Bloomberg News is laying off about 90 employees in the editorial and research departments after management concluded that editors “acted too slowly” in the stories. According to a source familiar with the company’s “reorganize” plan, in the words of editor-in-chief John Micklethwait, the cuts affect less than 3% of the personnel in those departments.
In an email obtained by TheWrap, Micklethwait praised Bloomberg journalists for adapting to working from home in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
He then shared why the leaders decided to “reorganize”.
Read too: Former Bloomberg Reporter explains why she left husband and job for Martin Shkreli
“However, we all know that we also ‘lose’ stories because we move very slowly. The teams waited for someone to read an article retroactively or ignored the News Desk’s requests to get it out quickly. Managers spent a lot of time setting up conference calls when they were supposed to be writing. Or the teams suddenly delivered corporate pieces that nobody wanted, ”he wrote. “Covid highlighted these strengths and weaknesses. But in fact, they have been evident for some time. We need to have more ownership and responsibility. “
The new structure, he said, prioritizes editing and accountability and eliminates retro-reading and re-editing.
“Agility is important. Yes, editors may have areas of specialization and of course we should use this experience, but that does not mean that they should edit stories only in that area. Editors should want to work with a variety of stories to make their own work more interesting and continue to challenge themselves. The attitude has to change from ‘it’s not my patch’ to ‘hands on’, with more editors taking the stories and making them, ”he said.
Micklethwait’s e-mail did not specify when the layoffs would occur, but wrote: “I will not pretend that today is a happy day for the newsroom.”
Bloomberg did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.