Bloomberg’s Zelenko talks her career, improving diverse voices in coverage

Laura Zelenko, senior executive editor at Bloomberg News, spoke with Toby Usnik of The Caring Economy about her career and the effort she is leading to improve its use of diverse sources in its stories.

Bloomberg discovered in early 2018 that just 10 percent of the guests on Bloomberg Television were female.

“That, by any measure, isn’t balanced and isn’t doing the best that we can do,” she said.

Bloomberg built a database for female experts that has now grown to more than 5,600 people. It also developed tracking tools to measure the use of such sources. And it began a media training initiative for expert  sources that is now in 10 cities.

“The initiatives we’re working on is to make sure our coverage is as fair and balanced and accurate as it can be because that is what our clients are depending on,” said Zelenko.

She started her career with the news service in Prague in 1993 at a time when Bloomberg had just three bureaus in Europe.

“I was very eager to go to Prague after the wall fell,” said Zelenko. “I was freelancing, and there was this company I had never heard of looking for freelancers in Europe.”

She moved to Russia in 1998 to cover its economic crisis. “Bloomberg at the time was very much a startup,” she said.

To listen, go here.