Isabell Huelsen and Holger Stark of German magazine Der Spiegel take a look at Bloomberg — particularly its media operations — since company founder Michael Bloomberg returned to run the company.
Huelsen and Stark write, “An anecdote from the awarding of this year’s Pulitzer Prizes illustrates what little regard Michael Bloomberg holds for that which many of his journalists consider to be sacrosanct. In April, Bloomberg News became the recipient of America’s top journalism prize for the first time in the company’s history. Journalist Zachary Mider had won the award for his reporting on loopholes that enable US companies to systematically dodge taxes.
“The afternoon news broke of the prize, Mider stood together with colleagues in the newsroom on the fifth-floor of the Lexington Avenue offices. Colleagues gathered spontaneously and gave the reporter a champagne toast. The only person who didn’t seem to be in a cheerful mood was Bloomberg himself. One person present asked Bloomberg what it felt like to win the Pulitzer for the first time. Bloomberg reportedly answered that he had the impression that it is ‘apparently important to worry about these types of things.’
“Neither Bloomberg, Grauer nor Micklethwait attended the gala dinner at Columbia University, which administers the prize. And when a group of employees celebrated the award at the tony Spotted Pig restaurant in New York’s West Village, Bloomberg was also a no-show. Officially, Bloomberg himself does not want to comment, but his people say that he doesn’t go to gala dinners like the one at Columbia out of principle and that the party at the Spotted Pig had been an internal event for the reporting team. Mike and his firm, however, are ‘extremely proud of the Pulitzer win and we aim to win more,’ a Bloomberg representative says.
“‘It makes me sad to see what has happened to Bloomberg in the past year,’ says former culture editor Jeremy Gerard. He says that Bloomberg’s new direction has had ‘a damaging effect on the journalism.’ Another former section editor says that, increasingly, Bloomberg is moving away from the idea of journalism as a public service. ‘Bloomberg’s aspiration is shrinking back to what it used to be: a newsletter for bankers.'”
Read more here.
