Micklethwait to bring new editorial tone to Bloomberg

Good timing has played a major role in John Micklethwait's career.

Two months before the Black Monday stock market crash in 1987, Micklethwait cashed in his job as a fledgling investment banker at Chase Manhattan to land an entry-level position at The Economist without any journalistic training — or even knowing how to type, the 52-year-old editor told blog Rverie in an interview.

At the time, scores of financial journalists in London were going the other way to join investment banks, recalled Micklethwait, who eventually became the magazine's editor-in-chief. But with the stock market crashing soon after he left the banking job, he managed to avoid mass layoffs that hit the city's financial sector.

In January, Micklethwait will leave the only journalistic institution he's worked for to take on a far bigger set of responsibilities as editor-in-chief of Bloomberg L.P., overseeing its giant financial news wire service and other online consumer-focused media sites that are just starting to spread their wings.

His hiring by the New York media empire, announced earlier this month, is timed to mesh with the return to full management leadership by company owner Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, who had been away for 12 years while he ran City Hall.

With the company eager to lessen its dependence on its financial news-and-data terminals for media sales and reach, Bloomberg is looking beyond traders and financiers by diversifying news offerings, aiming at a general audience. The former mayor has always had an affinity for The Economist, from which he poached the newsman he believes will set a new editorial tone. In the process, Bloomberg bypassed Laurie Hays, senior executive editor at Bloomberg News, who was rumored to be in the running for the top spot.

Micklethwait takes the helm as Matt Winkler, the longtime Bloomberg News editor-in-chief and company legend, steps aside to become editor-in-chief emeritus. Winkler, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who was Bloomberg's newsroom leader from day one and established its rigorous journalistic culture, will continue to work with Bloomberg on strategy and help reporters shape key stories.

Micklethwait declined, through The Economist's communications office, to be interviewed for this article. Bloomberg also declined interview requests.

Former and current Economist staffers portray Micklethwait as a man you'd expect to be running a sophisticated, globally minded publication from a London office. They speak of an urbane and affable Englishman who doesn't micromanage but can also do the heavy lifting of writing cover stories — leaders, as the magazine calls them — on tight deadlines.

With consolidated editorial control of all of Bloomberg media products — something that Winkler didn't have — Micklethwait will in effect be an extension of the former mayor.

But his transition from the collegial, academic vibe of The Economist to Bloomberg News' top-down culture, one that has demanded speed and conformity to its singular standards and practices, will be intriguing to watch.

Other organizational contrasts that will confront Micklethwait are just as conspicuous. The Economist, though highly discriminating in print story ideas it accepts from reporters, is a relatively flat organization, while multiple layers of editing for a story is not uncommon at Bloomberg. Micklethwait oversaw about 120 journalists at the magazine, and is about to oversee an organization that has more than 2,400.

Surprise departure

Micklethwait's departure and move to Bloomberg came as a surprise to the staffers of both organizations. He is widely viewed as someone who's had a good run at the publication at a time of tumultuous change.

"He's been a very good editor," says Sophie Pedder, The Economist's Paris bureau chief. "There's definitely a consensus here about that. He's done a good job both in moving the (magazine) forward and trying to adapt to digital."

During his tenure, The Economist launched several digital initiatives that are designed for new reader groups or those who are accessing the publication's digital devices. They include Espresso, a daily condensed read for smartphone users and iPad apps.

For Espresso, Micklethwait deviated from the strategy adopted by other daily update blogs by insisting that its beat writers submit content from regional bureaus. The idea was that having on-the-scene experts would generate more authoritative writing.

"He's been great at choosing covers and being creative," Pedder says. "The magazine is a happy place, and that's always a good sign."

Current and former colleagues repeatedly mentioned his ease of manner, and were unable to recall a time when he lost his temper or engaged in heated confrontations with subordinates. "Friendly," "affable," "self-deprecating" and "gregarious" were some of the adjectives that came up in interviews.

Editorially, Micklethwait made several moves that underscore his priorities. He created a China section, and the economic powerhouse joined the U.K. and the U.S. as the only countries to have dedicated pages. He also created an international section, a part of the magazine for stories that don't have a specific geographic anchor.

It was a necessary acknowledgment of the irrevocable move toward a global economy, one befitting a book author who's written repeatedly on the topic in recent years. In 2003, Micklethwait co-wrote a book with colleague Adrian Wooldridge on the changing global economy, A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization.

Staffers say the traditions of the 171-year old magazine are too firmly entrenched for one editor to move the editorial needle significantly. But Micklethwait has been somewhat flexible in acceding to the changing times. Bylines are a no-no at the magazine, but with blogs becoming a more prominent feature, he agreed to the compromise of running writers' initials online.

The Economist's provocative covers have also been a hallmark, an approach that seems to have inspired Bloomberg Businessweek.

"Welcome John Mickelthwait to the @BloombergNews family. @BW has been ripping you off for years so it'll be nice to have inspiration close by," tweeted Josh Tyrangiel, editor of Bloomberg Businessweek.

As a supervisor of journalists, Micklethwait has a reputation for having a hands-off style, prone to trusting the line editors who polish stories and rarely intervening in the process.

With about 20 Economist bureaus scattered worldwide, Micklethwait is also described as someone who places heavy emphasis on boots-on-the-ground reporting.

"I never feel particularly sad when someone spends four days to a week in Sri Lanka and comes back with one story," Micklethwait told Rverie. "Getting hold of a place is terribly important."

Politically, Micklethwait seems to be aligned with his would-be boss. His colleagues describe him as socially liberal but economically conservative, prone to pro-business views and consistently pro-American in world affairs.

As Micklethwait's appointment was announced, Kevin Sheekey, a senior executive at Bloomberg LP, said in a statement that Bloomberg read "only two publications" — Bloomberg Businessweek and The Economist. "He has enormous respect for John and what he's done," Sheekey said.

Clearly, there's an attempt by Bloomberg to co-opt some of The Economist's expressive style and lofty mien, and hiring its leader might be seen as a shortcut. The new editor's most important task in a large organization with diverging pursuits will be to establish "a unified vision," says Chris Roush, a former Bloomberg journalist and a business journalism professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

"Ultimately, you've got to have someone at the top who oversees everything and provides a vision," Roush says. "And currently Bloomberg is trying to restructure, and that doesn't exist."

In the Rverie interview, Micklethwait describes journalists' transition at The Economist as something akin to sink or swim, "a sort of benign inspirational version of it, i.e., where nobody is nasty to you."

As Micklethwait wades through the transitional waters, in a place far larger and more complex than where he's been the last 27 years, he'll have to bank on plenty of inspiration of his own.