OLD Media Moves

The man who runs Bloomberg’s speed desk

September 23, 2012

Posted by Chris Roush

Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider writes about Kevin Reynolds, who oversees Bloomberg’s speed desk operation.

Weisenthal writes, “One of his monitors is a feed that’s capturing all the major newswires in real time.

“He communicates with his team using a headset, and on his desk he keeps a digital clock that lets him and his team prepare for rushes — corporate news tends to break at the top and the bottom of the hour, and at this moment, everyone goes into battle stations, ready to grab anything that hits the wires, or goes up on the SEC.

“Reynolds walks into work every day with one mission: ‘make money for his clients.’

“He does this by allowing Bloomberg subscribers (AKA: traders and bankers at every corner of the financial world) know about news before anyone else does.

“‘We measure wins and losses down to the hundredth of a second,’ says Reynolds. ‘We have to deliver.’

“In the wake of some notable reporting SNAFUS by major news orgs, I was eager to know how Bloomberg avoided getting things wrong, given the premium on speed. After all, whereas there were no real negative repercussions of CNN’s SCOTUS screwup, Bloomberg terminal users literally control with their keyboards, trillions of dollars worth of wealth.”

Read more here.

Subscribe to TBN

Receive updates about new stories in the industry daily or weekly.

Subscribe to TBN

Receive updates about new stories in the industry.