Reuters, journalists say farewell to Fleet Street

"It's become an electronic industry now, not so much with people going out into the towns and streets and telephoning their copy back to the office. There was no need for it to be on Fleet Street."

But many who worked on Fleet Street lament the loss of the excess and collaborative atmosphere of the former publishing hub.

"It was very much an idea factory," said Bill Hagerty, former deputy editor of the Daily Mirror and editor of The People, a Sunday newspaper. "Everybody would drink together, and you would come away from having a drink with friends with an idea that would end up being an article or series in the newspaper."

The Associated Press was on Fleet Street, sharing a building with the Press Association, until 1951, when it moved a few streets away to Faringdon Road. The AP is now headquartered nearby on Norwich Street.

Reuters organized a service Wednesday afternoon at St. Bride's as a farewell to the area.

"It seems funny that for such an unholy profession, they're having a farewell ceremony blessed by God," Molloy said.

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of media giant News Corp. and widely credited with beginning the British newspaper industry's shift outside the city center, was tapped to read the lesson at the service, said Reuters spokeswoman Yasmeen Khan. About 300 people, including newspaper editors and Reuters staff past and present, were invited for the ceremony, she added.

Commemorating an era
Khan said the service would commemorate Reuters' departure from Fleet Street, which will be completed in August, as well as the area's overall demise as a news hub. "We are the last big media company to go," she said.

Reuters is moving all its 2,500 London staff to an office in east London's Docklands district as part of a cost-cutting program. Its offices at 85 Fleet Street house management staff while other employees, including editorial staff, are based in five other buildings around the area.

DC Thomson, Dundee-based publisher of a stable of Scottish newspapers, still employs 15 staff at its office on Fleet Street. Agence France-Presse also has an office at 72 Fleet St.

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