Bloomberg's Al Hunt talks about DC bureau

Al Hunt, who is now the managing editor of Bloomberg’s Washington operations after leaving the Wall Street Journal, talked to U.S. News & World Report in the latest issue.

USN&WR reporter Liz Halloran wrote, “Hunt has bulked up the Washington news ranks with experienced business and political reporters and dramatically expanded the bureau’s television operation from a lone correspondent and two staffers less than a year ago to a team of more than a half dozen now led by Kathryn Kross, former CNN Washington bureau chief. The bureau’s customers are predominantly worldwide financial institutions and news organizations that lease specialized Bloomberg terminals, which the company calls “electronic newspapers.” (Estimates of the current subscriber base range from 186,000 to 260,000.)”

In the Q&A, Hunt stated, “We have different audiences, and our most important is that group of 200,000-plus people–half of them overseas–who are customers with the Bloomberg terminal. One thing we never lose sight of is that base. I’ve hired more people for the economics team, and I’m going to hire more people to cover the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our principal mandate is to cover anything that has money written on it, anything that affects markets.”

He also stated, “People who are wealthy investors or among the more affluent are interested in politics, culture, and sports. We also have 400 newspapers that subscribe to the Bloomberg terminal, and a number of them run our stories. We can do a better job persuading them to think about us not just in terms of Ford Motor Co. earnings or stock market results but in terms of other stuff we’re doing–whether it’s Rich Miller writing about income inequality or Roger Simon writing about politics.”

Read the interview here.