[3] After attending Umtata High School,[1] Bruce studied journalism at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, where he was taught by Peter Temple.
[10] He was appointed to the job shortly afterwards, amid a deal which saw Pearson, the British publisher of the Financial Times, acquire a 50-per-cent stake in TMG's business titles.
[13] In May 1999 Bruce caused significant controversy by publishing an editorial in which he endorsed the opposition United Democratic Movement ahead of the June 1999 general election.
TMG's chairperson, former politician Cyril Ramaphosa, criticised the endorsement at length in his own op-ed, also printed in the Financial Mail, and the exchange led to a public debate about editorial independence.
[14] In the aftermath, the Mail & Guardian's Phillip van Niekerk decided to reverse his own paper's stance on editorial endorsements to come out in favour of the African National Congress.
[18] In December 2004, the Business Day published the first edition of its new monthly luxury lifestyle supplement, Wanted, which was inspired by the Financial Times's How To Spend It.
[23] He replaced Mzi Malunga, who had resigned as BDFM's managing director, and he said that he would have responsibility both for operations and for broad editorial strategy.
[36] He also spearheaded organisational reforms to integrate the newsrooms of the Financial Mail and Business Day, particularly with an eye to creating digital content for the BDlive platform.
[29] Barney Mthombothi reportedly resigned as Financial Mail editor due to dissatisfaction with Bruce's plans for the newsroom merger.
[42] In June 2017, a dossier on Bruce was published on a blog called WMCleaks, WMC being an abbreviation of so-called white monopoly capital.
[43][44] On 29 June, in a Business Day column, Bruce linked the dossier to ongoing Twitter harassment and suggested that both were an organised response to his critical reporting about the Gupta brothers, President Jacob Zuma's notorious allies.
[55] Over the next few months, amaBhungane and other media outfits reported on emails leaked in the so-called GuptaLeaks, which revealed a fake news campaign coordinated by the Gupta family and the public relations firm Bell Pottinger, with the participation of BFLF and others.