Washington Post, Bloomberg strike partnership

The Washington Post and Bloomberg have struck a wide-ranging partnership that will include a joint news service, a combined online page of business news and the transmission of Post stories on Bloomberg’s financial terminals, writes Howard Kurtz of The Post.

Kurtz writes, “The agreement, announced Thursday, is a more ambitious alliance than The Post’s news service with the Los Angeles Times, which was dropped Wednesday after 47 years. What has been dubbed The Washington Post News Service with Bloomberg News will compete among the existing 600 subscribers with the McClatchy-Tribune service, which will now include Times stories.

“‘We are two very complementary news organizations,’ Marcus Brauchli, The Post’s executive editor, said of the alliance with New York-based Bloomberg, founded by New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg. A key advantage, Brauchli said, is access to the high-income corporate executives and market traders who rely on Bloomberg terminals for real-time data. ‘For us, it’s 300,000 readers, many of whom we didn’t have before,’ Brauchli said.

“The partnership comes months after The Post, in one of a number of cost-cutting moves, folded its Business section into the newspaper’s main news section.

“‘There isn’t a whole lot of depth on our business page right now,’ Brauchli said. ‘We have focused on those areas that are central to our readers,’ ticking off coverage of regulatory agencies, tax policy, major economic and corporate trends, and local companies. ‘We don’t do a lot of close corporate coverage beyond our area,’ he said.”

Read more here.