As we've been reporting, Bloomberg isn't just an after-party anymore.

Kit Seelye writes: "Bloomberg News, the financial news service, appears to be a bright spot in an industry clouded by transition, job cuts and uncertainty. Bloomberg has hired Roger Simon, the political writer who was unexpectedly laid off from U.S. News and World Report in October, as its chief political correspondent."

"Almost everyone I know, no matter where they work, is worried about or talking about cutbacks, buyouts and shutdowns with varying degrees of anxiety," Simon tells Seelye. Except, that is, the namesake wire service of New York's mayor. Bloomberg "is definitely not in a crouch position," Simon added. "There's a real sense of energy."

Adding to its Washington bureau under veteran Al Hunt, the wire has hired Rich Miller, the chief economics writer for BusinessWeek, Matthew Benjamin of U.S. News, adding to previously reported hires: Kathryn Kross, the former Washington bureau chief for CNN and former senior producer in Washington for "World News Tonight" on ABC, as D.C. broadcast chief, and Newsday's Ken Fireman as the government editor. The Week's Margaret Carlson, formerly of Time magazine too, is now a columnist as well.