Bloomberg Strikes Again   

Web exclusive
The proliferating news operation adds an opinion component. Posted: Wed, Dec. 15 2010

It just keeps growing

Bloomberg News has signed up New York Times Deputy Editorial Page Editor David Shipley and former Assistant Secretary of State James P. Rubin to launch Bloomberg View, a new editorial page that will splash opinion pieces across the vast and burgeoning Bloomberg empire.

In an era of dramatic, not say crushing, retrenchment by so much of the news business, Bloomberg has been mushrooming. It has added so many well-known journalists to its roister that it sometimes seems like a Full Employment Act for Journalists of a Certain Age.

In AJR's Spring issue, Jodi Enda chronicled the alarming decline in the number of reporters covering Washington's critically important federal agencies and departments. Among the rare bright spots: Bloomberg.  While other D.C. bureaus were shrinking or disappearing, Bloomberg's was growing.

At the time it featured 140 staffers, twice the number it had a decade ago.

And in October, the company announced plans to launch Bloomberg Government, a new initiative focusing on nitty-gritty Washington coverage. By the end of next year, it hopes to have 150 journalists and analysts on its staff, according to the New York Times.

Similarly, as other news organizations have shuttered foreign bureaus, Bloomberg has opened new ones.

As it makes its foray into the world of opinion, Bloomberg has certainly nabbed two high-profile figures to lead the way.  It managed to lure Shipley away from the Times, where his duties included oversight of the op-ed page, a highly coveted piece of journalism real estate. Rubin, who is married to "This Week" anchor Christiane Amanpour, was a well-know figure during his State Department tenure. Both Shipley and Rubin will have the title of executive editor.

At a time when so many traditional news organizations, reeling from the transformation of the news business and the national recession, are playing small ball, it's good to see that someone is thinking big.