Bloomberg

TVNewser has learned Bloomberg TV has laid off up to 30 reporters, producers, associate producers, editors and other staffers this morning as the company shifts to a digital-centric newsroom. As TV employees are cut, Bloomberg plans to add 13 new positions and create a Digital Video Desk focused on moving video productions to web platforms, including tablets, smartphones and desktops. Among those let go, Cris Valerio, a San Francisco-based technology reporter and host of the weekly show “Venture,” which was canceled last year.

The shift has been in the works since Andrew Morse joined as head of Bloomberg TV last summer. Morse spent 15 years at ABC News, most recently at ABC News digital. In an email to staff, obtained by TVNewser, Morse writes that while “new positions” will be added, “we have also had to remove some positions that are no longer aligned with digital newsgathering and production.”

Of the new jobs, to be posted soon, there are six new positions for digital producers and digital strategists, leaving a net loss of about 15 positions.

During the last staff cuts at Bloomberg in early 2009, more than 100 employees from the Radio and TV, including 45 at Bloomberg’s New York City headquarters, were laid off. Those cuts were overseen by then head of Bloomberg TV David Rhodes who is now president of CBS News.

Morse calls the changes “an overdue strategic repositioning.” His note to staff, after the jump…

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This week marks one year on the air for “Bloomberg West,” the daily technology and innovation show on Bloomberg TV.

Anchor Emily Chang told TVNewser the show’s home base in San Francisco provides an insider perspective on the tech industry.

“I love tracking the incredible rise of companies like Facebook and Twitter, love being part of covering what might be ‘the next big thing,’ and there’s no better place to do that than San Francisco,” Chang told TVNewser. “We’re covering today’s industrial revolution.”

Chang, along with Cory Johnson and Jon Erlichman, have led Bloomberg’s coverage of the major tech news of the past year, including the death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Facebook filing for its IPO and Groupon going public.

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Last Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed above the 13,000 mark for the first time in almost four years. Today, it closed above 13,000 settling at 13,005. The business networks have been keeping a close eye on that mark for the last week. “Here we go. Can we do it? Five points away,” said CNBC’s Bill Griffeth just before 4pmET.

“Wow this market is sure something,” said Bloomberg’s Trish Regan as the closing bell was rung. David Asman on FBN added, “When the bell rings, the action begins. It looks like this is going to be the first day for the Dow to settle above 13,000. ”

A broker on Bloomberg chimed in: “I’m glad we did it. Now we can move on.”

Late last year, the FCC ruled that Comcast–the nation’s largest cable provider–had discriminated against a small independent cable channel, Tennis Channel. The result was that the FCC ordered Comcast to carry Tennis on the same tier as it does its own sports channels, Versus and Golf Channel.

Now a slew of independent cable networks are looking to take advantage of the ruling, and get themselves placed nearby the leaders in their respective fields, according to a number of FCC filings obtained by TVNewser. Among the channels that have filed comments this month are Current TV, NFL Network and Bloomberg TV.

Bloomberg–which has been waged in a war over channel placement with Comcast since the NBCU deal was approved, is seeking to be placed next to CNBC and Fox Business Network. Current TV is aiming to be placed nearby MSNBC, CNN and Fox News, and NFL Network wants to be near ESPN.

Not surprisingly, the cable operators have filed comments opposing the decision, alongside larger programmers such as Discovery Communications.

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For Bloomberg TV anchor Erik Schatzker, putting his experience reporting from Davos into words is a challenge.

“There are too many superlatives to even begin to use one,” Schatzker tells TVNewser. “From a reporting standpoint, this is the single greatest reporting opportunity anyone in my business could have.”

Schatzker is one of several reporters, including Fox Business Network’s Liz Claman and CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo, in Switzerland this week for the World Economic Forum. In is his fourth year covering the event, Schatzker is anchoring “InsideTrack” live from Davos through Friday.

With the world’s economic leaders all convened in the Swiss village today through Sunday, Schatzker says the key to making his coverage stand out is the ability to grab guests from the Congress Center on the fly.

“I try not to be chained to the studio,” he said. “It’s important to see people, talk to them about what’s going on, and make my reporting as effective as possible.”

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Bloomberg TV anchor Betty Liu was in Omaha yesterday morning for an exclusive interview with Warren Buffett and Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA), who were meeting to discuss deficit reduction. Buffet — who insists on personally chauffeuring all his guests to and from the airport in his taupe Cadillac — asked Liu if she needed a ride, since he was planning on taking Rigell to the airport anyway. And seeing an opportunity to get a few more questions in, Liu jumped in the backseat:

Bloomberg TV Washington DC correspondent Lizzie O’Leary is leaving the business channel for CNN. O’Leary will be CNN’s aviation and regulation corespondent, reporting on all facets of transportation, as well as DC’s regulatory agencies.

“Lizzie brings to the beat everything we’re looking for,” said CNN Washington bureau chief Sam Feist in a statement. “She is a smart and experienced reporter, and I look forward to Lizzie joining our ranks as we expand reporting out of the Washington bureau.”

More below.

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On her second day at Bloomberg TV, anchor Trish Regan already has a vision for “Street Smart.”

Regan sees the two-hour show — which airs from 3pm-5pmET, encompassing the daily closing bell — as a “very fast-paced, very market-driven show that’s about making money and preserving what you have,” she tells TVNewser.

Regan is a former CNBC anchor who thought “for a long time” about the right place for her. A major attraction of Bloomberg TV, she says, was the opportunity to report on the financial and economic topics that interest her the most.

“We’re able to break financial news unlike any other — we have no rival in that sense,” she says. “To that point, it gave me the chance to drill down into what I enjoy talking about more than anything else. There’s nothing I would rather do — even on a Saturday night — than to debate the direction of the economy, and debate the future of the markets.”

Regan also pointed to Bloomberg’s commitment to international news as a selling point. She says global reporting is something she looks forward to — especially in Europe, where she sees the financial crisis as a mirror for what happened to the U.S. in 2008.

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This was day one on the job for two former CNBC anchors at rival networks.

Today Trish Regan starts her new job as the host of the 3pmET show “Street Smart” for BloombergTV. Across town on Sixth Avenue, her former CNBC colleague Melissa Francis began her new gig at Fox Business Network co-anchoring the 1pmET hour. Francis jumped from CNBC to FBN in early December. While Regan left CNBC last March and took up with Bloomberg Dec. 19.

Regan tells Variety how she got her start in journalism: “My Mom was a reporter and I used to go out with her in the field when I was five years old.” Regan says she also plans on taking the show out of the studio. “I want to understand not just the leaders, but what the people are experiencing as well.”

TVNewser will be talking with Regan when she gets off the air at 5pmET.

Jason Farkas will join Bloomberg TV as a senior broadcast producer in January. His hire was announced today by Ted Fine, Bloomberg’s executive producer for afternoons.

Farkas will focus on helping the “Street Smart” editorial team ahead of the program’s re-launch on January 9. Like newly-named anchor Trish Reagan, Farkas joins the network from CNBC, where he was senior producer of “SportsBiz” and “Trading the Globe.”

Farkas will be deputy to Fine for Bloomberg TV’s afternoon programming. He starts January 3.

The full memo from Fine is after the jump.

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