The latest news from Bloomberg is about big changes

MONDAY was a big day for layoffs over at Bloomberg, and Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke has the official memo from editor-in-chief Matt Winkler. In typical Bloomberg style, the defenestrations seem to be taking place in much the same way as they would on Wall Street, with reporters being escorted from the building, never to return. (Bloomberg has a formal policy that once you've left, even if your departure was not of your own choosing, you can't come back.)

I received a phone call from one Bloomberg employee of very long standing who used terms like "Lord of the Flies" and "culture of fear"; he said that he had never seen anything like this during his long career at the company. Employees were even reportedly flocking to the local Starbucks to view the latest NMA video about Bloomberg News on their phones, because they didn't dare watch it on their work computers.

If you take a step back from the chaos, however, it's possible to see the beginnings of a deep change in how the Bloomberg newsroom is run. The message I'm getting from the layoffs is that Bloomberg is finally growing out of Winkler's insecurities, and is beginning to shape the newsroom into more of a means to an end, and less of an end in itself.