Bloomberg Businessweek turns to film for “Hank”

David Carr of The New York Times writes for Monday’s paper about how Bloomberg Businessweek produced a documentary called “Hank: Five Years From the Brink, ” a new film about the former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. coming out on Thursday, five years after the financial meltdown on Wall Street.

Carr writes, “Mr. Tyrangiel said the deal with Netflix for the film was not indicative of a whole new line of business for Businessweek, but ‘the attention economy is so competitive and an anniversary has a way of focusing the mind.’

“‘By having Hank, who is an authentic guy, look into the camera and tell his story, we brought something significant to the anniversary,’ he added.

“The film’s premiere will be accompanied by an issue of the magazine that focuses exclusively on the anniversary. Daniel L. Doctoroff, the chief executive of Bloomberg, said the film ‘is not going to move the needle on the economics of the magazine, but we had a broader purpose.’ He added, ‘The best way to tell a story is not the way that you have always told it and the film, and the partnership with Netflix, will help broaden our audience with business and financial influencers.’

“In the film, Mr. Paulson acknowledges that some of the fixes, including further consolidation in the banking industry and the growth of government as the primary insurer of mortgages, may sow the seeds of the next crisis, which he sees as ‘unavoidable’ in a free market. But the documentary did give Mr. Paulson the opportunity to strike back at the Wall Street banks that took bailout money, failed to make loans, but paid their leaders huge bonuses.”

Read more here.