Identity crisis at Bloomberg

Peter Elkind of Fortune magazine examines what is going on at Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

Elkind writes, “Winkler’s achievements are considerable. He has built a formidable operation that goes toe to toe with the Journal on breaking business news. Today, with 2,400 journalists operating from 150 bureaus in 73 countries (the company has 15,500 employees overall), Bloomberg ranks as the third-largest independent news organization on the planet. Only Reuters and the Associated Press are bigger.

“But Bloomberg News is fundamentally different from other media organizations. It wasn’t even designed to generate income. It was created to help the company sell more terminals by furthering the moneymaking goals of those who lease them. (Customers’ average income: $438,000.)

“Winkler embraces the mission, telling his team that they write for ‘the people with the most at stake.’ Bill McQuillen, a reporter who left in 2012, puts it another way: ‘I used to say my job at Bloomberg was to help rich people get richer.’

“To be sure, there’s tension between business and journalism in every media organization. What’s unusual about Bloomberg is the alliance that has existed from the outset. In his autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg (whose cover cites Winkler’s ‘invaluable help’), Mike recalls spelling out the role of news in the Bloomberg universe on Winkler’s first day of work. ‘Our purpose was to do more than just collect and relay news; it should also, ethically, advertise the analytical and computational powers of the Bloomberg terminal by highlighting its capabilities in each news story. This would make each story better and, at the same time, make it easier to rent more terminals …’ He continued, ‘Most news organizations never connect reporters and commerce. At Bloomberg, they’re as close to seamless as it can get.’ The company instructs bureau chiefs to visit customers weekly; journalists regularly go along on sales calls. Over 23 years Winkler has built and enforced this system. Throughout he has been a fearsome defender of Mike and has been repaid with unstinting loyalty in return.”