Michael Bloomberg is rumored to admire Jill Abramson, the fired executive editor of the New York Times — and he could be giving her a job.
“He likes her toughness,” a source who recently talked to the former mayor told me.
Abramson is becoming a feminist martyr and a hero for equal pay. Bloomberg could be too, if he hires her.
But a source at Bloomberg threw cold water on the rumor, and said that friends of Abramson are pushing her. “Mike doesn’t know her, and the thought has never crossed his mind. But people are making calls on her behalf.”
The job at Bloomberg running the Washington, DC, bureau that had been offered to Dean Baquet before he was named Abramson’s successor at the Times is no longer open. Winnie O’Kelley, who had been financial crimes editor for Bloomberg in New York, was promoted to an executive editor position with control over DC coverage. But there are other jobs.
The most delicious part of Abramson working for Bloomberg is the possibility that the billionaire will buy the New York Times from the family of chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. Under Bloomberg’s ownership, Abramson could get her old job back.
But my Bloomberg source said such a scenario is highly unlikely: “Mike doesn’t think about buying the Times, mostly because it’s not for sale.”
An annual meeting for Times executives had been planned for next week, and Abramson was scheduled to deliver a talk titled “Our Evolving Newsroom.” The meeting has been canceled.
Looks like the newsroom evolved before she had a chance to talk about it.