Hamilton Nolan of Gawker writes Monday about the mood within the Bloomberg News newsroom and how it affects morale.
Nolan writes, “How paranoid are Bloomberg staffers? We’ve already heard that they can’t leak documents because ‘every email… in or out is tracked.’ Bloomberg’s internal security force, employees believe, actively monitors employee communications — not only by reading their emails, but by keeping them under constant video surveillance at work — which serves to keep employees terrified. After our two posts on Friday, one staffer — who was presumably considering becoming a source — emailed to ask how he could be sure that Bloomberg didn’t hire us ‘to find employees who complain.’
“Now that is world-class paranoia. Other staffers did email us, at length, but begged that their emails not be published. From the emails we’ve received, we can make the following general observations:
- Andrew Morse, the head of Bloomberg TV, has some extremely vehement detractors. Their common complaints are that he is not competent for his position, too insulated in his job, or both.
- Bloomberg insiders believe that Andrew Lack, the former NBC president who has been the head of Bloomberg’s multimedia group for more than three years, is not safe in his job.
- Employee dissatisfaction and, most notably, fear of management is not confined to Bloomberg headquarters in New York.”
Read more here.
Chris RoushChris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.
