* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Roger Jeal, one of the trainers of TRF's Writing Business and Financial News course gave us an important piece of advice on the first day of the course. It went something like this; "Don?t believe you'll be able to apply what we teach you once you're back in your jobs".
Roger Jeal, one of the trainers of TRF’s Writing Business and Financial News course gave us an important piece of advice on the first day of the course. It went something like this; “Don´t believe you’ll be able to apply what we teach you once you’re back in your jobs”.
He was right. Not only because each media outlet that we work for has its own rules and every editor has his own working mood, but also because after spending a great and hard working week in London with some of the best colleagues I have ever had, I realized that the standards of journalism at Reuters are unique, and very difficult to find in other places.
For me it was like reading The Bible again – returning to the source with the old school prophets. Roger Jeal and Richard Waddington were awesome trainers. Roger focused on teaching us about stock markets, currency, and bonds, whileRichard gave us extraordinary (and tough) feedback on the stories we produced every day from our arrival at Reuters astonishing building in Canary Wharf.
From the window you could see JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Royal Bank of Scotland, and many other companies that reminded you were inside the core of financial world. Meanwhile, inside the training room, we were working really hard 7 or 8 hours a day solving challenging assignments with Britain´s newspapers on the table and free coffee to enjoy with my classmates in the breaks.
There are so many things I´ve learned in those days that I can´t mention them all. But one thing I can´t erase from my mind the day a Reuters Finance editor came to talk with us and insisted on the fact that we have to push our sources to get really good information. “You have to push them”, the editor kept saying, hitting the table with his fist to emphasize the idea. That´s motivation.
All the staff were amazing;TrustMedia’s Tracy and Belen who looked after us at every moment, the editors who shared their experience with us at the training room, even Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO, Monique Villa, found time to come and talk with us in spite of her busy agenda. She was nice and open to our questions in the final day.
Now I´m in Buenos Aires, back in the routine, and trying to apply Roger’s advice every day I go out for a story. And even though it’s very difficult some days, now I know that it’s all about commitment and hard work. After all, that’s what a Reuters journalist would think.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
