Reuters Fleeing Fleet Street to Consolidate in Canary Wharf
The slog down to The Blackfriar for a pint or up the alley to Samuel Johnson's home just got a little longer for denizens of Reuters Group PLC, as the global content company announced a new lease on 281,000 square feed of space in the Canary Wharf district - enough to consolidate ten of its offices scattered widely throughout London into one facility just blocks away from its global operations center. Reuters is the last of the British publishers to leave the traditional home of the industry. As much as the very historic headquarters on Fleet Street will be sorely missed by some, the balkanization of its management offices had long played a very detrimental effect on a company trying to shape itself into a 21st century content company, and distanced itself from many of the major global financial companies that have settled into the Docklands vicinity. Consolidation on new neutral ground at 3 Times Square has helped the efficiency of its US headquarters operations greatly, to be sure. Hopefully the best of its 150-year history will not be forgotten in this move, but history, after all, does not pay the rent.