Today, Bloomberg's chief PR flack — an eight-year veteran — jumped ship for MacAndrews & Forbes. This seals the deal: there is officially an exodus at the news agency. Inside, an anonymous report from a disgruntled Bloomberg insider. Soon, s/he says, "one wonders whether there will be enough reporters and editors to get the news out."

The rats are beginning to jump ship at a healthy clip now, here at the mayor's news service. Since the announcement that the Princeton (read: family) bureau would be consolidated next year into the new office tower under construction at 731 Lexington, and as that prompted a unionization effort that has thrown more turmoil into the future, and coming as the standards and practices grow more ridiculous — notably the most Byzantine process for feature stories ever inflicted on journalists — the resignations are piling up. Last week a reporter left for the NY Post, and an editor left for the Wall Street Journal. In the past several weeks, the departures have started to gather steam. One wonders whether there will be enough reporters and editors to get the news out, let alone form a union. If the chiefs don't emerge from their glass conference rooms soon and realize the folly of this company's attempt at intimidating people out of leaving (such as its no-reentry policy) and its culture of sacrificing all things for the company, they'll have plenty of desk space in the new tower.

It wasn't like this when Mike ran the place.