Bloomberg Media hires new global head of digital

Bloomberg Media announced Tuesday that it has hired M. Scott Havens as global head of digital.

Based in New York, Havens will be responsible for Bloomberg’s global consumer digital initiatives, overseeing digital product, user experience, partnerships, and overall digital strategy for Bloomberg’s websites, mobile apps, over-the-top platforms, and distributed content partnerships. He will start on Nov. 16.

Havens is currently senior vice president of digital at Time Inc., where he manages operations and drives the strategic development of digital products within the news, business, sports, and entertainment verticals, including People, Time,Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Entertainment Weekly and other titles.

Over the last two years at Time Inc., U.S. traffic grew almost 50 percent while digital revenue growth eclipsed 50 percent.

At Bloomberg, Havens will work closely with Jared Sandberg, editor of Bloomberg Business, to build on Bloomberg’s digital success with the goal of creating the leading multi-platform media destination for global business and finance.

“Scott is a digital pioneer and innovator with deep expertise in the business and financial digital media space,” said Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith in a statement. “He has transformed traditional media organizations into digital powerhouses, and has created new category-transforming brands and business models. At Bloomberg, Scott will build on our efforts to create the most influential global digital platform for business and financial leaders.”

Over the past year, Bloomberg Media has launched two new modern websites, including the BloombergBusiness.com flagship. Growing more than 70% year-over-year, BloombergBusiness.com posted 21.6 million unique visitors in the U.S. in September.

Bloomberg Media has introduced regional digital expansions to better serve growing global audiences, with the EMEA edition launching in April 2015 and Asia-Pacific this week. Bloomberg Media has also increased its investment in digital video, and strengthened video creation and distribution.