Bloomberg: NYTimes is not for sale

Joe Pompeo of Capital New York caught up with Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday at the launch party for the Bloomberg Business website and asked him about his interest in acquiring the New York Times.

Pompeo writes, “‘It’s not for sale, as far as I know,’ said a cheerful but terse Bloomberg, who was wending his way through a thick crowd of colleagues and admirers when this reporter approached him, ‘but you’d know better.’

“Bloomberg was making the rounds during his eponymous news and data empire’s launch party for Bloomberg Business, a long-awaited digital hub for the company’s array of journalistic entities, from the Bloomberg News wire and Bloomberg Businessweek magazine to Bloomberg TV and Bloomberg Politics. The site debuted last week and is seen as the cornerstone of Bloomberg’s ambitions to increase the company’s influence in the service of a high-priced subscription business that comprises the bulk of Bloomberg L.P.’s reported $9 billion in revenue.

“‘We think it’s something that will help educate the people we care about, and that is people who want quality news and want to be entertained in an upscale way,’ said Bloomberg, delivering a speech to a crowd of several hundred — including notables like TV host Charlie Rose and former Hearst-executive-turned-short-lived-New-York-City-schools-chancellor Cathie Black — from a towering staircase on the sixth floor of Bloomberg L.P.’s luxurious Lexington Avenue headquarters.”

Read more here.