Bloomberg View’s aggression spurs NYT into action

Jeff Bercovici of Forbes writes Wednesday about how Bloomberg L.P.‘s launching of a new opinion service has spooked the New York Times.

Bercovici writes, “You already know that Bloomberg hired David Shipley, the paper’s deputy editorial page editor, to head up its launch of a new opinion service, Bloomberg View. That was enough of a blow to the Times, where Shipley is held in high esteem for his ability to coax op-ed contributions from prominent and diverse personages. But the hurt got worse when Shipley turned around and hired two of his deputies, Mary Duenwald and Toby Harshaw, to come with him. (I’ve left messages for Duenwald and Harshaw and emailed a Bloomberg spokesperson to confirm the hirings but haven’t heard back yet.) ‘To take two people who know how to do what he does — it’s devastating,’ says a Times source.

“Bloomberg’s unforeseen aggression — no one at the Times had heard about Bloomberg View until Shipley tendered his resignation — has spooked the Times into action. According to the source, the ‘reinvention’ of the ‘Week in Review’ section announced last month was conceived in response to the perceived threat from Bloomberg. Shipley’s successor at the op-ed page, Trish Hall, is spearheading that overhaul. She’s said to be ‘a genius’ at re-launching sections, and was the creator of the Sunday ‘Escapes’ section.

“Will the Times’s anxiety prove justified when Bloomberg View makes its debut? Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute, one of the journalism professors I spoke to yesterday about Mike Bloomberg’s conflict-laden dual role as mayor and media mogul, doubts it will.”

Read more here.