Actually, make that tyrannical, paranoia-inducing surveillance, according to New York magazine's feature package on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his media empire.

Gabriel Sherman wrote:

"Bloomberg journalists are constantly evaluated for their productivity. Reporters earn points for the number of clicks their articles receive on the Bloomberg terminal. “It was well known and is well known that if you write a story about Goldman Sachs, sex, Viagra, Tiger Woods, and Barack Obama, you’d get a huge number of clicks,” a former reporter says. At Bloomberg, the internal computer system monitors employees’ activities. “Anyone in the company can look you up to see if you’re at your terminal,” a former staffer says. “It tells you how long your terminal has been idle.”

It's all much bloggier than you would think! Many more anecdotes about Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler, Businessweek editor Josh Tyrangiel, and departed Bloomberg View editor Jamie Rubin over  at New York.

Here's one unexpected (but tough to pity) victim of the MF Global meltdown: Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

When the brokerage filed for bankruptcy, Bloomberg LP lost 600 terminal subscribers, or about $1 million in monthly revenue, The New York Times reports, causing the company to miss target sales by 12 percent and possibly taking a toll on bonuses.

Sales of the Bloomberg terminal, a finance industry must-have, fund the vast majority of Bloomberg LP's journalism outfit. As a result, the size of its reporting staff is  closely linked to the health of the economy.

But things aren't so bad yet: Bloomberg View executive editor David Shipley added five journalists to the editorial board today.

• Katy Roberts, The New York Times Week in Review editor
• James Gibney, features editor at The Atlantic
• Michael Newman, politics editor at Slate
• Marc Champion, Istanbul bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal
• Deborah Solomon--no, not that Deborah Solomon--economic policy reporter at The Wall Street Journal

499 Park Avenue.

With its new lease, Daum and Haviland will be taking 1,500 square feet on a ground floor space and 3,000 square feet on the concourse, brokers close to the deal said. The lease is for ten years, with asking rents at $250 per square foot for the ground floor and $45 per square foot for the concourse.

Daum Inc. was rapidly growing out of its old space at 694 Madison Avenue, where it had been for 20 years, and needed to move to a new location where it would be “in the middle of the action on Park Avenue, where you have this critical mass of flatware, porcelain, antiques and home furnishings,” said Jonathan Krivine, a Director at Newmark Knight Frank who represented Daum in the deal.

“They were really in kind of a zone where it was largely jewelry,” added Mr. Krivine about the company’s Madison Avenue store.

Daum had six years remaining on its Madison Avenue lease.

Hines, 499 Park Avenue’s landlord, was represented by Gene Spiegelman, Alisa Amsterdam, and Michael O’Neill, all of Cushman & Wakefield.

The 499 Park Avenue building had a ground floor space that was once the home of disgraced lawyer Marc Dreier and his now-defunct law firm Dreier LLP. The ground floor was also the former site of Bloomberg LP’s headquarters before it moved into its own tower at 731 Lexington Avenue.

“It hadn’t been in the retail inventory in quite a while,” said Mr. Spiegelman.

French luxury porcelain maker Bernardaud formerly occupied the entire ground floor space to the north of the lobby but shrunk its storefront to half the size, Mr. Spiegelman said.

Daum and Haviland, both century-old French luxury goods makers who have been operating in the US market for the past thirty years, held a soft opening at the new 499 Park Avenue storefront for the 2011 holiday season. Both are now renovating the space—which will also house offices for Daum and Haviland—and are slated to open this spring, said Mr. Krivine.

Once complete, Daum and Haviland will officially be neighbors to fellow luxury collectables vendors like Scully and Scully and James Robinson, just as Mr. Krivine had wanted.

Daniel Edward Rosen, Staff Writer, is reachable at DRosen@Observer.com and can be followed at Twiter.com/Dedwardro

Rarely does a company take half of a tower without so much as a whisper beforehand. It's even more extraordinary when that company swoops into a space that everyone in the industry thought was taken

But this is Bloomberg LP we're talking about--the nimble behemoth that, for better or worse, has become the city's (the world's?) most formidable media operation. The company has signed a lease for 400,000 square feet--a story, mind you, it broke itself. That's more than twice as much space as Bloomberg was thought to be looking for, sources told The Commercial Observer.

While the city's media has been experiencing an agonizing contraction, Bloomberg has added 1,805 New York-based staff and now employs more than 6,500 people in its New York offices, according to the story.

But the lease has shaken industry insiders, who believed the 120 Park space had been claimed by Wells Fargo. Real Estate Weekly, in fact, reported in January that Wells Fargo was consolidating into 300,000 square feet in 120 Park.

The Commercial Observer spoke with several brokers not involved with the deal who said the Wells Fargo lease had been "close," but none could say how close. Paul Glickman of Jones Lang LaSalle represents the landlord, Global Holdings. His assistant said Wells Fargo wasn't close to making a deal, but she insisted Mr. Glickman would not want to speak with us.

Ben Lambert of Eastdil Secured, who reportedly represented Wells Fargo in the 120 Park deal, did not respond to requests for comment.  CB Richard Ellis vice chairmen Howard Fiddle and Craig Reicher repped Bloomberg.

lkusisto@observer.com

• The big banks are not sufficiently capitalized to meet the new Basel III requirements, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The shortfall could be as large as $762.85 billion. [WSJ]
• If Basel III had been put in place for the end of 2010, banks would have faced a bill of $797 billion. Fortunately they have until 2019 to get their affairs sorted. [Bloomberg]
• Apparently readers haven't been able to get enough of Bloomberg LP's bylined opinion pieces -- gems like "Liberal Foes of Tax Plan Threaten Middle Class" or "Man Up When It's Time for Your Junk Pat down." The media company plans to start running editorials under the banner "Bloomberg View." [NYT]
• Morgan Sze, the high-powered head of the biggest Goldman Sachs proprietary trading desk, is starting his own hedge fund. It will be called Azentus Capital and will run out of Hong Kong. [FT]
• Big-dog investors like Paulson & Co. and Calpers, who lent Lehman Brothers money before its historic 2008 bankruptcy, have objected to Lehman's proposed method of paying back its collossal debts. [Reuters]

mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor

Once its expansion is complete, Bloomberg Government will have 300 journalists and economic experts staffed in the nation's capital. Subscriptions will cost $5,700 a year, with government users receiving a discount.

Those who pony up for a subscription will be privy to, among other tools, vast amounts of aggregated stories, in-house analysis and research and a Congressional staff database. 

If the brash strategy works, Congressional Quarterly and National Journal — as well as places like Politico — won't be the only D.C. institutions to be endangered: lobbyists who are paid to provide government figures with this type of information may find themselves outpaced by this well-oiled hybrid of of news service and database tool.

Health care lobbyist Jean Higgens, for example, nervously joked that the service could render her job obsolete. “If I live outside Washington, this is a pretty big universe of information I pay a lobbyist to know,” she told The Times. “I guess I think at the end of the day a computer can’t take someone to Capitol Hill to meet a member of Congress. Until that happens, I think I’ll be O.K.”

Mr. Wiley was at Time Inc. for nearly 25 years, most recently leading the business side at Fortune.

At BBW Mr. Wiley replaces Jessica Sibley, who left earlier this week to take over as publisher of The Week.

Ms. Sibley came to BBW in 2008 and remained with the magazine during the acquisition by Bloomberg LP.

At the The Week, Ms. Sibley joins a team that pioneered the use of reader recall rate guarantees to sell ads. This strategy made The Week one of only a handful of titles to grow ad sales in recent years. Larger companies like Time Inc. have also begun similarly guaranteeing returns.

Former publisher Jed Hartman left the The Week in March to become the group publisher for Time Inc.'s Fortune and CNNMoney.

From the release:

Okaro will oversee all aspects of Bloomberg’s consumer-facing mobile business including the development of new mobile products and building commercial partnerships with content distributors, wireless carriers and other industry participants.  Okaro will report to Bloomberg Multimedia CEO Andy Lack.

“We’re very excited to welcome Oke to this new role at Bloomberg,” said Andy Lack, CEO of Bloomberg Multimedia.  “Oke’s expertise and vision will be invaluable as we expand our strategy of delivering first rate multimedia content across every screen, from the Web to television to mobile devices of today and the future.”

“I’m thrilled and honored to be part of Bloomberg’s growing Multimedia business,” said Okaro.  “Mobile presents a unique opportunity for us to deliver business and financial news and information on a convenient, interactive platform that truly moves with the consumer.”

First, the logo: "Bloomberg" is tucked discreetly between the the "B" and "i" in "Business."

The front of the book runs about 30 pages, and offers short write-ups on the Fed, GM, and "What Lurks on the Books of Banks."

The cover story is headlined "Dubai: Why It's No Mirage," but the cover image—shadowy figures wandering a barf-hued landscape—does not bolster this apparent optimism. Inside ("Why Dubai Matters"), the ambivalence continues. "To-be-sure"-type disclaimers abound:

- "The humiliating debt implosion aside, the emirate remains the most dynamic business hub in the Gulf"

- "There's no denying that the emirate overreached and will pay a hefty price"

- "Dubai's leadership has doubtless mishandled the recent turmoil"

- "Part of the problem is that while Dubai is more open than its neighbors, it's no Jeffersonian democracy."

A summary of "Dubai's Crazy Quilt of Assets" follows the discussion of its economic model.

Next up, a look at AOL and its new CEO Tim Armstrong, accompanied by a photo of Tim Armstrong managing simulantaneously to lounge and look assertive.

"Can This Man Save AOL?" asks the headline. The implication seems to be that if any man can save AOL, it is a man with razor-sharp cheekbones. And youth, and high school football injuries, we learn as we proceed to the article.

Armstrong has become a student of corporate turnarounds. A favorite case study: Apple's resurrection. He asks employees to read a 1996 BusinessWeek cover story about Apple headlined "The Fall of an American Idol," a dour view of the company before Steve jobs' return.

Subtext: But what of Businessweek's own resurrection?

Armstrong sees the path to Apple-style success in expanding AOL's content ("hyperlocal" news, for example), regaining its share of the email market, and selling ads that offer quality over quantity.

Also, he is an "imposing six-foot-four."

"Beware Social Media Snake Oil," cautions the next feature. Facebook, Twitter, and their ilk represent "a tantalizing opportunity"—but they come with both benefits and risks.

Then, after a "Special Advertising Feature" on single-malt whisky, we proceed to "What's Next," which includes "Philanthropy the Microsoft Way," South Korean family-based conglomerates, and the "Latest Management Fad" from India. The "Personal Business" pages, which follow, are pale blue and involve many charts.

The magazine concludes with "Business Views"—letters, "Tech & You," and a holiday book review. Have you heard about this Andrew Ross Sorkin guy?