Alessandra Galloni Becomes The First Female Editor-In-Chief Of Reuters

Reuters names Alessandra Galloni its new Editor-in-chief. She is the first woman to hold this post at Reuters. She will be taking over this month from outgoing Editor-in-chief Stephen J Adler.

In its 170 years of history, Reuters has never had a woman lead the newsroom. All that is set to change with the appointment of Galloni, who was previously the Global Managing Editor of the company since 2015. Reuters is one of the biggest news organisations with about 2,450 journalists in 200 locations.

Galloni, who is a native of Rome, has been working in Reuter's London office and will succeed Stephen J Adler, who not only led it for about a decade but also led the agency to win seven Pulitzer Prizes. Under his leadership, Reuters also won two awards for breaking-news photography in 2009 and 2020.

Galloni said in a statement that Reuters has set the standard for trusted, independent and global reporting for 170 years and it's an honour to lead the world-class newsroom with talented, inspiring and dedicated journalists.

The 47-year-old has worked with Reuters' Italian news desk at the beginning of her career. She then worked as a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal for 13 years before rejoining Reuters in 2013 as the editor of its Southern Europe Bureau.

The president of Reuters, Michael Friedenberg said that Galloni had "a compelling vision for the future of the news." He also praised Galloni by saying that she was the standout candidate in the recruitment process which was extensive and a highly competitive process and featured many impressive candidates.

Galloni has received the 2020 Lawrence Minard Editor Award from the Gerald Loeb Foundation. While Reuters has announced its new editor-in-chief, other major newsrooms are still in the search for their next top editors. Norman Pearlstine, the newsroom editor of Los Angeles Times retired in December and the executive editor of The Washington Post left his post in February this year. Both of the agencies are in the search of their replacements.

Image Credit: Reuters