Bloomberg to expand women’s voices project

Bloomberg editor in chief John Micklethwait sent out the following announcement on Tuesday:

To All in Editorial & Research,

In October 2016, Stephanie Phang and Jodi Schneider started the Women’s Voices project in Asia Pacific with the aim of increasing the number of female experts and officials we quote in stories and on broadcast. This number is historically much lower than for men, meaning half of the world’s population is underrepresented in our reporting. Last year, teams in Asia Pacific found new sources, shared those contacts, and made significant progress to improve our coverage in this regard. To give a few examples: We interviewed a rare woman hedge fund manager in China (whose fund is among the top performers), the head of Australia’s banking association, the CEO of one of Thailand’s biggest asset managers, one of only two Thai female bank presidents, and the first and only woman president of the Bombay Stock Exchange — and we identified other women in business and government who had never or rarely been quoted before.

Because of those results — and because it’s essential to broaden the scope of our news coverage — we will be expanding the Women’s Voices initiative globally starting this month. And we need everyone’s help to replicate the success we’ve had in Asia Pacific. For starters, think about the people you talk to. Do you know any women who we should be quoting more in stories or getting onto TV and radio? Is there a female executive we should profile, an analyst we could cite in our reporting, or a government official who would make news on TV? On International Women’s Day last March we had an all-female lineup of newsmakers on Bloomberg Television in Asia — an idea conceived by BTV’s Haslinda Amin and something that will be replicated globally this year.

There are two components to the Women’s Voices project: First, we will build out our database of quotable female newsmakers.

The second part of Women’s Voices will be to collect data on how often we interview female newsmakers and track our progress in this regard. In the next month, editors will have a way to code stories that feature such interviews. Stay tuned for more details.

Our progress in Asia has shown we can bring new voices to our stories that improve the quality and relevance of our coverage. To be just as successful globally will require everyone’s commitment to this project.