On Tuesday at the editorial offices of Reuters in New York about 90 editorial staff threw an "organised sick-out," protesting at the snail's pace of contract negotiations between the company and their union, the New York Newspaper Guild.
The matter was swept aside as a little local difficulty and a team of non-unionised staff and editorial managers continued to pump out the news during the dispute. The product did not suffer.
Back in London, it is tempting to speculate that Peter Job, who has now notched up a decade in the chief executive's seat at Reuters, probably fancies throwing a quick sickie of his own.
Hardly a day goes by without a story appearing somewhere about how this information organisation is struggling to get a handle on how it should adapt to the internet age. Stories on spin-offs - whether the portfolio of start-up investments or the Instinet equity broking division - are re-cooked and re-syndicated, and all the while there is an unending stream of rumours about staff defections, low morale and the like.
All this has been fuelled by "real" events, such as this week's sudden and unexplained departure of information division chief John Parcell, who is leaving Reuters after 30 years with the firm. He was the internal favourite to take over when Mr Job retires, scheduled for summer next year. A news organisation should know that the suppression of facts simply cranks up a story, and the upshot now in the City is that when analysts are asked to put a price on Reuters stock, they routinely talk in terms of break-up values.
Yet this picture of corporate uncertainty fuelling internal crisis is not quite reflected in the performance of the share price. Mr Job himself stepped into the market back in October, spending £50,000 of his own money on shares then priced at 465p apiece. Three months on, he has doubled his money.
Some of this performance can be put down to takeover speculation, and we have already had the predictable snap on Reuters setting up a "bid defence committee" - which must be just about obligatory for all Footsie companies in the current climate.
There is a belief in certain high offices at 85 Fleet Street that some of the recent editorial coverage of its affairs is perhaps slightly tainted (paranoia is just another symptom of the smudging of lines of competition).
But it is fair to say that in recent coverage of this company's affairs there have been precious few attempts to explain just how powerful Reuters is when it comes to collecting and disseminating news and financial data. As a brand it carries an aura of "trust" which is unmatched by any of its competitors. In any newsroom, if Reuters spells a name one way and, say, Bloomberg another, the former will be printed. This is one piece of "old media" which is being substantially undervalued.
Twisted tips
It's a tricky business, tipping stocks. And in current market conditions, following the wrong tipster can prove very painful for investors - as quite a few readers of the Daily Mirror discovered yesterday.
On Tuesday, the newspaper's City Slickers column, aimed at Britain's growing hordes of amateur punters, brought us news that Alan Sugar's Viglen Technology was getting its internet act together and the shares subsequently doubled in price as the story proved correct.
So, yesterday's Mirror brought its readers another couple of business exclusives: Dixons boss Sir Stanley Kalms was reported to be lining up a bid for Electronics Boutiques, a little chain of computer games shops, while David Lloyd's MV Sport had apparently "won the contract to design, construct and have total control of" a new website for the current school playground cult game Pokemon. A Dixons spokesman had to be wheeled out to deny the Electronics Boutique story, while MV Sports chose to issue a formal statement. Never mind that there are thousands of Pokemon sites on the web, MV has not got a contract to design and build a new one. All that has happened is that it has applied for one of the licenses to make Pokemon branded products.
These might be shrugged off as a couple of loose shots - except that real people are getting hit. With so many inexperienced investors now following such wayward stock market tips, a huge transfer of wealth is under way - from the public to a small group of City professionals who have traditionally controlled trading in small and illiquid shares.
It is worth noting the Mirror first tipped Electronics Boutique when shares were close to 100p. Yesterday, the price spiked to 37p in the morning before falling back to 32p. MV Sports is a so-called "penny stock," quoted at 3p and of interest only to hardened market gamblers. As for Viglen, the £125m Mr Sugar (a Mirror columnist) made on Tuesday as the shares surged had shrunk by £10m by the close yesterday.
