Pearlstine Returning to Journalism With Bloomberg

By: E&P Staff Norman Pearlstine -- the former top Wall Street Journal editor who figured in the Valerie Plame scandal when, as editor in chief of Time Inc.'s many magazines, he agreed to turn over a reporter's notes to a special prosecutor -- is returning to journalism in the newly created position of chief content officer for Bloomberg L.P.

Bloomberg said Pearlstine will partner with Bloomberg News founder and Editor in Chief Matthew Winkler "to seek growth opportunities for its television, radio, magazine, and online products and to make the most of the existing Bloomberg News operations." Both will report to Bloomberg L.P. President Dan Doctoroff.

Pearlstine most recently was senior advisor for telecom and media for the leverage buyout firm The Carlyle Group.

"While I have long respected Matt's remarkable achievement in building a real-time multimedia platform, driven by the story, I didn't realize before joining Carlyle how much the world's best investment professionals rely on Bloomberg's accuracy, thoroughness, timeliness, and fairness," Pearlstine said in a statement. "The Bloomberg advantage is the integration of its news content, analytics and data."

Winkler said the idea of recruiting Pearlstine, with whom he first work at the Journal in the 1980s, grew at an Emmy Awards ceremony last December when a Pearlstine presented Winkler an Emmy for lifetime achievement in business and financial reporting.

"At that event I began talking with Norm about the growth of Bloomberg News," Winkler said. "I realized he was uniquely qualified to help us shape the future of Bloomberg News."

Pearlstine headed Time Inc. for 11 years. His experience deciding whether Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper should turn over notes in the Plame grand jury investigation is chronicled in his 2007 book "Off The Record: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources."

Before coming to Time Inc., Pearlstine worked at The Wall Street Journal for 23 years, serving as its top news executive for nine years, and later its executive editor. He was founding editor and publisher of The Wall Street Journal/Europe, and first Managing Editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal.

Pearlstine was founder of Smart Money magazine, and was executive editor of Forbes.