Bloomberg’s Murray moving to London to oversee global trade coverage

Stephanie Flanders, global executive editor of economics coverage at Bloomberg, sent out the following announcement:

To paraphrase Richard Nixon, “we are all trade reporters now.”

In the past year we have led the way reporting the global trade battles unleashed by President Donald Trump – breaking news and moving markets from Washington to Beijing to Brussels.

We analysed the tit for tat and reported what it meant for investors, businesses, economies and governments. Also for lobsters and a $36 belt.

This story is shaping up to be one of the defining economic debates of our era, with potentially profound consequences for the shape of the global economy. It is truly global and its impact extends across teams, continents and platforms. We should be recognising that in the way we organise our coverage.

That is why we have asked Brendan Murray, managing editor for the U.S. economy in Washington and a 20-year veteran of Bloomberg, to become our global trade Tsar.

Brendan will have a mandate to work with different teams and bureaus to coordinate our global trade coverage and take it to a higher level. He will begin in the New Year and will at some point move to London. We will advertise shortly for a successor to run our coverage of the U.S. economy and Federal Reserve.

Asia Government Managing Editor Dan Ten Kate will work with Brendan as point person for trade coverage in Asia. U.S. Policy Team Leader Sarah McGregor will be the go-to trade editor in the Americas. They will both still report to their current managers. China Executive Editor John Liu and Washington Executive Editor Craig Gordon will remain the senior gatekeepers for trade stories and headlines in Asia and Washington.

In creating a Trade Tsar we’re clearly seeking to replicate the success of our multi-pronged Brexit coverage. The case for central coordination is – if anything – even stronger in the case of trade. But it’s not going to work without a great deal of goodwill and collaboration on all sides, and I’m grateful to have had strong support in making this move from Senior Executive Editor colleagues, especially Wes Kosova, John Fraher, Brad Stone and Chris Collins and the regional SEEs. I hope you will all join me in congratulating Brendan and help him to make our global trade coverage even more unassailable in 2019.