Bloomberg News yesterday laid off "some 80 staff members" and Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait the same day "emailed a manifesto to the remaining staff ... laying out a vision for the enterprise that" increasingly will not involve sports, according to a memo cited by Jeremy Gerard of DEADLINE.com. The memo states the move "is about refocusing our considerable resources” to become “the definitive Chronicle of Capitalism.” Micklethwait wrote that no longer to "be included in that chronicling ... are education and sports, where the cuts were broad and deep." The cuts "included the sports team leader and 21-year Bloomberg veteran Michael Sillup; managing editor Jay Beberman and reporters Michael Buteau in Atlanta, Dex McLuskey in Dallas and New York-based sports reporters Erik Matuszewski and Mason Levinson" (DEADLINE.com, 9/1). In N.Y., Ravi Somaiya reports the number of layoffs is as "as many as 90 journalists." Micklethwait wrote that the organization’s target audience "is readers, such as terminal customers, who are short of time." He has thus "limited the number of longer articles, pushed a more global focus, sought to translate more articles into local languages, expanded a team that monitors social media for news, and will unveil a new look for some parts of its coverage" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/2).
