Bloomberg News? Terminals Win

Signs of Change in News Mission at Bloomberg

Amy Chozick, Nathaniel Popper, Edward Wong and David Carr, The New York Times;

"The growth of Bloomberg’s terminal sales worldwide had softened over the last several years, and had dropped significantly in the last year in mainland China, a vast untapped market. Bloomberg News’s tough reporting last year about China had prompted officials to cancel subscriptions for the lucrative terminals, frustrating the company’s Beijing sales staff."

Bloomberg journalism: is it a victim?:

"...at the Hong Kong bureau of Bloomberg News, anxious journalists were still dealing with the implications of a decision by top editors weeks earlier not to publish a hard-hitting article about a Chinese tycoon. Bloomberg employees had asserted in published reports that Matthew Winkler, the editor in chief, had justified killing the piece, citing concerns that Bloomberg journalists would be expelled from China in retaliation."

"No longer an employee":

"Later that night, just hours after (CEO Daniel L.) Doctoroff raised his glass, the company confirmed that one of the writers of the article was no longer an employee."

Can Bloomberg, a media giant, balance journalism and business?

In China, at least, the answer appears champagne-glass clear.

The machines come first.

Those Bloomberg financial terminals.

They are huge business.

Read the full story linked above for context.

Profits from financial terminals overwhelm those from news.

So, Bloomberg journalists, know your priorities.

Business first. Before news.

That's the story.

Questions?