Stories by Chris Roush
Bloomberg launches personal finance blog
by Chris Roush
Bloomberg.com has started a personal finance blog called Ventured & Gained.
“We’re doing this following the success of our personal finance channel,” said Suzanne Woolley, who is overseeing the blog. “We believe we can weigh in in a lively and insightful way to all manner of issues confronting Americans’ personal balance sheets. We have an incredible talent pool at Bloomberg to draw from and will cover the world of personal finance from all angles — from the emotions surrounding our money to the best ways to save and invest our money.”
The blog is a a cross-platform collaboration. The team includes:
- Woolley, who ran the personal finance section at BusinessWeek before joining Bloomberg in the acquisition. She relaunched its personal finance channel on the web;
- Nikhil Hutheesing, formerly of AOL and Forbes;
- Ben Steverman, who wrote for BusinessWeek.com and Investors Business Daily before joining Bloomberg.
Other key contributors include Rick Levinson, who headed up personal finance for Bloomberg News before becoming associate strategies editor at Bloomberg Markets; Eric Balchunas, an exchange-traded fund analyst for Bloomberg; and Peggy Collins, a personal finance reporter for Bloomberg News.
Tech reporters and the swag from Google
by Chris Roush
Jeff Saginor of The American Prospect writes about the free gifts that Google gives away at its annual tech conference to reporters who cover the company.
Saginor writes, “But Google isn’t really courting developers with events such as this; it’s courting the media. It wants its latest innovations blasted across the Internet’s echo chambers. So this year at I/O, Google upped the ante, giving everyone in attendance a Chromebook Pixel — a laptop running Google’s own operating system, retailing for $1,299. It’s the equivalent of Apple handing everyone a MacBook Pro on the way out the door. It made headlines across the web. And it’s everything that’s wrong with tech reporting.
“Technology events are not giveaways for Oprah’s favorite things—journalists don’t get to go home with bags full of expensive toys and then pretend to critically cover the companies that bribe them. As James Temple explains in The San Francisco Chronicle, tech writers will ‘tell you they’re routinely offered pricey gift baskets and all manner of smart phones, software, tablets and computers, often with no obligation to return or write about them.’ And last year, Brad Stone of Businessweek wrote that reporters at a Spotify launch party in San Francisco were treated to $300 bottles of tequila as parting gifts. It happens constantly. Of course most reporters don’t accept the gifts. But the casual relationship undermines the nature of serious technology reporting.
“Yes, for the most part gadgets are fun and cool and what’s the harm? But Google—for instance—has a long history of invasive advertising practices that get into some very murky questions regarding our civil liberties. By assuming that the bloggers and journalists in attendance would accept such a lavish gift, Google appears deeply cynical. And the media comes off as profoundly clueless.”
Read more here.
Cramer: Enough with the hedge fund coverage
by Chris Roush
Jim Cramer writes Thursday on TheStreet.com that business journalists spend too much time coverage the buying and selling of stocks by hedge funds when they file 13F documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Cramer writes, “Here’s a visionary memo I am writing now for people in the press one year from now:
”‘As of today, we will no longer do ‘wall-to-wall’ coverage of 13F filings, because it doesn’t help our viewers or our readers.’ The visionary memo continues: ‘This cottage industry of looking at filings, most of which are extremely dated, causes people who aren’t sophisticated enough in the process to make wrong moves.’
“But, because the writer of the memo doesn’t want to push back 100%, he adds, ‘There will be exceptions. We will continue to cover what Warren Buffett buys and sells, because his fund is not a hedge fund darting in and out of stocks. We will also, if we believe it to be the case, cover funds that seem to be struggling, like John Paulson’s gold fund. But, beyond this, we are simply going to de-emphasize the breathless reporting on these matters, because at a certain point we have to conclude that it is our equivalent of prurience and nothing more than that.’
“I know, harsh memo. I am a harsh guy.
“Honestly, though, the obsession with this stuff is nonsense. I remember having an assistant fill out these forms and thinking, ‘Oh yeah, I remember firing that guy and having to dump his portfolio,’ or, ‘Gee, I got rid of that position right after this filing was due, but I have to include it.’
“Plus, let’s face it, these filings are really late — so who knows? I am sure there are plenty of people who are back in who had left a position at the time of the filing.”
Read more here.
Bloomberg’s quiet wealth management operation
by Chris Roush
John Carney of CNBC.com writes about BloombergBlack, the quiet wealth management operation controlled by Bloomberg LP, and what it might mean for the company’s financial data and news operation.
Carney writes, “That first bullet point seems almost like an attempt to salve any future wounds Bloomberg’s wealth management business might inflict on the customers of the terminal business. Look! We’re not telling customers to leave you for us! This isn’t competition! We’re complementary to you!
“But is that realistic? At $100 a month, BloombergBlack is priced pretty steeply. Even the affluent customers Bloomberg is targeting may balk at the idea of paying fees to more than one wealth manager.
“What BloombergBlack has going for it — other than the well-known brand — is a huge information infrastructure already in place. Customers will presumably have access to lots of information that is otherwise difficult to uncover. Investors who believe that more information will make them better investors will find this enticing.
“This is never going to be a source of revenue on the scale of the terminals. Online wealth management is a pretty low-margin business. But since Bloomberg already has so much of the underlying data infrastructure in place, it makes sense to find new ways to generate revenue from that infrastructure.
“As long as it doesn’t tick off the folks paying for the terminals too much.”
Read more here.
Loeb names Minard winner, Lifetime Achievement Award
by Chris Roush
The recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Lawrence Minard Editor Award were named Thursday by the G. and R. Loeb Foundation Inc. and the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
The 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient is John Huey, former editor-in-chief at Time Inc. This annual award recognizes an individual whose career exemplifies the consistent and superior insight and professional skills necessary to further the understanding of business, financial and economic issues.
Before that, Huey was editor of the Fortune Group since February 2001. Previously, he was managing editor of Fortune since 1995. In 1997, while running Fortune, Huey was named Advertising Age’s Editor of the Year. In 1998, he was named Adweek’s Editor of the Year; and, under his leadership, Fortune was named to Advertising Age’s list of the best magazines in both 1999 and 2001. Also in 2001, Fortune was ranked No. 1 on Adweek’s “Hot List” of the industry’s top 10 magazines. Huey was named one of the top 10 magazine editors in the country by the Columbia Journalism Review.
A native of Atlanta, Huey graduated from the University of Georgia and served in the U.S. Navy as an intelligence officer before embarking on his journalistic career at a small weekly newspaper, the DeKalb New Era. He worked briefly at the Atlanta Constitution before joining the Dallas bureau of The Wall Street Journal in 1975. After a stint as the Journal’s Atlanta bureau chief, Huey moved to Brussels in 1982 to help launch the Journal’s European edition as its founding managing editor and later its editor.
Huey joined Fortune in 1988. In 1989, he was founding editor of Southpoint Magazine, a Time Inc. regional monthly that folded in 1990. In 1992, he co-authored Sam Walton: Made in America, the autobiography of the late founder of Wal-Mart. The book was on The New York Times best-seller list for several months.
Michael Williams, global enterprise editor at Reuters, will receive the 2013 Lawrence Minard Editor Award, named in memory of Laury Minard, founding editor of Forbes Global and a former final judge for the Loeb Awards. This award honors excellence in business, financial and economic journalism editing, and recognizes an editor whose work does not receive a byline or whose face does not appear on the air for the work covered.
Williams was formerly page one editor at The Wall Street Journal.
Before being page one editor, Williams was the editor of the Journal’s Europe edition. An 18-year veteran of the Journal, Williams was previously based in Paris where he was the Journal’s Southern Europe bureau chief. As head of the Europe edition, Williams was responsible for coverage of Europe, the Middle East and Africa for all editions of the Journal.
A Harvard graduate, Williams joined the Journal’s Tokyo bureau in 1992 as news editor and later became Japanese economy and political correspondent. In 1996, he moved to New York as assistant foreign editor for the Journal, returning to Japan as Tokyo bureau chief in 1999.
Huey and Williams will receive their career achievement awards at the 2013 Gerald Loeb Awards dinner on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at Capitale in New York City, where the Gerald Loeb Awards will celebrate 40 years with UCLA Anderson
Loeb Award finalists announced
by Chris Roush
The finalists of the 2013 Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism were announced Thursday morning.
There were more than 400 entries.
The finalists, which include 10 from the New York Times and five from Bloomberg News, are:
Beat Reporting Category Finalists
- Erik Schatzker, Dawn Kopecki, Bradley Keoun, Stephanie Ruhle, Mary Childs, Christine Harper, Max Abelson and Rick Green for “Beached Whale: JPMorgan’s Huge Loss” – Bloomberg News
- Tom Bergin for “Corporate Taxation Series” – Reuters
- Tim Logan, Lisa Brown, Jeremy Kohler, Tim Bryant and Steve Giegerich for “Roberts Brothers” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- Scott Patterson, Jenny Strasburg, Chris Canipe, Mike Sudal and Sarah Slobin for “Dark Markets” – The Wall Street Journal
- Steven Mufson for “Shale Gas” – The Washington Post
Breaking News Category Finalists
- Elisabeth Behrmann, Brett Foley, Firat Kayakiran, Jesse Riseborough, Zachary R. Mider, Matthew Campbell, Simon Casey, Kevin Crowley and Jacqueline Simmons for “Glencore Xstrata: Deal of the Year” – Bloomberg News
- Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Peter Eavis, Nelson D. Schwartz, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Nathaniel Popper, Edward Wyatt, Ben Protess and Mark Scott for “London Whale” – The New York Times
- Alistair Barr, John McCrank, Rodrigo Campos, Olivia Oran, Nadia Damouni, Suzanne Barlyn and Ryan Vlastelica for “Facebook IPO Coverage” – Reuters
- Thomas Lee, David Phelps, Janet Moore, Paul McEnroe, Tony Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy and Eric Wieffering for “Best Buy CEO Resigns Under Cloud” – Star Tribune
- Anupreeta Das, Jenny Strasburg, Jacob Bunge, E.S. Browning, Telis Demos and Sharon Terlep for “Buying the Big Board” – The Wall Street Journal
Broadcast Category Finalists
- Sharyl Attkisson, Chris Licht, Rand Morrison, Sharon Hoffman, Gavin Boyle, Keith Summa, Kim Skeen, Pia Malbran, David Small and Nancy Wyatt for “The Business of Congress” – CBS News
- Joe Ducey, Lauren Gilger, Gerard Watson, Scott Sherman, Maria Tomasch and Aaron Wische for “Ford Escape: Exposing a Deadly Defect” – KNXV-TV
- Byron Harris, Billy Bryant, Jason Trahan and Mark Smith for “Denticaid: Medicaid Dental Abuse in Texas” – WFAA-TV
- Martin Smith, Michael Kirk, Marcela Gaviria, Mike Wiser, Jim Gilmore, Tom Jennings and Doug Hamilton for “Money, Power and Wall Street” – FRONTLINE
Commentary Category Finalists
- Brian McGrory for “It’s Greed to Top All” – The Boston Globe
- John Gapper for “John Gapper (Financial Times)” – Financial Times
- Michael Hiltzik for “Michael Hiltzik on Business” – Los Angeles Times
- Morgan Housel for “Morgan Housel: On the Economy” – The Motley Fool
- Ilan Moscovitz for “On Financial Reform” – The Motley Fool
Explanatory Category Finalists
- John Schmid, Mike De Sisti, Lou Saldivar, Emily Yount and Nick Lujero for “Paper Cuts” – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- Mike McGraw and Alan Bavley for “Beef’s Raw Edges” – The Kansas City Star
- Charles Duhigg, Keith Bradsher, David Barboza, David Kocieniewski, David Segal, Bill Vlasic and Hiroko Tabuchi for “The iEconomy” – The New York Times
- Thomas Frank and Christopher Schnaars for “Green Inc.” – USA Today
- Michael Kirk, Martin Smith, Marcela Gaviria, Mike Wiser, Jim Gilmore, Jason M. Breslow, Tom Jennings and Doug Hamilton for “Money, Power and Wall Street” – FRONTLINE
Images/Visuals Category Finalists
- Kenneth Cukier, Peter Winfield and Ben Thompson for “Live Charts” – The Economist
- Tom Giratikanon, Amanda Cox, Sergio Pecanha, Alicia Parlapiano, Jeremy White, Robert Gebeloff, Ford Fessenden, Archie Tse, Alan McLean, Shan Carter, Mike Bostock and Matthew Ericson for “Economy Interactives” – The New York Times
- Samuel Aranda, Mauricio Lima, Andrea Bruce and Adam Ferguson for “The Euro Crisis” – The New York Times
International Category Finalists
- Mehul Srivastava, Andrew MacAskill and Adi Narayan for “Mother India Starves Her Children” – Bloomberg News
- Michael Forsythe, Shai Oster, Natasha Khan, Dune Lawrence, Henry Sanderson, Chloe Whiteaker, Fan Wenxin, Michael Wei, Phil Kuntz and Ben Richardson for “Revolution to Riches” – Bloomberg News
- David Barboza and Sharon LaFraniere for “China’s Secret Fortunes” – The New York Times
Investigative Category Finalists
- Ames Alexander, Karen Garloch, Joseph Neff and David Raynor for “Prognosis: Profits” – The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer
- Patricia Callahan, Sam Roe and Michael Hawthorne for “Playing With Fire” – Chicago Tribune
- David Barstow, Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab and Stephanie Clifford for “Wal-Mart Abroad” – The New York Times
- Ryan Knutson, Liz Day, Travis Fox, Habiba Nosheen and Martin Smith for “Cell Tower Deaths” – ProPublica and FRONTLINE
- Brian Grow, Anna Driver, Joshua Schneyer, Janet Roberts, Jeanine Prezioso, David Sheppard and John Shiffman for “Inside Chesapeake Energy” – Reuters
Magazines Category Finalists
- Drake Bennett for “Marriage at 30,000 Feet (United/Continental Merger)” – Bloomberg Businessweek
- David Evans for “Duping the Donors” – Bloomberg Markets
- Richard Behar for “Hess Oil’s Russian Mob Problem” – Forbes
- Francine McKenna for “Social Media’s Phony Accounting” and “Lying With Numbers” – Forbes
- Connie Bruck for “Cashier du Cinema” – The New Yorker
- Robert Capps for “Why Things Fail” – Wired Magazine
News Services Category Finalists
- Jana Randow, Jeff Black, Gabi Thesing, Anchalee Worrachate, Simon Kennedy and James G. Neuger for “The Plan to Save the Euro” – Bloomberg News
- Tom Bergin for “Corporate Taxation Series” – Reuters
- Brian Grow, Anna Driver, Joshua Schneyer, Janet Roberts, Jeanine Prezioso, David Sheppard and John Shiffman for “Inside Chesapeake Energy” – Reuters
Newspapers – Large Category Finalists
- Patricia Callahan, Sam Roe and Michael Hawthorne for “Playing With Fire” – Chicago Tribune
- Charles Duhigg, Keith Bradsher, David Barboza, David Kocieniewski, David Segal, Bill Vlasic and Hiroko Tabuchi for “The iEconomy” – The New York Times
- David Barstow, Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab and Stephanie Clifford for “Wal-Mart Abroad” – The New York Times
Newspapers – Small & Medium Category Finalists
- Ames Alexander, Karen Garloch, Joseph Neff and David Raynor for “Prognosis: Profits” – The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer
- Mandy Locke and David Raynor for “Ghost Workers” – The News & Observer
- Colin Woodard for “Virtual Schools in Maine: The Profit Motive You May Not Know About” – Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram
- Michael Sasso for “Gambling for Jobs” – The Tampa Tribune
Online Category Finalists
- Jim Morris, Chris Hamby and Ronnie Greene for “Hard Labor” – The Center for Public Integrity
- Matt Isaacs, Lowell Bergman and Stephen Engelberg for “Inside the Investigation of Leading Republican Money Man Sheldon Adelson” – Investigative Reporting Program at U.C. Berkeley, ProPublica and FRONTLINE
- John Schmid, Mike De Sisti, Lou Saldivar, Emily Yount and Nick Lujero for “Paper Cuts” – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- Alison Young and Peter Eisler for “Ghost Factories” – USA TODAY
Personal Finance Category Finalists
- Lisa Gibbs, Ismat Sarah Mangla, Penelope Wang and Gary Weiss for “High Cost of Saying Goodbye Series” – Money Magazine
- Andrew Martin, Andrew W. Lehren, Ron Lieber and Tamar Lewin for “Degrees of Debt” – The New York Times
- Natasha Singer for “You for Sale” – The New York Times
- Jason Zweig for “The Intelligent Investor” – The Wall Street Journal
Wired magazine launching video series
by Chris Roush
Mike Snider of USA Today writes Thursday about the video series that Wired magazine is starting.
Snider writes, “The techno-trend periodical, launched 20 years ago, has three new series that go live today on Wired’s video channel and on YouTube:
“The Window: an inside look at “extraordinary construction projects, factories, labs and landmarks seen through the eyes of people who work there.”
“Angry Nerd: features Wired’s Chris Baker and his tech-crazed nerdish rants.
“Game/Life: Wired video game gurus Chris Kohler, Peter Rubin and Chris Baker talk about games and industry news.
“More series, like the others sponsored by Microsoft Surface, Windows Phone and Windows 8, are in the works including the outlet’s first scripted series Codefellas about the NSA, animated by Richard Linklater Studios and starring John Hodgman (The Daily Show) and ReWired: The Documentary about the magazine’s redesign.”
Read more here.
The unique ethics situations that Bloomberg case exposes
by Chris Roush
Adam Geller of the Associated Press writes about how the Bloomberg snooping scandal exposes how new media companies face unique ethical situations.
Geller writes, “‘Many more journalism companies will face the type of competing values that the journalists at Bloomberg faced because, as the economic model for journalism changes, more companies, if they’re successful, are going to look like Bloomberg,’ said Kelly McBride, who teaches journalism ethics at The Poynter Institute.
“Today’s technology gives many types of news organizations access to information about consumers’ preferences for certain types of content, without clearly settled understandings of how that information should be used. Technology also has made it easier for reporters, and everybody else, to snoop.
“‘In a digital world in which everything online at some level, if you have the expertise, is probably available, this is simply reality,’ said Alex S. Jones, director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University.
“At the same time, new types of journalism ventures are relying on different constituencies, often without clear rules for engagement, McBride said. Non-profit news organizations rely on donors, rather than advertisers. Others rely on advertisers who pay to sponsor content.
“All together, the uncertainties of those new relationships will force media organizations to grapple with tough questions, McBride says.”
Read more here.
Bloomberg can not take Wall Street for granted
by Chris Roush
John Gapper of The Financial Times writes about the Bloomberg LP snooping scandal, warning the financial data and news company about taking Wall Street for granted.
Gapper writers, “They could turn to its competitors, such as Thomson Reuters, or they could go it alone – creating their own instant messaging, pricing and data services, in the way that they have established ‘dark pool’ trading platforms to compete with exchanges. The internet has put the technology in their hands.
“Bloomberg does not have much experience of playing defence because it has spent its life on the attack, outflanking rivals with ‘the Bloomberg Way’ and expanding into news, television and magazines. (There is speculation that it wants to buy the Financial Times or The New York Times.)
“It took three attempts to get its response right, finally filling its trading screens with an apology from Dan Doctoroff, its chief executive. It is not used to saying sorry and, like other technology companies, its success has bred arrogance – it tends to think it knows best.
“‘It has a cult-like structure in which everyone is a believer,’ says one former Bloomberg executive. ‘There is such a degree of holy righteousness that journalism can only be done the Bloomberg Way that I was surprised by a failure of judgment on this scale.’”
Read more here.
Senate panel may investigate Bloomberg
by Chris Roush
Sen. Carl Levin’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has examined the financial meltdown and JPMorgan’s “London Whale” debacle, is being urged to launch a probe into Bloomberg’s snooping scandal, The New York Post reports.
Mark De Cambre and Kaja Whitehouse report, “At least one federal official has recommended that the powerful committee take the lead on investigating the extent of Bloomberg’s spying on Wall Street and government clients through its ubiquitous data terminals.
“The privately held news and information giant falls outside of the scope of most financial regulators, noted one source.
“Bloomberg has admitted that some reporters used the terminals to monitor when clients were signed into the service and what functions they were using.
“Besides Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and other big banks, officials at the Fed and the US Treasury have also expressed concerns that they were being monitored.”
Read more here.
