Categories: OLD Media Moves

Where will China reporter Mike Forsythe land?

Michael Forsythe, the former Bloomberg News reporter who left the organization earlier this week after he was suspended for allegedly leaking that the company wasn’t publishing sensitive stories in China, is now looking for another job.

And it appears that the New York Times is the frontrunner for his services.

Editors at the Times would not comment, and all Forsythe would say when contacted by Talking Biz News is “I am unemployed. I am looking for a job and talking to lots of people.”

But the Times makes sense. It is the only news organization left in China that has been doing the hard-hitting journalism investigating the financial connections and business dealings of the country’s leaders that Bloomberg had been publishing until recently. For example, the Times recently published this story about JP Morgan’s relationship with the daughter of a former Chinese prime minister.

Chinese media organizations such as Caixin, a hard-hitting business magazine, would be unlikely to hire Forsythe because the stories he would write would likely be censored, and the Chinese government would likely prevent his hiring.

But foreign-based media organizations, such as the Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal, could be a fit for Forsythe, currently based in Hong Kong, because they often produce hard-hitting stories about China. Reuters might be an option, but the financial wire recently announced that it was cutting 5 percent of its editorial jobs.

Forsythe, who is proficient in Mandarin, was the lead writer when Bloomberg won the Polk Award (among many other awards) for documenting the wealth of relatives of Xi Jinping, the current president of China.

Some expressed concerns that Forsythe might have legal trouble being hired by another news organization, but a person familiar with media and human resources law told Talking Biz News there should be no issues with anyone wanting to hire the journalist.

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.

View Comments

    Recent Posts

    WSJ taps Beaudette to oversee business, finance and economy

    Wall Street Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker sent out the following on Friday: Dear…

    7 hours ago

    NY Times taps Searcey to cover wealth and power

    New York Times metro editor Nestor Ramos sent out the following on Friday: We are delighted to…

    9 hours ago

    The evolution of the WSJ beyond finance

    Rahat Kapur of Campaign looks at the evolution The Wall Street Journal. Kapur writes, "The transformation…

    1 day ago

    Silicon Valley Biz Journal seeks a reporter

    This position will be Hybrid in the office/market 3 days per week, and those days…

    1 day ago

    Economist’s Bennet, WSJ’s Morrow receive awards

    The Fund for American Studies presented James Bennet of The Economist with the Kenneth Y. Tomlinson Award…

    1 day ago

    WSJ is testing AI-generated article summaries

    The Wall Street Journal is experimenting with AI-generated article summaries that appear at the top…

    1 day ago