters’s “news values” and methods of syndicated global circulation of generic news. The result was a breakdown in cooperative activity and a move by Reuters to reorganize its news gathering and dissemination activity in wake of the types of resistance encountered in international markets like Australia.
