By: (AP) Bloomberg News is eliminating datelines from its news stories following criticism that some stories datelined from Iraq during the war were written by reporters in other locations.
The change began over the weekend, Bloomberg News spokeswoman Chris Taylor said Wednesday.
Previously, Bloomberg stories began with a dateline indicating where the main action of the story had occurred, Taylor said. The reporter's byline and location appeared at the end of the story, she said.
Bloomberg stories will now have no datelines, but will note in the first four paragraphs where the action is taking place. Taylor said bylines and reporters' locations will continue to be included at the end.
The change was made "to give more transparency to the stories and also to put it upon the reporter to convey in the narrative where the action is taking place," she said.
Taylor said the change was prompted by criticism in the media of Bloomberg's use of Baghdad-datelined stories written by reporters outside Iraq in the early days of the war.
But she said the New York-based news service, which employs 1,800 reporters and editors, had been thinking of changing the policy for "quite some time."
The policy of The Associated Press is that bylines should indicate the reporter was in the datelined city to gather the information reported. Occasionally -- most recently during the war in Iraq -- AP runs stories with two bylines, one from a reporter at the scene and one from a writer at another location. Editors' notes at the bottom of those stories give the location of both staffers.
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