Bloomberg increasing presence in Washington

Harry Jaffe, the national editor of the Washingtonian, notes that Bloomberg is expanding its operations in its Washington, D.C., bureau to increase its presence in the political coverage arena.

Jaffe writes, “Bloomberg News reporter Michael Forsythe wrote a solid investigative story Friday, pointing out that campaign contributions are pouring in to members of Congress, such as Tom DeLay and Bob Ney, who have been linked to lobbyist Jack Abramoff. And Heidi Przybyla wrote a great story about George Bush’s poll numbers.

“Trouble is, few in Washington could read the stories.

“Bloomberg pieces good enough to make page one of the Washington Post evaporate in cyberspace after a short life on Bloomberg.com.

“If you are one of the 186,000 subscribers with a Bloomberg-issued terminal—mostly business and investor types—you might have read them. And if you are one of the 900 or so Washington heavy hitters who receive free, daily e-mailed lists of Bloomberg’s stories, you had a chance to read the stories.

“‘It’s the invisible empire,’ U.S. News executive editor Brian Kelly says of Bloomberg.

“But the way [Al] Hunt sees it, the empire is about to bust out in a visible way, especially in Washington.

“‘A lot of news organizations are cutting back in Washington bureaus,’ says Hunt. ‘We’re going to be increasing our coverage.’

Jaffe also notes that Hunt, who joined Bloomberg in January 2005 as Washington managing editor, has hired Rich Miller from BusinessWeek and Matt Benjamin from U.S. News.

Read the article here.