Winkler is following the money

Dan Sabbagh of The Guardian in London writes about Bloomberg News and editor in chief Matthew Winkler, focusing on its expansion plans.

Sabbagh writes, “The Winkler approach to news, though, is clearly different, partly because of the nature of the Bloomberg financial franchise.

“‘We were able to report on 3 February – one of the first organisations to do so – that the demonstrations in Egypt were not at all similar to those in Iran in 1979,’ he says.

“For Bloomberg the answer was to follow the money: ‘We looked at all the movements of money in the Middle East, all the movements of money in Egypt, and far from seeing any great instability we saw no flight anywhere of capital.’ Or to put it another way, the rich were not fearful of the political revolution; they were the revolution.

“Winkler has developed a particularly exacting style of journalism, which no one would think of attempting on Fleet Street. Anonymous sourcing is frowned upon; Bloomberg has long had a policy of quoting even company spokespeople by name. ‘We must be able to confirm it; we must not be speculative; we must not be questionable.'”

Read more here.