How Bloomberg’s graphics team personalizes the news

Jordan Valinsky of Digiday writes about the graphics team at Bloomberg.

Valinsky writes, “All Bloomberg reporters have an internal tool, called Toaster, that can whip together simple charts and graphs, but often go straight to Bloomberg Graphics if their stories are steeped in more complex data. ‘More often than not, reporters are excited to see their stories told visually,’ said Chloe Whiteaker, a D.C.-based Bloomberg graphics reporter.

“From there, the graphics teams pull out insights from the data that can inform an interactive, which can take days or even weeks. Sometimes, the data is pulled from algorithms they’ve created on their own to give them an edge over the growing number of upstarts focused on visual journalism. ‘If you’re the only person with the data, it’s easier to compete against competitors,’ Ingold said.

“The team’s original focus was to ‘make data beautiful,’ Ingold said. Increasingly, they pepper in their own additional reporting into the graphics so people not only learn from their pieces but share it. The goal is to arrive at a minimum of one big takeaway, something that will inform and entertain readers, who will in turn feel compelled to share or embed the graphic on social.”

Read more here.