Norm Pearlstine Exits Carlyle, Joins Bloomberg

Norm Pearlstine is getting back in the news game. The former Time Inc. editor in chief and longtime Wall Street Journal hand has signed on with Bloomberg as chief content officer, in which capacity he'll "seek growth opportunities for its television, radio, magazine and online products and to make the most of the existing Bloomberg News operations."

Since leaving Time Inc. in 2006, Pearlstine has been working as a senior advisor for telecom and media at the Carlyle Group. He's also published a book, Off The Record, about his experience steering the company through the legal swamp created by the disclosure of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to reporters.

His move re-pairs Pearlstine with Matt Winkler, Bloomberg's editor in chief, a former Journal colleague. According to the announcement, the two began talking about Pearlstine joining Bloomberg when Pearlstine presented Winkler with an Emmy last December.

Update: Dealbook sees Pearlstine's jump as fallout from the credit crunch, which has made the kind of deals Carlyle hired him to engineer scarce. "In fact, Mr. Pearlstine's hiring -- and Monday's talk of 'growth opportunities' -- might signal that Bloomberg LP is more apt to be a buyer than a seller these days." Oh, but whatever might Bloomberg buy?