Bloomberg On Its Way To Becoming Most Powerful Media Firm In US

Bloomberg today announced that it will set up a joint venture with The Washington Post (WPO). The Post had a news partnership with the LA Times. The 47-year-old deal was killed earlier this week, perhaps because the huge layoffs that the Times have crippled the paper’s ability to produce good stories.

The new Post deal with Bloomberg will lead to the paper distributing stories on Bloomberg’s terminals and creating a joint online business section. The Post is losing huge amounts of money. Having a rich business partner with substantial news gathering ability could be critical to it keeping its financial pages among the most important in the US. It will also help the Post compete with the rival New York Times (NYT) and Wall Street Journal in covering global business and economic stories.

Bloomberg is quickly becoming one of the most important media companies in the nation. Its Bloomberg TV operation is beginning to challenge CNBC. It has broadened it programming with shows including the Charlie Rose interview show, underscoring Bloomberg’s aspirations to move beyond business news.

Bloomberg now has more than 1,500 editors and writers around the world. That puts it makes it almost as large as the Associated Press. There is no reason Bloomberg cannot go head-to-head as a supplier of content to major newspapers, cable and TV companies, and Internet properties.

Bloomberg’s advantage is that the company is privately held and has revenue of $4 billion from its trading terminal business. The firm is highly profitable according to most analysts. Bloomberg can afford expanding its news operations in a way that no other organization in the world can.

Bloomberg is quickly becoming one of the most powerful media companies in the US and that status is likely to grow.

Douglas A. McIntyre