Bloomberg hires NYT editor to oversee economics coverage

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Bloomberg News has hired Paula Dwyer, an editor in the Washington bureau of The New York Times, to be its senior economics editor.

Dwyer, who will start Oct. 5, also spent 20 years with BusinessWeek in its New York and Washington bureaus.

“I had a fantastic job at the New York Times, managing coverage of economics, health care, Congress and regulatory affairs out of the Washington bureau,” says Dwyer in an e-mail to Talking Biz News. “But the Times is not growing — it’s not shrinking like many newspapers but it’s barely holding even — and the upward mobility has all but stopped.”

Dwyer says she was attracted to Bloomberg’s Washington bureau because of Al Hunt, formerly of The Wall Street Journal, who is executive Washington editor.

“I haven’t started the new job yet, so I don’t have any plans for changes in coverage,” says Dwyer. “My job is supposed to be editing enterprise stories, so my hope is that I can work with the reporters and other editors to produce compelling, must-read stories that both explain Washington and make readers say ‘I didn’t know that.'”

Dwyer is the co-author, with former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt, of a book titled “Take on the Street: How to Fight for your Financial Future.” At the Times. she had also been deputy editor for enterprise on the business desk in New York.Â