When Bloomberg took on Nikkei in Japan

Former Bloomberg News executive Ted Merz writes about when the news organization entered Japan and took on Nikkei.

Merz writes, “It was going to be a steep climb as Nikkei had 1,000 reporters covering Japanese companies versus Bloomberg’s six.

“At that time, companies ‘released’ earnings by dropping a sheet of paper into a ‘mailbox’ for each media firm at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Nikkei’s box was first in line; Bloomberg’s was last, giving Nikkei a big advantage.

“Moreover, the exchange allocated desks to a dozen Nikkei reporters and located them closer to the boxes than Bloomberg’s single desk.

“The reporters would take the sheets of paper and rush to their phones to call in the results.

“Bloomberg’s plan called for the installation of a high-speed Hitachi fax machine and the hiring of almost two dozen skilled typists to work in a temporary newsroom set up in a windowless warehouse near the Tsukiji fish market.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.