Bloomberg has announced that it would begin publishing editorials in an effort to broaden the company's influence on national affairs, the New York Times reported.

Bloomberg View, as the initiative is called, will publish columns and commentary across all Bloomberg platforms and will be run by two executive editors: David Shipley, deputy editorial page editor and op-ed editor of the New York Times, and James P. Rubin, former assistant secretary of state under Bill Clinton.

As Talking Biz News says, Rubin will oversee editorial issues in Central and South America, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, and Shipley will maintain oversight of the U.S. and Canada. Both will report directly to the editor in chief of Bloomberg News, Matthew Winkler.

Bloomberg L.P. is owned by New York mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and though he has an agreement with the city to have no involvement in the "day-to-day operations" of his company the endeavour is intended to channel his personal philosophy and worldview, the New York Times pointed out.

The article quoted Matthew Winkler who said: "I think it's very important that everyone understands that our editorial page is going to be, for sure, consistent with the values and beliefs of the founder -- even if he happens to be mayor of New York City. Though Mr. Bloomberg will not have a hand in conceiving and writing the editorials, he is likely to offer feedback from time to time before they are published."

This opens a sort conflict of interest question: "as someone whose presidential ambitions are the source of endless speculation, acquiring the platform of an editorial page is certain to draw more attention to Mr. Bloomberg's plans", says the New York Times.

And Jeremy W. Peters on Media Decoder says in fact that "opinion and commentary have been areas of journalism that Bloomberg, with its just-the-facts approach, has avoided. But company leaders saw an opportunity to extend their influence into the opinion sphere".

Bloomberg's intentions to expand are attested also by the acquisition of BusinessWeek last year and by the launch of a new project in Washington, called Bloomberg Government, that will sell information about government services and contracts to lobbyists and others with business interests in the nation's capital.

As New York Times highlighted, the notion of media barons using editorials to shape public opinion and policy according to their personal views in an old one in American journalism, as William Randolph Hearst, for example, often wrote front-page editorials for his newspapers.

Not to mention other, more worrying examples, like Italian prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi.

Sources: New York Times, Talking Biz News, Media Decoder