While in New York recently, I was blown away by my trip to Bloomberg's headquarters. One side of the horseshoe-shaped building holds the impressive business news gathering organization, and the opposite side houses the financial data distribution (Bloomberg Terminals) business.
This recent Vanity Fair article on Bloomberg looks deeper and wider into the company than I ever could.
Most newspapers and other print media face the “Hobson’s choice” between losing the equivalent of US$ 12 in rapidly declining print edition advertising revenue or gaining US$ 1 in increasing digital advertising revenue. Bloomberg, on the other hand, has blazed a new trail with its profitable business model – offering continuously-updated financial information on the Bloomberg terminals alongside original, market-moving original Bloomberg News.
Here's a snapshot of Bloomberg's world:
- 145 bureaus with 3,000 reporters producing 5,000 stories a day
- Knowing the top story is key - Bloomberg can monitor hits on each story, every minute throughout the day
- News judgment PLUS customers' input is crucial
- They are always interested in hearing from opinion makers/news makers
- Blogs are becoming an important source for the beginnings of news stories
- Release@bloomberg.net is the main entry point for all news releases into Bloomberg from public relations companies and in-house communications executives
- Every day, Bloomberg does an "Autopsy" against what other media have written on the same topics they covered. Did they fulfill their "Five F's" mission to offer the factual word? The first word? The fastest word? The final word? The future word? Did they
- Bloomberg scrapes 32,000 websites in 35 languages for content
- Bloomberg knows they are doing their job right when they deliver "Real time news that moves markets"
- Bloomberg's editorial principles: "Show, don't tell"; "Don't offer opinions except in the editorial section"; and "The principles of journalism are not changing - the business model is"
- "We can't all be aggregators – we're here to also create original content in line with the Five F's"
What trends does Bloomberg see for the future of news?
- Integration of news with information
- Multiple languages auto translated into English
- More context and better search for all the material created
- De-duplicating stories in search
- Extreme local news
Photo taken by Paul Khor
