Why Bloomberg shouldn’t buy the NYT

Jonathan Berr of InvestorPlace.com writes about why Bloomberg LP should have no interest whatsoever in acquiring the New York Times and merging its news operations with its own.

Berr writes, “At a time when scads of news organizations — including the Times— are retrenching, Bloomberg has added coverage, including Bloomberg View, its op-ed page. The company now employs what it describes as more than 2,300 news and multimedia professionals that provide real-time financial information to more than 310,000 subscribers.

“One way that Bloomberg keeps these people glued to their Bloomberg Terminals is by telling them everything that they need to know, such as what’s in The New York Times. All the paper’s main stories are summarized every day, along with those of other major outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, making the actual purchase of the Times unnecessary.

“Managing journalists is like herding cats in the best of times, and integrating the 1,200 or so reporters and editors who work for the Times into Bloomberg’s investment-bank-like corporate culture would be a nightmare. There would be tons of duplication with Bloomberg’s existing news infrastructure, so it’s not clear how many Times staffers would be offered jobs at the new company. Following the BusinessWeek acquisition, about 100 employees were not offered jobs with Bloomberg News.”

Read more here.