Bloomberg feature writer in Paris is gone

JimRomenesko.com has a post on Monday that divulges that former Bloomberg News feature writer Craig Copetas, who was based in Paris, is no longer with the company.

The post reads, “His brief was to schmooze with the rich, target them as his readership and travel the world in pursuit of distractions for the wealthy. Resulted a series of stories about luxury cars and mini-submarines built to measure for billionaires who have everything, let alone restaurants that cost an arm and a leg. But he was also in the first wave of reporters into Iraq in 2003, embedded with invading troops.

“For years, he was a Winkler favorite until he went to Dubai. Some three years ago, Copetas angered the local Bloomberg bosses in the emirate – anxious to keep the peace with the many millionaire Bloomberg customers there – by seeking to uncover tales of human rights abuses, including alleged police torture with the complicity of a member of the royal family, and persecution of foreign businessmen.

“Suddenly, Winkler’s door slammed in his face.

“The only mystery is why it took Winkler so long to downgrade Copetas to a non-person and get him out. The actual meeting to fire him, in mid-January, came as a surprise, apparently. His team leader and an HR person turned up unannounced in Paris to tell him it was over.”

Read more here.