Thomson Buys Xinhua News; DJ in Play

Shanghai-based Xinhua sold its news bureaus in Tokyo, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sydney and Seoul, along with 21 journalists spread between the seven locations, to Thomson Financial for an undisclosed sum. The deal was effective Friday, June 1.

Reuters, which is merging with Thomson Corp., already has bureaus in all seven cities.

Xinhua retains more than 80 journalists across bureaus in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei, and will use them to focus on China, where the vendor has a "competitive edge," and on creating more in-depth analysis instead of just basic equity news, officials say.

"We position ourselves as a China information provider. Also, our company strategy is to bring news of China's financial markets to the world," a Xinhua spokesperson says. "It makes sense to centralize our resources."

However, Thomson views the region as a growth market and sees increasing demand for Asian news, a spokesperson says. The vendor will combine the newly acquired bureaus with its existing Thomson Financial News operations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Tokyo, Mumbai and Bangalore. Overall, the vendor has around 500 newswire staff delivering content to 25,000 Thomson data desktop products. The new Asia content will be carried on services including Thomson One and the UK-focused GlobalTopic workstation.

A Thomson spokesperson says that when the vendor became aware that Xinhua wanted to divest its non-China news, Thomson—which has carried Xinhua news content for many years—saw an opportunity to expand its reach in a key market. "Asia is an important component of our news strategy. We need to have coverage in that market," the spokesperson says.

The two will continue to carry each other's news, under a licensing agreement that will see Xinhua provide Thomson with China-specific news and Thomson provide non-China news to Xinhua.

"For clients who want both China and greater Asia news, Xinhua will provide China news and—through licensing agreements with Thomson—will continue to provide clients with greater Asia news," the Xinhua spokesperson says. "It's a match because we want to focus on China while they want to expand…. If our clients want more Asia news in addition to China news, we will partner with Thomson."

The deal will not affect other vendors, such as Reuters and Bloomberg, which also carry Xinhua's news, according to the Xinhua spokesperson. "This deal will add news to our old clients. Our services will continue and old clients will not be affected," the spokesperson says.

Separately last week, Dow Jones announced that majority shareholders the Bancroft family are to meet News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch to explore the potential for a sale, following News Corp.'s $60-per-share offer for Dow Jones last month.

In a brief statement, Dow Jones says that the family is receptive to other offers.

Wendy Mock with Jean-Paul Carbonnier

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