Categories: OLD Media Moves

The world of Bloomberg Media Group CEO Andy Lack

Bostonia magazine, the magazine of Boston University, profiles Bloomberg Media Group CEO Andy Lack in its summer issue.

Art Jahnke writes, “There is an update on a new website devoted to mergers and acquisitions, a proposal to put Bloomberg video on 1,500 video screens atop gas pumps in the Tri-State area (‘The only thing we can’t report on is petroleum’), a report on a new Bloomberg iPad app that has been submitted to Apple for approval (‘They want to feature it in their stores’), and news that Bloomberg websites have seen record traffic lately, even without the numbers from Bloomberg Businessweek, which Nielsen ratings still attribute to the magazine’s former owner, McGraw-Hill. ‘What?’ says Lack. ‘They still give them to McGraw-Hill? That’s crazy.’

“The meeting is a 30-minute illustration of what has changed in media: it’s not just about programming anymore. It’s about presentation, many kinds of presentation. Lack calls it Bloomberg’s three-screen strategy, a commitment to get as much content as possible on every device with a screen display, no matter how small or large. ‘There is the HD screen,’ he says. ‘And that now offers the opportunity to include lots of visual information and data that we have not been able to show viewers until now. There is the PC screen, and there is the screen clipped to your belt or in your pocket. There is also the tablet, so our three-screen strategy is really a four-screen strategy now. Call it an every-screen strategy. We are working with multiple platforms and trying to make sure that we are smart across all of them.’

“Lack promises Bloomberg websites in Japanese, Spanish, German, and Portuguese, all pushed out to new mobile devices that have yet to be imagined. ‘With mobile, we’re just at the beginning,’ he says. ‘Nobody’s got much of a business model there yet, but I think mobile will be one of the game changers at Bloomberg.’

“Eventually, Lack admits, some kind of game changer will be required to lift the bottom line: word has come down that Bloomberg Media must operate as a sustainable business.”