Autopsies gone, updates reduced at Bloomberg

For the thousands of current and former Bloomberg News reporters and editors, the “autopsy” is a word often reviled for what it means.

If you were a Bloomberg reporter, say, writing about Microsoft’s proposal to acquire Yahoo, your story might get picked up in the New York Times. But if the Times decided to run a wire story from Reuters, Dow Jones or the Associated Press, you had to “autopsy” your story, explaining why your story wasn’t picked over the competition.

For Bloomberg editor in chief Matthew WInkler, the exercise was a way to keep reporters and editors on their toes. But to many of the rank and file, the exercise was futile. Their reasoning was that sometimes business desk editors at papers like the Times pick up wire copy for reasons having nothing to do with the content of the story.

Now, those autopsies are gone, according to staff members. At the Monday announcement of the naming of new chief content officer Norman Pearlstine, the autopsy was killed.

In addition, we’re hearing that the numerous updates that many Bloomberg stories received will be dramatically reduced. Now, major stories will have no more than three updates.

Previously, it was common for major stories to have as many as six or seven updates within a 12-hour span.