Al Mayers, head of Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Radio, sent out the following to his staff on Friday:
On the biggest story of the year we distinguished ourselves with around-the-clock live coverage from all regions. On radio and on TV, we were disciplined in the hours leading up to the vote and comprehensive once the polls closed, reporting the results and the reaction. We were able to do this because we worked hard on planning and preparing to broadcast as one integrated team around the world. What we accomplished is a model of how we plan to compete and win by serving our global professional audience.
Rivals focused on the political drama. While we included that aspect of the story, we also leveraged our competitive advantage by emphasizing the seismic market reactions across regions and across asset-classes. We showcased the breadth and expertise of our news organization with live reports from across the EU, deploying our broadcast talent, BN talent and the Bloomberg to bring market data to life.
Throughout our shows we spoke to dozens of newsmakers, including RSA CEO and former RBS CEO Stephen Hester, former ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, former Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohaned El-Erian, Labour Economist Danny Blanchflower, Fmr BOE Monetary Policy Committee Member, S&P’s Moritz Kraemer, and Janus Capital Management’s Bill Gross, generating dozens of BN headlines. We were nimble at balancing the news that matters most to our audience, jumping on the latest audio and video as quickly as possible. We took the entirety of Mark Carney’s statement on emergency liquidity measures while one major competitor sat on a commercial break.
Our radio stations started full team coverage at 5pm Thursday night with an extended version of Taking Stock which reported the first exit poll results. The combined radio/tv First Word Asia team took air at 6pm and continued non stop coverage throughout the night. Bloomberg The First Word and Bloomberg Surveillance programs woke up our U.S. audience with the latest information live from London. Bloomberg Radio is the go-to source for our customers as they commute to and from work.
Our radio stations started full team coverage at 5pm Thursday night with an extended version of Taking Stock which reported the first exit poll results. The combined radio/tv First Word Asia team took air at 6pm and continued non stop coverage throughout the night. Bloomberg The First Word and Bloomberg Surveillance programs woke up our U.S. audience with the latest information live from London. Bloomberg Radio is the go-to source for our customers as they commute to and from work.
Our radio syndication team provided additional live and expanded reports from midnight to 5am for our more than 300 affiliates, highlighting market reaction and guest insights to the Brexit vote.
This was another example the power of great teamwork. That is how we will continue to attack this historic story this weekend, next week and beyond. Thank you all for your effort and for pulling together as one global team.
