Beginning of the End for 'the Bloomberg Way'

Is Bloomberg LP's famously bizarre corporate culture being slowly dismantled?

Yesterday morning, employees learned of a number of significant changes to the business news-and-information giant's structure, including a formal separation of radio and television operations from newsgathering and the formation of a new unit, Bloomberg Ventures, to be headed up by CEO Lex Fenwick.

But ultimately more significant could be smaller adjustments meant to make Bloomberg a more rewarding place to work. These reportedly range from a newly-stated commitment to flexible work schedules to a rejiggering of one of the most distinctive features of life at Bloomberg, the program of bonuses known as "certs."

Bloomberg's editor in chief, Matthew Winkler, dramatized the ushering in of the new era with a skit, performed before employees in the firm's Manhattan headquarters, sending up the company's often laborious and time-intensive editing process. (The punchline involved a story about the first Gulf War finally making it into publication.)

But, in fact, according to a source, many of the changes now taking place are meant to diminish Winkler's influence within Bloomberg and remove aspects of the newsroom culture that he put in place. They are widely seen as emanating from new Bloomberg president Dan Doctoroff, who, in May, installed former Time Inc. editor in chief Norman Pearlstine as chief content officer. (Pearlstine is rumored to be in discussions about bringing Walter Isaacson, who edited Time when Pearlstine was running Time Inc., into Bloomberg to be the top editor for multimedia operations; Pearlstine said, via email, that there's no truth to that rumor.)

"Since Norm came on, there's been lots of coded language about how 'the things that made us great may now be holding us back' and so forth," says the source. "What that means is Matt Winkler's reign of terror and crazy little rules will be dismantled. [Doctoroff] realizes a lot of the way Matt manages the company is so counterproductive and self-destructive. They're trying to wrap him in cotton batting so he can't do much damage. It's the beginning of an effort to really dial back the Kool Aid-y aspects of the company."

To be sure, Winkler is a notoriously combustible boss, and Bloomberg employees put up with a degree of regimentation and monitoring in their jobs unheard of elsewhere in the news business. One friendly acquaintance there I called while reporting this story was so terrified he might be tracked down as a leaker, he hung up on me, pausing only to berate me for using his office number.

Reuters and The New York Times have more analysis of the changes.

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