News wire Thomson Reuters is to scale down its Chinese-language news site, according to an internal email obtained by HKFP on Tuesday.

“We are reorganizing our Beijing editorial consumer operation to deploy more translation and editing resources to our professional news products from Reuters.cn,” the email from Digital Executive Editor Dan Colarusso said.

reuters chinese

“We will keep a small team running the website, which has been unavailable to readers inside China, and will automate a large portion of the site around our core financial coverage. This team will also experiment with various social media platforms to best reach Chinese readers,” the email said… “We [will] continue to pursue revenue opportunities with Chinese marketing clients.”

A Reuters spokesperson confirmed to HKFP that the website team would be restructured. “We remain totally committed to reporting on stories from the country, including on cn.reuters.com,” they added.

The founding editor of cn.reuters.com, Wang Feng, expressed his sadness about the move on Twitter.

In 2013, Bloomberg reportedly scaled back its China news coverage after a series of articles about the wealth of Chinese leaders infuriated Beijing. Bloomberg Chairman Peter T.Grauer said that the company should have focussed on its core business news to avoid jeopardising its sales potential in the mainland.

HKFP has reached out to Reuters for comment.

Additional reporting: Tom Grundy.

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Catherine is a Canadian journalist and photographer who lived in Beijing for almost two years, working in TV and online media. Aside from Hong Kong and mainland affairs, she is also interested in urban spaces, art and feminism. She holds a BA in Literature and Art History from the University of British Columbia.