Bloomberg aiming for consumers

Jeff Bercovici of Forbes writes in the latest issue about Bloomberg L.P.‘s strategy to attract more consumer readers with its news service instead of just money managers and policymakers.

Bercovici writes, “It’s not what anyone would have expected 30 years ago, when Bloomberg started his business with $10 million he’d received in severance from Salomon Brothers. It became all but synonymous with its computer terminals, which supply financial data to traders who pay around a $20,000 annual fee.

“Those terminals still account for the vast majority of the $7 billion in revenues Bloomberg LP booked last year. The recession hardly dented the 12,500-employee company, which recently announced ambitious goals to hit $10 billion in revenue by 2014.

“But the face of the company has changed, starting with the October 2009 purchase of BusinessWeek magazine from McGraw-Hill for $5 million plus liabilities. Since then it has been pouring money into its television and radio division, headed by former NBC News chief Andrew Lack. It has hired more than 100 journalists and analysts for a new service, Bloomberg Government, that launched in January, providing information about legislation and regulation for an annual fee of $5,700. Most recently it announced plans to expand coverage of the wealthy and to launch Bloomberg View, which will serve as the company’s equivalent of an op-ed page, producing opinion for all Bloomberg platforms.”

Read more here.