Inside Bloomberg Media’s regional expansion plan into an economically uncertain U.K.

By Seb Joseph

Almost every downturn presents an opportunity to take advantage of change and win — even for publishers. For Bloomberg Media, that opportunity is to become a bit more mainstream.

No, it’s not a new goal. Bloomberg Media has been trying to push beyond financial circles, the cornerstone of its business , or nearly a decade. At times, those ambitions have been realized. But arguably, that hasn’t happened enough. Bloomberg Media is still most famous for producing financial software most people have never heard of, let alone use. Still, if there’s ever going to be a time when a financial publisher wins over new readers then a global economic crisis is as good as any.

The plan is straightforward enough: expand regional editions in promising markets where it already has a strong editorial base.

First stop: the U.K.

It may sound like another strange move by Bloomberg Media. The U.K. is mired in a cost of living crisis, after all. But it’s a crisis that — at least for now — is hitting lower income households hardest. There are many other people who continue to pay inflated prices for the goods and services they want as evidenced by the profit margins to emerge from Q1. Bloomberg Execs are hoping this extends to business journalism — especially as its own subscriptions in the U.K have been on a tear (growth was up 30% in 2021 alone). And they may have a point. The current economic plight is a big story that’s only getting bigger. It’s not hard to see why those who can afford a Bloomberg subscription might buy one.

“We’ve been here in the U.K. for a long time with a newsroom of over 500 journalists and analysts, but we’ve always served the core reader that is the Bloomberg terminal customer that has used our news service,” said David Merrit, senior executive editor at Bloomberg News. “But we’ve never thought about packaging and promoting our work to the broader audience in the UK who are interested in business and finance.”

This is the real litmus test for how well Bloomberg Media’s plan works, if at all. It can’t win over the broader audience Merrit previously cited by chasing stories only the likes of bankers and financial traders would read. Now, there’s a clearer focus on what people across the U.K. might want to know about the economy. This puts Bloomberg Media up against the likes of the Financial Times and the Times — staples of business journalism in the U.K.

Moreover, it’s willing to spend money to do it.

Indeed, several high-profile, senior journalists have already been hired including BBC broadcaster Emma Barnett, the editor of Politico’s London Playbook newsletter Alex Wickham and senior tech investigations reporter from NBC News Olivia Solon. And more are on the way, said Merrit. The communities that follow those high-profile hires are more important than ever to publishers that are trying to become less reliant on advertising and more dependent on subscriptions and other direct business …read more

Source:: Digiday