NYT boss attacks Bloomberg for saying it shouldn't publish anti-China stories

Mark Thompson, the chief executive of the New York Times, has hit out at rival Bloomberg for saying it shouldn't have published investigative news stories criticising China, because they jeopardise huge revenue opportunities in the world's second biggest economy.

Thompson was responding to comments made by Peter Grauer, the chairman of Bloomberg, in a speech to the Asia Society last week.

Grauer said that Bloomberg should focus on its core business news product, and that sensitive investigative stories had jeopardised its commercial expansion in China.

"You're all aware that every once in a while we wander a little bit away from that [business news] and write stories that we probably may have kind of rethought – should have rethought," he said in a speech delivered to the Asia Society.

Thompson was disparaging about the implication that Bloomberg is stepping away from a core journalistic tenet of impartial news coverage.

He summed up NYT's principles by citing the newspaper's 19th century owner and publisher Adolph Ochs who said news should be reported "impartially without fear or favour regardless of party sect or interests involved".

"To state the obvious Mr Grauer seems to have a rather different conception of journalism," said Thompson, speaking at the FT Digital Media conference in London on Wednesday.

Bloomberg has published a number of stories about the wealth of family members linked to the ruling elite, which after publication resulted in officials ordering state enterprises not to subscribe to Bloomberg's news service.

Thompson said that the English and Chinese versions of the New York Times websites have been blocked in China for more than 18 months.

However he said the organisation would continue to put editorial coverage ahead of commercial considerations.

"We too are facing commercial fallout from our investigative journalism into the families of China's leaders," he said. "But we will not rethink our journalism as a result. Commercial considerations will never influence journalistic decision making by our executive editor. We will continue to report on China fair mindedly, objectively and robustly. In other words, just as we report on every other country."

On Monday it emerged that Bloomberg veteran Ben Richardson resigned from its news operation after 13 years in early March, in protest at editors' handling of an investigative piece reported from China.

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