±±¾©Èü³µpk10

The high level departures include Markets chief marketing officer Lee Ann Daly and Reuters Media president Chris Ahearn.

Daly started her career at Grey advertising agency in the US and later became executive vice president of marketing at broadcaster ESPN. She has been with Thomson Reuters since January 2007.

The other senior executives known to be leaving the Markets division are investment and advisory president Eric Frank, global sales and customer service managing director Joerg Floeck, and global head of human resources John Reid-Dodick.

Sources told Media Week today’s enforced departures were directly responsible for the surprise exit of Markets leader Wenig as the unit, which serves financial institutions and Reuters news wires, comes under increasing pressure over what has been described as "somewhat slower than anticipated" growth.

Earlier this year, following a 7% drop in underlying profit in 2010.

The Markets division was born from the original Reuters stable of staff following its merger with Canadian giant Thomson in 2008.

The job losses come on the back of a year of heavy investment at the company, which included its biggest marketing campaign in its 159-year-old history to promote the launch of its financial desktop, Eikon.

The group hoped Eikon would "redefine the way financial professionals work" throughout the world’s major markets, but to-date sales are well below expectations.

The Eikon product had been in development for three and half years, and the marketing was created alongside it. The focus was to make a difference in how people trade.

Under the tagline of "New Era. New Tools," the Markets division has been responsible for several global product launches since the merger with Thomson.

They were said to reflect the way the company is changing the way it brings new products to market and were promoted as including key experiential marketing and immersive environments, designed to position Thomson Reuters closer to the consumer.