Lori Hoffman/Bloomberg
- Bloomberg News announced a slew of changes at the sprawling newsroom, with 2,700 people.
- Editor in chief John Micklethwait announced the appointments of several news coverage "czars" in a memo, and they show where the company sees the biggest opportunity.
- Bloomberg is doubling down on Asia, environmental, and cybersecurity coverage.
- Micklethwait also touted the company's elevation of women as a result of the promotions.
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Bloomberg News, the news arm of Mike Bloomberg-founded Bloomberg LP, announced a big slew of staff changes this week ahead of its annual editorial and research managers' meeting in New York - and it shows where the company, which has one of the biggest global newsrooms with 2,700 people, is placing its bets.
The memo from John Micklethwait, the editor in chief of Bloomberg News since 2015, went out to staff September 17. In it, he announced areas that the company is doubling down on and a slew of promotions to support those priorities.
Micklethwait also touted Bloomberg's elevation of women, saying women would now make up three of its four regional managers and be in charge of two of three global news desks.
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Under Micklethwait, the newsroom has expanded its diversity efforts, including enacting a policy requiring at least one woman must be on an outside panel for Bloomberg journalists to participate on it, and starting a program to train female journalists for
"We still have a long way to go on diversity, but this is a sign of progress," Micklethwait wrote in the memo.
Here are the other key takeaways of the memo:
- Asia: The company clearly sees Asia as a "great opportunity." To that end, it appointed two regional managers for the region, Madeleine Lim, for North Asia, based out of Hong Kong; and Sarah Wells for South Asia. It's also planning a new bureau for Shenzhen and a second in Vietnam and expanding its credit reporting team in Southeast Asia; strengthening its editorial and research team in Asia; and looking to increase its investigative reporting in Asia.
- ESG: Another big opportunity Bloomberg sees is ESG (environmental, social, governance) and climate coverage. It named former standards editor and long-time manager Tim Quinson as the new ESG "czar," Bloomberg's term for people who coordinate and manage teams that cut across beats. Bloomberg sees a chance to expand its coverage of ESG coverage, which runs from carbon regulation to ethical investing to climate risk, saying they're of growing concern to clients of Bloomberg LP's core terminal business.
Quinson will coordinate ESG coverage for Bloomberg News and work with Aaron Rutkoff, who will head climate coverage on digital. Separately, Bloomberg is
Bloomberg also appointed czars for the following other areas:
- Brexit, appointing Edward Evans to coordinate Brexit coverage.
- Social Media, naming Sarah Kopit to a new role to oversee how the newsroom uses social media to promote breaking news.
- Cybersecurity: naming Mike Riley, whose reporting last year on a China hack was contested by Apple, to oversee cybersecurity.
Bloomberg is also increasing its focus on other languages outside English.
- Local language: Bloomberg has increased its news coverage in languages including Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish, and is now having local language teams report to their respective regional managing editors to promote that approach.
- Spanish: Bloomberg sees the biggest opportunity here. Carlos Rodriguez, who ran the Mexico City bureau, was given the role of senior editor with responsibility for all Spanish coverage on the terminal and its other platforms. It also named Julia Leite as Brazil country chief, a new role; and Andrea Jaramillo as Bogota bureau chief.