Categories: OLD Media Moves

NYTimes CEO takes swipe at Bloomberg

Mark Thompson, the CEO of the New York Times Co., poked rival Bloomberg News on Wednesday at a media conference when asked about the latter’s decision not to publish stories critical of people connected to the Chinese government for fear of hurting its business.

Matthew Garrahan of the Financial Times writes, “Mr Thompson was speaking days after Peter Grauer said Bloomberg ‘should have rethought’ investigative articles about China because of the potential harm to the company’s business information operation in the country.

“‘To state the obvious, Mr Grauer seems to have a rather different conception of what journalism should consist [than the New York Times],’ said Mr Thompson at the FT Digital Media conference in London.

“‘We don’t think you need to rethink investigative journalism,’ he added. ‘There are commercial realities…but it depends on what your priorities are.’

“The New York Times and Bloomberg have both been penalised by the Chinese authorities over investigative articles that have focused on the wealth accumulated by the families of senior members of the ruling Communist party.

“Fewer visas have been given to journalists at the two companies while sales of Bloomberg terminals in China declined after a 2012 article that explored the family wealth of Xi Jinping, China’s president.”

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Chris Roush

Chris 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.