Tag Archives: Bloomberg
The Bloomberg terminal: Whatever you want, you can get it
by Chris Roush
Wag magazine’s Georgette Gouveia profiles Bloomberg Television anchor Adam Johnson in the latest issue.
Here is an excerpt:
Johnson anchored Bloomberg TV’s special coverage of the S&P U.S. debt downgrade and special live coverage of the European credit crisis. Last year, he went to China for a five-part series on the second-largest economy. His big interviews include former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg, Newmont Mining President and CEO Richard O’Brien, investment god Leon Cooperman and former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister.
It’s all in service of Bloomberg L.P., the 31-year-old company started by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has obviously moved on but remains the majority stockholder. The company’s Bloomberg Professional Service – or Bloomberg Terminal – supplies financial data and information to more than 300,000 subscribers worldwide.
Johnson is more than happy to show you how it works on the bank of computer screens on his spare white desk.
“Whatever you want, you can get it,” he says. Whether it’s the price of copper in Chile per metric ton (about $55,000) or the latest retail sales figures from France (up 2 percent) or the recent trajectory of oil prices (down but bouncing back thanks to the sanctions against troublesome Iran) or the number of Indonesian rupiah that make up a dollar. (That would be 9,400.)
Read more here.
Bloomberg.com launches new politics page
by Chris Roush
Bloomberg.com announced Monday the launch of a new Politics page featuring top stories, daily video commentary from Bloomberg’s Al Hunt, a state-by-state analysis of campaign spending and a “Political Capital” blog offering data-rich perspectives and insight.
Run by Deputy Managing Editor for U.S. Government News, Mark Silva and reported by Bloomberg News’ Washington bureau, the “Political Capital” blog focuses on “The Currency of Government,” illuminating the connection between money and governance, the business of campaigns and the impact of the economy on elections.
Features on the page and in the blog include:
–”In The Hunt,” a daily video blog with commentary from Hunt, Washington Executive Editor and host of “Political Capital” on Bloomberg TV;
–”State of the States,” an interactive map using data from the Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States (BEES) offering insight into how state-level economies will play a role in political campaigns;
–”Bloomberg by the Numbers” a daily feature breaking down the most important number in politics and what it means.
“With the newly enhanced Politics Page and Political Capital blog, we shall draw on resources unique to us to deliver insight that cuts through the clutter of our political world,” said Silva. “Our content leverages Bloomberg’s unmatched depth in data analysis and visualization, informing voters and political and business leaders with fact-driven intelligence about the intersection of American politics and the economy. Our reporting comes from a Washington operation unmatched in size and scope, our data from a global information-gathering organization.”
Read more here.
Bloomberg working on LIBOR alternative
by Chris Roush
Dan Doctoroff, the CEO of Bloomberg LP, writes in The Wall Street Journal that the company is working on an alternative to the LIBOR, or the London interbank offering rate.
Doctoroff writes, “The company’s prescription — let’s call it ‘Blibor,’ the Bloomberg interbank offered rate — isn’t revolutionary. It simply applies the principles of data-based analysis and transparency.
“To see where we are headed, let’s start with the current Libor index. It is calculated using bank estimations of the rates at which they expect to be able to borrow from other banks for various periods of time. The estimations are supposed to be based on actual loans.
“But one key problem with the current approach is the decline in actual interbank short-term lending and borrowing. With limited activity, banks—especially European institutions—have fewer anecdotal transactions upon which to base their Libor submissions to the British Bankers’ Association.
“One potential solution to this problem is to combine two types of inputs to compensate for the diminished volume in loans available for bank reference. The first input would follow the current Libor approach. The interbank borrowing rate—the numbers they submit—will be transparent. That is, if bank X says it borrowed at rate Y, that submission to Bloomberg would be public.
“The second, supplemental inputs would consist of market-based quotes for credit default swap transactions, corporate bonds, commercial paper and other sources of credit information. Analysis of these sources of information would yield an ‘indicative’ Blibor index.”
Read more here.
Bloomberg website remains blocked in China
by Chris Roush
The Financial Times reports that Bloomberg News‘ website remains blocked in China, one month after it reported on the financial assets of the country’s vice president and leading candidate to become its next president.
Simon Rabinovitch of the FT writes, “Although periodic outages of foreign media websites in China are common, the month-long total blackout of Bloomberg is an unusually harsh response, highlighting the extent to which its coverage angered the government.
“Beijing has tried to apply pressure in other ways, too. In the weeks since the article was published, people believed to be state security agents have tailed some Bloomberg employees; Chinese bankers and financial regulators have cancelled previously arranged meetings with Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief; and Chinese investigators have visited local investment banks to see if they shared any information with Bloomberg, according to people with knowledge of these incidents.
“The crackdown has not affected the operation of Bloomberg’s profit engine: its terminals, whose subscribers include Chinese state-owned banks and government bodies. However, members of Bloomberg’s China sales team have expressed concern that the chill from the website blackout could deter buyers, according to the people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”
Read more here.
BusinessWeek was in danger of being closed before it was sold to Bloomberg
by Chris Roush
Stephen B. Shepard, the former editor in chief of BusinessWeek from 1984 to 2005, has a forthcoming autobiography called “Deadlines and Disruption: My Turbulent Path from Print to Digital.”
Shepard, who is now dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, spends a good part of the book discussing his time at BusinessWeek as well as the sale of the magazine by McGraw-Hill in 2009 to Bloomberg since he was called in by CEO Terry McGraw to discuss options.
Here is an excerpt:
I left BusinessWeek on March 31, 2005. I decided to keep my distance, allowing Steve Adler to take hold, and I made a policy of not commenting on any stories the magazine ran, any changes in strategy or any personnel shifts. He deserved his best shot without any comments from the peanut gallery. I did hear about people leaving, including several I admired, and about changes in approach. But that’s what always happens, I figured, when a new boss takes over. Unfortunately, the editorial direction and design shifted over the next two or three years, in ways I thought weakened the magazine. Though BusinessWeek still published many good stories, including investigative reporting, it was slow to cover major news, especially the tumultuous events developing on Wall Street. There were many fewer big stories about companies and the people who ran them. And Washington coverage was seriously cut. I began to hear a lot of complaints from staffers and outsiders.
The advertising climate soon weakened,and the shift to digital media began hurting many mainstream publications. Within two years, even before the financial crisis exploded, BusinessWeek lost money for the first time since the 1930s. By the time Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008, the magazine was hemorrhaging. Operating losses topped $44 million in 2008 as revenue nosedived, and BusinessWeek was on track to lose even more in 2009, perhaps as much as $60 million, according to insiders — an astonishing amount of red ink on revenue of less than $150 million. Other publications suffered too, but few quite as badly as BusinessWeek.
In the summer of 2009, Terry’s assistant called, asking me if I would please come see Terry. We met on July 7 in his large paneled office on the 49th floor of the McGraw-Hill Building. I had been in his office with him many times over the years, but now, in obvious distress, he seemed swallowed by it. A short, handsome man, very much a patrician, he tended to talk in a roundabout way that I had learned to decipher. This time, he was very direct. The situation was dire, he told me strictly in confidence. He was looking to sell BusinessWeek, and he had hired investment bank Evercore Partners to help find a suitable buyer. A public company like McGraw-Hill, he said, simply could not sustain such losses with little prospect of recovery. He asked my thoughts about potential buyers, and we discussed the usual suspects — from equity investors to big companies, such as Bloomberg. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had a vacation house next to Terry’s in Bermuda, had already told him he wasn’t interested in buying BusinessWeek, and Terry was determined, he said, not to sell to a private equity firm that would strip the magazine to nothing. He would rather close it, he told me, and he was prepared to do so.
Though not completely surprised, I was nonetheless stunned and deeply saddened. Terry looked deeply stricken. The scion of the McGraw-Hill family, great-grandson of the founder, he was now in the awful position of having to sell or fold the magazine that had been the crown jewel of the family for 80 years. All I could do was nod in profound sympathy, as if I were at a funeral.
Bloomberg Pursuits looking to increase its frequency
by Chris Roush
Erik Maza of Women’s Wear Daily reports that Bloomberg Pursuits magazine is looking to increase its frequency.
Maza writes, “The move is surprising. When the title was launched in January, it did not seem clear who would read Pursuits that Bloomberg hadn’t already reached with its other magazines, including Pursuits’ sister monthly title Bloomberg Markets and Businessweek.
“Dukmejian clarified its niche: ‘This magazine’s audience doesn’t overlap with anyone’s. Businessweek is read more by the business community. Markets is read more by the financial elite.’
Pursuits was created to cater to Markets’ readers while they’re at play.
“‘We have had this remarkable audience. We wanted to give them more lifestyle edits. We are reaching among the richest, wealthiest people in the world, who are relatively young. And we’re doing it with a luxury lifestyle magazine,’ said Dukmejian.
“The magazine is sent only to subscribers of Bloomberg’s famed terminals, who pay some $20,000 for the so-called Professional Service. That’s an audience of 375,000 readers who have an average age of 44 and whose average annual household income is $490,000. An additional demographic note: 90 percent of them are men, Dukmejian said.”
Read more here.
Bloomberg News editor clarifies position on quotes
by Chris Roush
Susan Goldberg, an executive editor at Bloomberg News, sent the following message to the staff she oversees about allowing sources to change quotes:
You no doubt saw the recent New York Times story that said that we and several other news organizations, including the Times and the Post, allow sources to have “quote approval” or to alter quotes.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
So let’s clarify, to make sure there is no misunderstanding about what we do and don’t do:
1. It is totally appropriate to negotiate with a news source to get something initially said on background moved on-the-record, so it can be used in a story. In this type of discussion, the source might be willing to say what was stated on background, but with slightly altered language — to clean up a a profanity, for example. This is fine.
2. What isn’t fine is sending quotes to the source or a press office for their revision or rewriting. In such a case, you would no longer know who is actually uttering/writing the words, and it is no longer a negotiation but a surrender of editorial control.
3. The Bloomberg Way forbids direct anonymous quotes. So, information given on background or not-for-attribution can only be paraphrased unless you reach an agreement with the source (see #1 above). If quotes given on background can’t be negotiated onto the record in an acceptable manner, we always have the fallback of the paraphrase.
So, that’s where we stand — and it’s where we always have stood. Please ask one of us if you have questions.
Talking Biz News checked with Boomberg News reporters across the country, and not all of them received Goldberg’s note. Only those who apparently work for a team that reports to Goldberg received the message.
More details emerge about Bloomberg’s convention mag
by Chris Roush
Lucia Moses of Adweek has more details about Bloomberg Insider, the magazine that Bloomberg News plans to produce for the Republican and Democratic conventions later this summer that Talking Biz News reported about nearly a month ago.
Bloomberg wants to use the magazine to promote its Bloomberg Government service.
Moses writes, “Pearlstine said Insider, which will distribute 15,000 copies per day, would stand out with its glossy paper stock, slightly oversized format, and local content supplied by American City Business Journals.
“Tim Franklin, a Bloomberg News managing editor and former editor of the Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel, will serve as editor. Politics Editor Al Hunt will lead the reporting, and Arthur Hochstein, a former longtime art director for Time magazine, will oversee the design.
“Copies will be distributed in D.C. as well as at the conventions.
“Bloomberg LP reportedly spent $100 million to launch BGov, but it’s not clear whether the service has met expectations. Since it launched, one of the key people behind its development, Chris Walters, has left. The unit also has been reorganized. Bloomberg LP shares subscriber numbers for its core financial news service, but it’s been mute about how many subscribers have signed up for BGov so far.”
Read more here.
Bloomberg Government hires research director
by Chris Roush
Bloomberg Government announced Monday that it has hired Robert Litan as director of research.
He will begin work Aug. 6. Litan will work in partnership with Bloomberg Government managing editor Mike Riley, building on the more than 360 research papers produced by BGOV’s team of analysts since its launch in January 2011
Litan is currently the vice president for research and policy a.t the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City and a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, where his research includes topics in regulation, financial institutions, telecommunications, entrepreneurship and general economic policy.
“I am thrilled to be joining Bloomberg Government, the leading data and information service focused on translating the impact of government actions and policy on business,” said Litan in a statement. “I’m looking forward to working with the extremely talented group of people that Bloomberg has attracted.”
Throughout his career, Litan has been frequently called to testify before Congress on a variety of subjects reflecting his recognized experience interpreting the interplay between government and business.
For example, in 2010, he testified before the U.S. Congress’ Joint Economic Committee about the ways in which federally funded innovation benefits national and local economies. In 2011 he co-authored testimony about the risks posed by exchange traded funds before a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Read more here.
Selling Bloomberg TV advertising
by Chris Roush
Trevor Fellows, head of global media sales at Bloomberg Television, kept a running schedule of a recent work week for MediaWeek.
Here is an excerpt:
The office day begins with a review of our “upfront” activity. American broadcasters and cable networks negotiate roughly 80% of the following year’s ad deals in a few weeks in the early summer and while, as an international business news network, the majority of our business is negotiated on a calendar-year basis, the upfronts are still hugely important to us.
So far the signs are good – CPMs are growing at a healthy 7% and overall budgets are up. But a handful of clients are reporting that they’ll sit the upfronts out this year and wait to buy inventory later in the scatter market, hoping to snare lower pricing.
The rest of the day is spent focused on digital. We’ve made an enormous push to quadruple the production and consumption of Bloomberg’s online video by July and are well on track.
Two clients I meet that afternoon confide that they are looking to significantly increase their budget allocation for video. I’m happy to tell them that we not only have inventory, but also can help them produce assets.
Read more here.
