Wash. Post Ends One News Service, Begins Another
Paper Entering New Venture With Bloomberg for Wider Distribution
Oct 7, 2009
One of the longstanding alliances in newspapers is coming to an end as a new one begins. The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times are going to discontinue their news sharing arrangement established in 1962 by publishers Philip Graham of the Post and Otis Chandler of the Times. The Post now will enter into a partnership with New York-based Bloomberg News for the distribution of content to newspapers, Web sites, and to other subscribers.
The decision of the Post and Times to drop their joint news service and compete against each other comes as Post executives apparently concluded Bloomberg is a more compatible partner. “As the news business and our newsrooms have evolved, the ways in which the organizations cover and distribute the news have changed,” Washington Post Chairman Bo Jones said in a statement to those who receive the service about its dissolution. “We felt at this time it made sense for us to proceed separately.”
The Chicago-based Tribune Company, owner of the Los Angeles Times which it acquired in 2000, has operated under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since December 2008. Articles in other Tribune newspapers—including the Baltimore Sun, Newsday, Orlando Sentinel, and Hartford Courant—also were provided through the news service.
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services Supplying News Content to Worldwide Subscribers
Under a new arrangement, the Times will distribute its content to approximately 1,200 clients worldwide by means of a different news service jointly owned by Tribune and the McClatchy Company, known as McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. McClatchy owns the Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Kansas City Star, and Charlotte Observer among other papers.
“What has been dubbed The Washington Post News Service with Bloomberg News will compete among the existing 600 subscribers with the McClatchy-Tribune service, which will now include Times stories,” Howard Kurtz wrote in the October 2, 2009 Post in “Washington Post Will Pair With Bloomberg.” The two news organizations have markedly different styles, with The Post often emphasizing colorful and narrative writing and Bloomberg often utilizing a terse, just-the-facts approach that values the speed demanded by stock market players,” he added.
Post-Bloomberg Joint News Venture to Start in January 2010 Featuring Online Business Content
The Post-Bloomberg venture will begin January 1, 2010. It will feature 120 stories a day, the companies said, with a joint news service, a business page on the Post’s Web site—washingtonpost.com—and the transmission of Post stories through the Bloomberg Professional subscription service on Bloomberg's financial terminals.
Bloomberg, which will continue to carry New York Times articles on its terminals, has indicated an interest in moving beyond its longtime business news coverage. While it also covers general news, politics, entertainment, and sports, in the wake of the ongoing economic downturn, it has sought to expand its news operation beyond existing clients in the financial services industry. Bloomberg has more than 1,500 reporters and editors worldwide.
Bloomberg, which was started by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, already makes some of its news available to the public on its Web site, but limits much of that content to its clients as well as newspapers and other sources of news that feature its stories.
Post Folded Separate Business Section This Year into Main News Section in Printed Editions
The Post, in a move to reduce expenses along with multiple rounds of staff early-retirement buyouts, eliminated its own stand-alone business section in March 2009 in its print editions. The business news was then folded into the paper’s primary news section.
For some time the Post has contained a limited number of Bloomberg stories, and will continue to do so. “But at washingtonpost.com, [Post Executive Editor Marcus] Brauchli said, the business page will feature ‘The Post’s coverage and a really robust package of corporate, economic and business news from Bloomberg from around the world’,” Kurtz wrote.
“A key advantage, he said, is access to the high-income corporate executives and market traders who rely on Bloomberg terminals for real-time data. Said Brauchli: ‘For us, it’s 300,000 readers, many of whom we didn't have before’.”
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Washington Post vending machine
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