Smith: Political polarization presents an opportunity for Bloomberg

Justin Smith

Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith spoke with Kara Blomgarden-Smoke of WWD about media business models, the company’s expansion plans and social media.

Here is an excerpt:

WWD: Does the Bloomberg terminal insulate Bloomberg from industry pressure?
J.S.: We are not insulated from industry pressure in the sense that we are dealing with the same technology disruption around the consumption of media, the same advertising disruption around the delivery and nature of advertising. We are living in the same world as everybody else. But where our terminal business presents us with a competitive advantage is that a lot of the logic and purpose of Bloomberg Media is based around the value that it drives to the terminal business. And that’s our primary focus, but alongside that focus, of course, are the ambitions around building a great media company. But because of the foundation that our terminal and other core businesses offer, we’ve been buffered a little bit from a lot of the high-speed winds of change and disruption.
WWD: We are living in extremely politically polarized times. Has this affected the way that you cover politics?
J.S.: I think that this climate presents a real opportunity for Bloomberg on a couple of different levels. Obviously, the new administration is a business administration, run by a businessman, and that provides us a unique opportunity to interpret and analyze the administration from a business perspective. And secondly, at the core of all business and financial journalism is independent, verifiable, impartial, unbiased data. Much of our journalism actually is born from interpretation of data. That also gives us a way into the story that is differentiated and really important, and they are especially valuable to the audience we serve. Bloomberg Media is not targeting everyone on the planet. We are targeting global business decision-makers and leaders. And data-driven, high-quality, unbiased journalism about everything, including politics, is what sells in our target market.