Politico reports Joshua Topolsky, digital editor at Bloomberg, has been fired after Michael Bloomberg expressed “frustration with the website.” The company, however, says the departure is “amicable.”
“The last year at Bloomberg has been an incredible experience for me. Alongside a brilliant team, I had a chance to rebuild and reinvent what Bloomberg Media was and could be. We built something for the future that I am absurdly proud of,” Topolsky said. “It’s bittersweet to admit, but my appetite for change is even larger than I expected it to be when I arrived at the company. After many discussions with Justin and John, it was clear that whatever I did next, I needed to do on my own. With nothing but love and admiration for the people I’ve had a chance to work with and to know, I know that time is right now.”
Topolsky was hired in 2014, tasked with re-designing the Bloomberg website and guiding the company’s digital evolution. As he told our sister site FishbowlNY in January, “What we’ve never done before is harness every one of Bloomberg’s powerful news assets — Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg TV, our digital video operation, radio, and live events, and channel the best of them into one platform.”
“Josh did exactly what we hired him to do: we launched two new modern, innovative websites, founded our first regional site in Europe, hit traffic records, became the global leader in business digital video, nearly doubled our social traffic, and sparked digital revenue growth by double digits,” said Bloomberg Media CEO Justin B. Smith. “Bloomberg Media is already a significantly more influential brand because of Josh. We’re very grateful for his contributions and will miss him.”
Topolsky’s departure may put increased pressure on Bloomberg Politics, which includes the high profile TV show, With All Due Respect, hosted by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann.
Bloomberg political reporter Dave Weigel announced earlier this week that he would leave, returning to The Washington Post. And as Politico notes, Weigel was part of project led by Halperin and Heilemann. “Several sources have told the On Media blog that Bloomberg (the man) holds a similarly negative opinion of that project and of its related Bloomberg Television show, With All Due Respect.”