Reuters: 6 trends in business information services

Reuters highlighted six trends in its professional legal, corporate, and tax and accounting professional services.

Technology and societal forces are changing how work is done and who does it, altering the professional markets we serve.

Increasingly, clients -professionals in law firms, accounting firms, government agencies and corporations- are demanding solutions from Reuters to help them adapt.

They are under pressure from customers, internal and external, to improve efficiency and demonstrate the value of their services.

They also increasingly must use technology to maintain a competitive advantage, delivering a differentiated work product faster.

So far, Covid-19 has accelerated these trends, as professionals increasingly switch to more digital experiences, cloud-based products, and flexible work arrangements.

Reuters

Over the past year, Reuters has witnessed accelerated interest and the adoption of the following forces in the “Big 3” client segments (legal, corporate, and tax and accounting professionals) it serves:

• Digitization processing and task automation to eliminate complexity and automate routine workflows.
• Provision of digital services to allow professionals to interact differently with their clients.
• Governments demanding the adoption and acceleration of digital services.
• Remote work powered by wide adoption of collaboration software and changing attitudes.
• Demographic change, which creates new expectations regarding traditional career paths.
• Continuous regulatory change that creates opportunities for new market participants.

News

Relative to its Reuters News business, the media sector continues to transform, and the traditional news agency business is in decline.

While demand in the financial professionals segment is growing, Reuters has limited ability to participate in various sectors due to its exclusive agreement with Refinitiv.

In the business-to-business segment, opportunities in the conferences and events segment were significantly impacted in 2020 by Covid-19.

However, the company believes that this impact is temporary and that the demand for virtual events and their related content will continue to grow, while the demand for in-person events will return once the restrictions of the pandemic have been eased.

It continues to expect revenue decline in its global printing business as customers migrate to online delivery and other customers experience budget challenges or are unable to accept shipments due to office closures.