The New York Times | BuzzFeed
Bloomberg Beta, a $75 million venture capital fund, “is the first time that Bloomberg L.P. will reap profits from direct investments in some of the technology companies that its news operation covers,” Nicole Perlroth reports in The New York Times.
It is already an awkward time for the company, which is under fire because its reporters used Bloomberg’s financial terminals to snoop on companies they covered, including Goldman Sachs, and the fund raises questions on journalism ethics.
“If an entrepreneur wants Bloomberg Beta’s money because they think they’ll have a higher chance of getting covered by a Bloomberg journalist, then they shouldn’t take our money,” Bloomberg Beta honcho Roy Bahat tells Perlroth.
Bloomberg reporter Edmund Lee noted the following on Twitter Wednesday:
Bloomberg Begins Fund: nyti.ms/12rJOfv //The $NYT does NOT always disclose its stake in cos it covers. Ex.: nyti.ms/17KuIzZ
— Edmund Lee (@edmundlee) June 5, 2013
The New York Times Co. is an investor in Betaworks.
In an arguably related piece, Charlie Warzel wrote earlier this week about journalists succumbing to the siren song of startups:
While leaving a traditional newsroom for a younger tech company is still risky, there’s at least the promise of stock options and the lure of a grand exit, which are both exciting as well as rare opportunities in media, a field not known for its exorbitant salaries.
