What the hiring of Havens means for Bloomberg Media

Ken Doctor writes for Politico Media about what the hiring of Scott Havens as global head of digital means for Bloomberg Media, which is run by his former Atlantic Media colleague Justin Smith.

Doctor writes, “Smith has had his ups and downs in his two-year Bloomberg tenure, but his reuniting with Havens may speed up strategic moves. It was those two who were central to the Quartz launch, and the related and parallel hires of current Quartz publisher Jay Lauf, Quartz editor Kevin Delaney and now-COO Michael Finnegan, who continue to bust out the jams of what a start-up business pub with fresh ideas can do.

“Quartz, along with Business Insider, did what any reasonable pundit would have said five years ago was highly unlikely: both have found ample oxygen in a digital-only business news space that we would have expected Dow Jones, the FT, Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg to dominate. A round-up of Quartz’s latest milestones – including 16 million monthly uniques and YOY revenue up 80%, with an asserted 90 per cent renewal rates among 120 ‘blue chip brand’ advertisers — here.

“Can Smith and Havens newly apply their entrepreneurial smarts to the next life of Bloomberg Media? Strategy is one thing, and culture is quite another, and let’s recall what make a meal of the other.”

Read more here.