Bloomberg launches native ad products

Lucia Moses of Digiday writes about how Bloomberg LP has launched a suite of native ad products as part of its efforts to increase its revenue.

Moses writes, “Bloomberg has been pushing to grow its media arm as it looks beyond its lucrative but maturing terminal subscription business. The new ad product is part of Media Group CEO Justin Smith’s effort to make the business a bigger consumer and advertiser play.

“More broadly, the move fits into a trend among media companies to extend their existing businesses to new revenue areas, like branded content or events. The Bloomberg move also represents a growing recognition that the news side can’t operate in a silo anymore.

“To develop the native ad platform, Lucke pulled together a department of 18 content creators, including journalists hired from outside Bloomberg, and six data scientists. Bloomberg emphasized that the Custom Rankings provides the data but doesn’t create the ads, maintaining separation between the editorial and business sides.

“Bloomberg also is using data to inform the content in the ad itself. It’s analyzing the user behavior of its online audience and using those findings to help advertisers target their message to the right audience. It’s also taking into account what’s trending on social media to determine what topics its audience is interested in.”

Read more here.