Changes in the Bloomberg culture

Jeff Bercovici of Conde Nast Portfolio writes Wednesday that the changes announced at Bloomberg LP on Wednesday are profound changes in the culture of the organization.

That newsroom culture, he notes, has been driven by editor in chief Matthew Winkler for nearly two decades.

Bercovici writes, “But, in fact, according to a source, many of the changes now taking place are meant to diminish Winkler’s influence within Bloomberg and remove aspects of the newsroom culture that he put in place. They are widely seen as emanating from new Bloomberg president Dan Doctoroff, who, in May, installed former Time Inc. editor in chief Norman Pearlstine as chief content officer. (Pearlstine is rumored to be in discussions about bringing Walter Isaacson, who edited Time when Pearlstine was running Time Inc., into Bloomberg to be the top editor for multimedia operations; Pearlstine said, via email, that there’s no truth to that rumor.)

“‘Since Norm came on, there’s been lots of coded language about how ‘the things that made us great may now be holding us back’ and so forth,’ says the source. ‘What that means is Matt Winkler’s reign of terror and crazy little rules will be dismantled. [Doctoroff] realizes a lot of the way Matt manages the company is so counterproductive and self-destructive. They’re trying to wrap him in cotton batting so he can’t do much damage. It’s the beginning of an effort to really dial back the Kool Aid-y aspects of the company.’

“To be sure, Winkler is a notoriously combustible boss, and Bloomberg employees put up with a degree of regimentation and monitoring in their jobs unheard of elsewhere in the news business.”

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