Bloomberg layoffs total 55, hit DC and sports desk hardest

Layoffs at Bloomberg’s editorial operations began Tuesday morning and totaled 55 in the United States — much less than the 80 to 100 estimates that had been reported earlier this month.

The cuts hit the Washington newsroom and the sports desk the hardest. Bloomberg had also conducted some layoffs in Washington in August 2014. Bloomberg News had also made some layoffs in November 2013.

One staffer who remained at Bloomberg said the layoffs were lower than expected because of a number of voluntary departures and retirements in recent weeks. The overall layoffs around the globe were approximately 90.

Dawn Kopecki, a reporter in the Washington bureau who wrote a memo this summer about the problems in its operation, was among those laid off.

Among those laid off Tuesday was David J. Lynch, a senior writer with Bloomberg News in Washington, D.C., focusing on the intersection of politics and economics. Previously, he covered the global economy for USA Today, where he was the founding bureau chief in both London and Beijing.

Also leaving the DC bureau was Ken Fireman, who had been managing editor for government in the Americas outside the U.S. and had been with Bloomberg for a decade.

Other DC cuts included economy enterprise editor Gail DeGeorge and reporter Carter Dougherty, who covered consumer finance and trade. Those laid off in DC included Mark McQuillan, an editor at large who covered financial crimes, and John Walcott, the team leader for national security and diplomacy.

National security reporter David Lerman was also let go.

On the sports desk, the departures include team sports leader Michael Sillup, who had been with Bloomberg since 1994, and reporters Michael Buteau, who worked out of the Atlanta bureau, and Dex McLuskey, who worked out of the Dallas bureau. Jay Beberman, the managing editor of sports, was also cut.

Sports reporters Erik Matuszewski and Mason Levinson were also laid off. Sports reporters Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams remain in New York to write sports business stories.

In an unrelated move, reporter Callie Bost, a reporter for the U.S. stocks team in New York covering investment trends in the stock and options market, left Bloomberg on Tuesday for a job outside of journalism.

Talking Biz News will be updating this post when we receive more confirmations.

UPDATE: Here are some additional layoffs we have confirmed:

1. Mark Rohner, highly regarded as enterprise editor for the economy team.

2. Terry Atlas, a senior writer for defense and national security.

3. Britt Staniar, a multimedia employee who worked in Seattle.

4. Carolynn Fedor, managing editor of audiovisual in the Americas. She had been with Bloomberg since 1993 and managed a team of video journalists who live stream news events, produced video on demand reports, edited and published enterprise packages and supported journalists in the news division.

5. Maureen Damer, a digital producer for Bloomberg in New York.

6. Brenda Batten, a longtime Bloomberg editor who had been working in Chicago.

7. Gary Putka, an enterprise editor based in Boston who is a former Wall Street Journal bureau chief.

8. Kathleen Howley, a real estate reporter in Boston who has worked at Bloomberg since 2000.

9. Chris Staiti, an editor on the education team based in Boston.

10. Peter Gosselin, a reporter in Washington.

11. Joe Sabo, a editor in New York who had worked at Bloomberg since 1994.

Peter Burrows, who had covered tech from 1994 to 2009 for Businessweek and the last six years for Bloomberg, announced on his Facebook page Tuesday that he too was leaving. He’s one of only a handful of Businessweek employees left from before Bloomberg acquired the magazine in 2009.

UPDATE2:

We’ve confirmed that the following were laid off in Bloomber’s Tokyo bureau:

1. Jarrett Banks, an editor on commodities team, been at Bloomberg for five years.

2. Yuriy Humber, a reporter on commodities team, longtime employee.

3. Peter Langan, an editor at large, former Tokyo bureau chief, veteran of the company.

4. Terje Langeland, an editor on transportation team, longtime employee, award-winning former U.S. newspaper reporter (see www.terjelangeland.com).

5. Jim McDonald, a stocks editor, longtime employee, co-ran Asia weekend coverage until recently.