Bloomberg launches franchise in unusual collaboration

Lucia Moses of Adweek reports that Bloomberg LP is launching a new franchise called The Year Ahead: 2014, a primer for CEOs, that will involve 10 platforms across the company producing a special issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, a two-day conference in Chicago, an online research tool and TV and radio content.

Moses writes, “The company is looking to franchises like The Year Ahead, which has been in the works for more than a year, to grow its small and newish media arm amid slowing sales of its financial data subscriptions, the bedrock of its multi-billion dollar business. One way to do that is to leverage the financial data the company sells to subscribers, commonly referred to as the terminal business, with a broader audience, and this initiative is an attempt to do just that.

“‘The company’s ambition is to grow in the media space, with the launch of television and radio and the acquisition of Bloomberg Businessweek,’ said Justin Smith, Bloomberg’s new global media CEO. ‘A key part of our strategy will be leveraging our data heritage at the company and better distribution of that information.’

“Bloomberg’s business model came into an unwelcome spotlight over the weekend with a front-page New York Times report stating that Bloomberg killed stories on China for fear of retaliation by that country’s government. Bloomberg swiftly denied it postponed the stories due to external pressure.”

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