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May 13, 2009
Bloomberg: Content Customers Want
With the carnage in mainstream media, those of us in public relations worry constantly about the shrinking news hole. Bloomberg is defying the trend by hiring 75 new reporters for the news service, a five percent growth in its 1,500 person, 142 bureau editorial operation. I spoke on Saturday with Norman Pearlstine, the chief content officer of Bloomberg LP, and a veteran of the Wall Street Journal and Time Inc., who is working with Matt Winkler, editor-in-chief, on the company’s strategy for the next five years.
Here are the key points:
1. News key to Bloomberg terminal users - "Our customers want specific information on emerging markets, foreign exchange, new government regulation. Those of us in the news division get direct feedback from these users on stories they need to have covered. Our goal is to be the most trusted source of news."
2. Consumer media customers now a priority - "We intend to treat customers for consumer media as well as we treat the professional customers who use the Bloomberg terminal. These consumers will be interested in media products from Bloomberg, on subjects that are closely related to business, such as environment, law and real estate." As an example, Pearlstine says he sees increased interest in syndicated Bloomberg radio interstitials in local radio news in many markets.
3. Impressive senior hires - Bloomberg is not just adding junior staffers in business news. Among the important journalists who have joined in recent years are Jim Aley and Robert Friedman from Fortune, Flynn McRoberts, Mike Tackett and Jim Kirk from the Chicago Tribune, Al Hunt, Rich Jaroslovsky, Michael Waldholz and many others from the Wall Street Journal, noted columnists Jane Bryant Quinn, Amity Shlaes and Michael Lewis. Last fall, editor-in-chief Winkler convinced Laurie Hays, one of the WSJ’s most senior editors, to join Bloomberg as company editor, directly supervising 300 reporters.
4. Content aggregator and news reporter - "The Bloomberg terminal delivers content from thousands of different news sources," including global mainstream media (Sydney Morning Herald, Toronto Globe and Mail) and blogs (DealBook). "These sources serve as an important supplement to the Bloomberg news service, which delivers more than 2,000 staff-written stories a day to our subscribers."
5. Magazine – To date, this has been primarily a controlled circulation product, delivered to the terminal subscribers, with limited newsstand distribution and some paid subscribers. “The magazine is good and getting better -- last year it was nominated for a national magazine award -- and we are considering different ways to broaden its distribution. We have to get into the CEO suite; we have the iconic brand.”
6. Website - Bloomberg.com recently named Yahoo executive Kevin Krim as its head. Krim ran HotJobs and Yahoo Small Business. The website will benefit from the terminal's use of noted columnists such as Michael Lewis, Roger Lowenstein, Alice Schroeder and Eric Pooley.
7. Television - Andy Lack has joined from NBC to reintroduce Bloomberg TV in the fall. "All our journalists are being trained on seven ounce Sony cameras so that print stories can have adjacent video content. We are using our global reach to advantage; if you are in New York or London and want the Asian morning market results, we are the only place to go. We aim to have a truly multi-media product set."
If one were to hypothesize about the media business of the future, it would look a lot like Bloomberg. It is a company premised on subscription for their terminals-- where each incremental element adds value to the relationship with the customer. While top customers give feedback on stories they want on the terminals, they are also sources for news; it is a true community. It is also a horizontal medium that provides vertical depth of coverage by industry, geography, and subject (politics, science, arts and sports). News coverage and analytics are provided together. PR people need to reconsider the presumption that Bloomberg is only for breaking financial news that impacts the market, in favor of a more nuanced view which considers Bloomberg Magazine, influential columnists, or Bloomberg TV. Bloomberg’s content will also continue to be repurposed by an increasing number of online channels. I would appreciate your views as always.
Posted by Edelman at May 13, 2009 7:07 PM |
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Comments
Great post. We have to stay on top of and ahead of these trends to continue to imagine the media landscape 5, 10, 20 years from now. The wave is breaking and their business model is changed forever, ergo, ours must continue to do the same. The critical question is, how do we become content partners and trusted counsellors to make sense of the speed and diaspora of information that all clients will be grappling with? Thankfully, it's a question you've been asking for a while and I believe we are on the path to answering.
Posted by: Paul Welsh at May 20, 2009 4:16 PM