Building Bloomberg View

Michael Barbaro of the New York Times writes about the launching of Bloomberg View, the opinion service being launched by Bloomberg L.P.

Barbaro writes, “According to people involved in the process, the company contacted several high-profile journalists about leading the organization: Chrystia Freeland, a former managing editor of Financial Times, now at Thomson Reuters; Rik Kirkland, the former editor of Fortune magazine, who works at McKinsey & Company; and Alix M. Freedman, a deputy managing editor at The Journal and a Pulitzer Prize winner. All three declined to comment.

“In the end, Bloomberg L.P. hired David Shipley, the op-ed editor of The Times, and James P. Rubin, a former assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration. Mr. Shipley will focus on topics in the United States and Canada; Mr. Rubin on the rest of the world. Both will earn in the area of half a million dollars. The venture has an estimated annual budget of $5 million.

“Those involved said the editorials would mirror the kind of data-driven, nonpartisan, centrist thinking that has defined Mr. Bloomberg’s career, even as it has become rare in public discourse. Other news organizations are undertaking similar expansions in opinion journalism. The Times is overhauling its Week in Review section and broadening its Op-Ed report. Thomson Reuters bought a company that provides commentary on finance.

“Not everyone inside Bloomberg L.P. is enthusiastic: its news arm is known for bleaching stories of extraneous adjectives, conjunctions and descriptions, adopting a just-the-facts ethos that has earned it a reputation for fairness.”

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