Bloomberg Media bets on apps as magazines of the future

Sahil Patel of Digiday writes about Bloomberg Media’s strategy to use mobile phone applications to fuel growth.

Patel writes, “Starting with its redesigned flagship mobile app, Bloomberg plans to launch several new apps in the coming year with a focus on delivering personalized content to users in a more seamless and controllable fashion than what’s currently available on the mobile web and inside social platforms.

“‘Apps are the new magazines and newspapers,’ said Scott Havens, global head of digital for Bloomberg Media. ‘I know if I have brand affinity [for a publisher], it’s because I get what I need and I find it a useful part of my daily media diet — that’s the underlying philosophy for the app.’

“Six months in the making, the new Bloomberg app has a completely overhauled interface. It replaces the previous app’s pared-down, black-and-white design with more color and imagery. And instead of a ‘hamburger’-based navigation menu, the new app comes with tabs on the bottom of the screen — similar to the current Facebook app. (This is intentional as Havens said the previous setup wasn’t working that well. ‘Who better to copy than the biggest platform in the world?’ he said.)”

Read more here.