Former NYT ombudsman to join Bloomberg

Clark Hoyt, who was ombudsman for the New York Times for three years, is joining Bloomberg News to help oversee its new coverage of the intersection of business and government in Washington.

Ira Stoll of FutureofCapitalism.com writes, “‘Clark will help advise on our planned aggressive expansion of our government news reporting from Washington and work closely with our team there, reporting directly to editor-in-chief Matthew A. Winkler,’ the spokesman said.

“The spokesman denied that the addition is a response to the participation of Bloomberg Washington news reporter Ryan Donmoyer in the Journo-List e-mail group in which members fantasized about killing Rush Limbaugh or throwing Michael Ledeen through a plate glass window, and discussed accusing various right-wingers of racism to distract attention from Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

“Politico reported in November 2009 that the Bloomberg Washington Bureau, at 140 staffers, is three times the size of the New York Times’s. The Politico Web site also reported that ‘Executive Washington editor Al Hunt is expected to step away from much of the bureau’s day-to-day management,’ and the news that Mr. Hoyt will be reporting to Mr. Winkler rather than to Mr. Hunt is the sort of thing that people interested in this sort of thing like to pay attention to.”

Read more here.