Monthly Archives: September 2011
Bloomberg closes on deal for tax and legal research company
by Chris Roush
Bloomberg LP announced Friday that it has completed its acquisition of The Bureau of National Affairs Inc. (BNA) which is now a standalone subsidiary of Bloomberg.
The deal was for approximately $990 million.
The acquisition was overwhelmingly accepted by the BNA owners, who tendered approximately 95 percent of their stock within the 20 business day offering period. Additionally, Bloomberg received an early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act.
“Together, Bloomberg and BNA will offer a unique combination of premium content, deep subject matter expertise, proprietary data and world-class technological capabilities,” said Dan Doctoroff, CEO and president of Bloomberg, in a statement. “BNA’s trusted and respected research and analysis will significantly enhance our professional offerings including Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Government and the Bloomberg Professional service.”
The combination expands Bloomberg Law into the legal information market and increases Bloomberg’s presence in the Washington, D.C. area where BNA is based.
In addition, the combination expands Bloomberg’s coverage and analysis of tax and accounting, labor and employment, healthcare, intellectual property, and telecommunications issues.
BNA will be led by its current management team and it will be part of the Bloomberg Industry Verticals Group.
Poachable business journalists
by Chris Roush
The New York Observer published Friday a list of the top 25 “poachable” journalists, and on the list are business journalists such as Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider, M.G. Siegler of TechCrunch, Bess Levin of Dealbreaker and Jenna Wortham and Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times.
About Sorkin, the Observer wrote, “If business reporting has a rock star, love him or not, it’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, who helped create one of the single most powerful and influential blogs in all of business news, let alone the Times, for whom Dealbook was an early experiment. He made himself a boldface name with Dealbook’s coverage of the 2008 crash, along with Too Big to Fail, the book and HBO movie that came after it. What other business journalist could get Jamie Dimon to show up to their book party?”
About Siegler, the paper wrote, “Siegler is currently the strongest voice at tech blog powerhouse TechCrunch, which makes you think that he would be well taken care of by parent company AOL. But after the recent drama that ended with founder Mike Arrington being forced out and columnist Paul Carr flouncing after him, Siegler revealed that Aol failed to reach out to him with any incentive to stay. He’s a born blogger, happy to pound out words with nothing but Apples for sustenance, and, while he has Twitter/Tumblr beefs with some potential poachers (The New York Times, AllThingsD) we can think of a place or two that might make a strong enough offer – complete with a semi-stable editorial structure – to lure him away from his Arianna earn-out.”
About Weisenthal, the paper wrote, “Any one of Business Insider’s top lieutenants would be a loss for Henry Blodget, but Weisenthal would be an especially hard hit, which makes him a difficult poach. No matter: anybody looking to provide more inventory or simply to shift the pace of a news operation would be downright negligent to not look at hiring Joe. Traditional business publications? Not so much, but Joe’s a one-man news wire who can sell a story like no other. It’s a freak talent and a rare find.”
Read the entire list here.
What Forbes taught a biz journalist
by Chris Roush
Leigh Gallagher, an assistant managing editor at Fortune, writes about her time at rival Forbes from 1998 to 2004 in the wake of the publication of former managing editor Stewart Pinkerton‘s book “The Fall of the House of Forbes.”
Gallagher writes, “Pinkerton, who left in 2009 under, well, not-so-happy circumstances, also delivers one of the best characters in all of journalism in Jim Michaels, the ferociously talented editor who ran the magazine from 1961 to 1999. While I was there, Michaels was a much-feared overlord who was seen and heard mainly through his scathing all-caps comments on stories, viewable for all to see in the company’s editing system. (Among them: ‘I DON’T CARE WHAT THE ANALYST THINKS. WHAT DO YOU THINK??;’ ‘I ASSUME YOU UNDERSTAND THIS BECAUSE YOUR INITIALS ARE ON IT. I DON’T. FIX IT. JWM;’ and ‘THIS ISN’T REPORTING. THIS IS STENOGRAPHY. WHY IS THIS PERSON STILL ON STAFF???’). As Pinkerton recounts, Michaels would rewrite stories at the eleventh hour or kill them entirely; he kicked writers who quit out of the building; tortured his lieutenants; and ran such stressful story pitch meetings that writers were known to throw up before them.
“But he was also a brilliant editor — it was said he could edit the Bible down to six words — who left his imprint on some of journalism’s biggest names. ‘My column today consists of techniques I learned from Michaels,’ Fortune columnist and seven-time Loeb Award winner Allan Sloan told me recently. ‘I cannot tell you the influence he had on my career.’ (Read Allan Sloan’s 2007 tribute to Michaels here.) Pinkerton delves deeply into Michaels’ biographical and family history, which will be new material even to most Forbes veterans.
“The book ticks through the various eras of modern-day Forbes, from the birth of the Forbes 400, the magazine’s annual ranking of the richest people in America, through battles over who would succeed Michaels. (When Bill Baldwin ushered in a gentler management style, Pinkerton writes, the ‘collective Zoloft … bill for the edit staff almost certainly plummeted to a postwar low.’) These sections are dotted with anecdotes of the Forbes culture I knew well: late nights and idiosyncratic personalities, boozy lunches at Gotham Bar and Grill (which Pinkerton admits to keeping in business), screaming matches between Dennis Kneale, the new managing editor who’d blown in from the Wall Street Journal, and a then-retired Michaels; early fumbles with ‘digital convergence,’ including the ill-fated CueCat experiment where subscribers were mailed a plastic barcode scanner to access advertiser content online.”
Read more here.
Weekly biz newspaper names new ME
by Chris Roush
Lloyd Whittington has been named the managing editor of the Triad Business Journal in North Carolina.
A story on the newspaper’s website states, “Whittington has been with the weekly business-to-business newspaper since it was founded in 1998. He served for the past 11 years as associate editor and was in charge of awards programs, special publications and the paper’s weekly Special Reports. Prior to that, he was a reporter covering commercial and residential real estate and economic development.
“In his new role, Whittington will take on responsibility for the weekly news report, managing the newsroom and staff development, and assisting in strategic planning for TBJ’s print and online products.
“‘Lloyd’s a real asset to both The Business Journal and the Triad business community as a whole,’ said Editor Mark Sutter. ‘He’s smart, engaged and committed to producing quality products with real value to our readers.’”
Read more here.
TV news stories on jobs ignore unemployment data
by Chris Roush
Julia Seymour of the Business & Media Institute reports Thursday that more than three-fourths of the September jobs stories (77 percent) on broadcast television didn’t mention the 9.1 unemployment rate at all.
Seymour writes, “Several stories put a positive spin on the horrendous jobs situation and only four stories mentioned that more than 14 million people are out of work.
“The Business & Media Institute analyzed 79 stories on the broadcast evening news programs that mentioned ‘job’ or ‘jobs’ between Sept. 1 and Sept. 26 and found only 18 (23 percent) of them actually mentioned the 9.1 percent rate or said that unemployment was above 9 percent. Stories about ‘job’ approval, people doing their ‘job’ and other non-economic references were not counted.
“Just as the networks have downplayed the high unemployment and looked for hopeful signs on jobs during much of the Obama presidency, reporters continued to find ‘good news’ about unemployment to talk about.
“CBS ‘Evening News’ anchor Scott Pelley shared ‘a little bit of good news on jobs‘ on Sept. 7, 2011. He led into a report about Obama’s proposed jobs plan by optimistically reporting that in July there were 3.2 million job openings posted by employers. ‘That’s the most in nearly three years,’ Pelley said without noting the huge shortfall between available jobs and the roughly 14 million who were unemployed in August.”
Read more here.
Reuters columnist who resigned due to ethical concerns now writing for FT
by Chris Roush
Roy Greenslade of The Guardian in London reports that Neil Collins, who resigned in controversial circumstances from Thomson Reuters in October last year, has returned to the business press by writing for the Financial Times.
Greenslade reports, “He started a weekly column on the FT Alphaville site, called Something for the weekend, earlier this month.
“Collins quit the Reuters Breaking Views website after he was said to have failed to declare that he owned shares in a number of companies he was writing about, including BP, Marks & Spencer, Yell and Diageo.
“But there was no evidence Collins was ‘abusing his position for financial gain,’ as a Reuters report stated.
“In an email sent by Collins to Hugo Dixon, the co-founder and global editor of BreakingViews, (reproduced in full on this site) Collins said he was ‘saddened and embarrassed by my breaches of the [Reuters] rules.’
“At the time, there was considerable sympathy for Collins’s plight within the financial journalistic community. He was thought to have been foolish.”
Read more here.
WSJ/Dow Jones names Canada deputy bureau chief
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Canada bureau chief Chip Cummins sent out the following announcement on Thursday:
I am pleased to announce that Carolyn King will take on the role of deputy bureau chief in the newly integrated Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires bureau in Canada.
Carolyn, who is currently a news editor in Toronto, will help direct coverage and shepherd real-time content for all the platforms the bureau serves. The combination of the WSJ and Newswires staffs earlier this year has created a team of more than a dozen reporters–spread across the country –covering everything from Canada’s vast resources and acquisitive banks and pension funds to its global corporate players, including Research in Motion and Bombardier.
Carolyn joined the Toronto bureau in 1992, where she’s worked ever since, most recently managing the Newswires’ news and copy desk in Toronto. She was born in Montreal and holds a Bachelors degree from the University of Saskatchewan and a Masters in international studies from the University of Southern California.
Carolyn will report to me and will continue to manage Dow Jones Canada’s news and copy desks. Please join me in wishing her well in her new role.
Assessing the future WSJ and Fox Business relationship
by Chris Roush
Terry Baker, a former executive producer at Fox Business Network, was interviewed by Joe Strupp of Media Matters for America about issues relating to the business news network, including its relationship with The Wall Street Journal, which is also owned by News Corp.
Strupp writes, “He said a long-time agreement between the Journal and CNBC made it difficult for Fox Business to capitalize on the Journal brand, a situation he predicts will change at the end of 2012 when the CNBC deal ends.
“‘I don’t think this is any secret of what’s going to happen a year from now when suddenly it is possible to pair up the Wall Street Journal and the Fox Business Network. I think strategically you have to ask that question.
“‘And then, frankly I don’t know what the right answer is. Do you throw it all into The Wall Street Journal thing? Do you change the name? Do you get rid of it all together and go completely online? Who knows? But I think that’s an issue. I think, and whether or not it stays, let’s say they can figure out a way that the numbers work and it’s worth continuing the investment because Rupert wants to have a business network. Okay, so do you have the Wall Street Journal people run that and get rid of all the people who are there now? There are a lot of questions. But truthfully, it’s only ever going to be a niche channel anyway because that’s just what business channels are.’
“He also said some Journal staff may be reluctant to be linked to Fox Business.
“‘I don’t think there’s any question that there probably are or have been people at the Journal who didn’t want to be bought by Rupert Murdoch or don’t want to be on Fox Business or Fox News, that wouldn’t surprise me at all,’ Baker said. ‘Whether they’re right or wrong, I don’t know. But just knowing the business as we both do, you can understand why that attitude might exist in some circles. I don’t know whether that gets better. I mean if they marry the two then there’s certainly greater potential for that conflict to be out in the open.’
“Fox Business and Bolling did not respond to requests for comment.”
Read more here.
Reuters parent names COO, layoffs could be coming
by Chris Roush
Thomson Reuters Corp., the parent of the Reuters news service, named Jim Smith as chief operating officer and said it would merge its two main divisions, Markets and Professional, as it streamlines to better compete in tough financial markets.
Jennifer Saba of Reuters writes, “The news and information company has undergone a series of shakeups this year as revenue growth slowed in the Markets division and it struggled to persuade traders and bankers to adopt Eikon, its new flagship desktop.
“Chief Executive Tom Glocer said the revamp, which puts Smith in a strong position to eventually take over as CEO, was meant to ‘capture operating efficiencies from scale.’
“There may be some management layoffs as a result, he said, although he declined to give a number.
“Smith, whose appointment is effective immediately, was previously the CEO of the Professional division, which sells legal, tax and accounting products such as WestlawNext.
“Glocer said that having two big standalone organizations within Thomson Reuters had been an impediment to running the company, which was created in 2008 when Thomson Corp bought Reuters Holdings Plc.”
Read more here.
McLean, Fabrikant named Reuters columnists
by Chris Roush
Well-known business journalists Bethany McLean and Geraldine Fabrikant will join Reuters as columnists, the news service announced Wednesday.
A contributing editor at Vanity Fair, McLean is also co-author with New York Times columnist Joe Nocera of the recently published “All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis.” Her column for Reuters.com will focus on finance, both high and low.
As a media reporter for the New York Times, Fabrikant dominated her beat. She started at the paper in 1985 and has won six publishers award since that time. In 1996, she won the Loeb Award for deadline reporting.
Before joining The Times, Ms. Fabrikant had been the media editor for Business Week magazine since 1981. While there, she received an award for her cover story on the Capital Cities/ABC merger.
For Reuters, Fabrikant will put a human face on business, focusing on the bold-face names that behind who make the money world go round.
McLean and Fabrikant are the newest additions to op-ed editor James Ledbetter‘s increasingly influential stable of columnists.