Reuters to Distribute Next Media Animation's News Direct 3-D Animated Videos

LONDON, Jul 12 (Marketwire) --
Today Reuters, the world's largest multimedia news provider, announces
the launch of an exclusive partnership with Next Media Animation.
Beginning the week of July 16th, Reuters will offer its clients
approximately 20 animated news stories a week, produced by Next Media
Animation's News Direct service, helping to reconstruct the story behind
the main news events of the week and complementing the award-winning
video, picture and text content produced by Reuters.

The innovative and engaging News Direct animated videos offer visual
chronologies of major events that take place away from cameras, such as
the sinking of the Costa Concordia in January 2012. The animations also
provide clear illustration of news that is highly technical, such as the
Elgin North Sea gas leak, and help explain stories that are conceptual in
nature, such as the future of high speed travel. Accompanied by audio
narration and natural sound, the 30-60 second stories will now be
available through Reuters powerful distribution network.

Next Media Animation has gained widespread acclaim for its short and
quirky animated videos, many of which have gone viral and have received
millions of views. The News Direct service exemplifies the company's
ability to also animate the news stories of the day. From the moment a
top story breaks, the Next Media animation team begins its end-to-end
process, working from concept to production and making videos available
to customers in a matter of hours. Reuters will partner exclusively with
Next Media to distribute its 3-D animated news videos in all global
markets, with the exception of Japan and Taiwan.

"Our partnership with Next Media Animation has allowed us to a create and
shape a video solution that enables broadcast and online publishers to
illustrate every angle of a story, adding depth to our reporting when
video from the scene is not available," commented Owen Wyatt, Head of
Video, Reuters. "This service will enable our customers to streamline
their workflows, add colour to in-house graphics and access compelling
and timely animations to support their programming."

Jimmy Lai, Founder, Next Media Animation says: "We are truly excited to
partner with Reuters in offering our news animations on the powerful and
innovative Reuters distribution network. Our goal is to complement the
world class content offered by Reuters in delivering leading edge
solutions to newsrooms around the world."

For further insight into this exciting content, please view this video.

About Reuters
Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters,
is the world's largest international multimedia news provider reaching
more than 1 billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business,
financial, national, and international news to professionals via Thomson
Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations, and directly to
consumers at Reuters.com.

About Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of
intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine
industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical
information to leading decision makers in the financial and risk, legal,
tax and accounting, intellectual property and science and media markets,
powered by the world's most trusted news organization. With headquarters
in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson
Reuters employs approximately 60,000 people and operates in over 100
countries. For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com.

About Next Media Animation
Next Media Animation (NMA) is one of Asia's
largest full-service 3D animation studios and was founded in 2008 in
Taipei, Taiwan. As a leader in the animation industry, Next Media
Animation's team of 500 animators produce high-quality, informative
animated graphics for broadcasters and online publishers worldwide. NMA's
News Direct animations have been used by national broadcasters such as
Fox News and BBC, metro broadcasters such as KDVR, WKYC, WUSA and WCSH,
and online media such as The Daily Telegraph, The Globe and Mail, Bild,
Der Spiegel, The Denver Post, The Huffington Post and Wired Magazine,
among others. For more information, please visit
http://newsdirect.nma.com.tw/.

Press Release PDF
http://hugin.info/142273/R/1626328/520285.pdf

CONTACT

Reuters

Jo Crosby
PR Manager, Media & Editorial, EMEA
T: +44 (0) 20 7542 9868
E: joanne.crosby@thomsonreuters.com

Chris Artis
PR Specialist
T: +1 646 223 8149
E: Christopher.artis@thomsonreuters.com

Next Media Animation

Michael Logan
Content and Business Development Manager
T: +886 988 127 613
E: michaellogan@nma.com.tw

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