[GTranslate]LONDON – For the first time in its 170-year history, the British news agency Reuters will be led by a woman. Italian, to be precise. Alessandra Galloni (in the ‘tweet’ above), 47 years old, born in Rome: she will replace Stephen J. Adler who will retire in the next few days after leading the editorial office for the last ten years.
Graduated from Harvard University in 1995 and with a master’s degree from the London School of Economics in 2002, Alessandra Galloni speaks four languages and has been with Reuters since 2013, after working for 13 years at the Wall Street Journal as a correspondent from London, Paris and Rome. At the British agency – which is part of Thomson Reuters Corp. and has a worldwide staff of around 2,450 journalists – he served as global editor-in-chief supervising journalists in 200 locations around the world.
Her priorities in the new role as director will be the enhancement of Reuters digital activities and agency’s events.
“For 170 years, Reuters has set the standard for reliable, trustworthy and global information”, Galloni said in the announcement of his appointment, which will go live on April 19. “It is an honor to lead a world-class newsroom full of talented, dedicated and inspiring journalists.”
Many are celebrating it, even in Italy, starting with the Undersecretary of State for European Affairs, Vincenzo Amendola, who on Twitter defines her as “Italian pride”.
The hunt for Reuters’ new publisher has come as other major media outlets are tackling the newsroom succession. Both the Washington Post, where executive director Marty Baron retired in February, and the Los Angeles Times, where Norman Pearlstine resigned as executive director in December, are currently looking for their replacements.
