Bloomberg Media wants to take over the world. And print is a big part of their plan to do so.
The four point plan for this year’s growth seeks to position the media company as “the indispensable source of information for the world’s most influential people,” according to a recent article by CEO Justin Smith.
The first point on their plan is to broaden their audience, and print is the natural vehicle to engage business and financial leaders.
According to Smith, “Bloomberg Media’s original target audience was the global financial industry. This strategy successfully established Bloomberg as the premium content, data and analytics provider for financial institutions worldwide.”
“As our parent company expands its market beyond the finance sector, Bloomberg Media’s focus must broaden as well. Acquiring BusinessWeek was an important first step, but we must go further by decisively shifting our focus to global business in order to attract and engage an even broader audience of business decision makers,” Smith continues.
(The company snapped up the flagging BusinessWeek for a mere $5 million in 2009, understanding that the legacy value of a venerated print brand would prove an asset. BusinessWeek’s president at the time Keith Fox commented that “Bloomberg is acquiring a really powerful brand with strong reach among business professionals.”)
Another large part of their growth plan will be in the digital realms, with Bloomberg Media expected to play a larger role digital video and TV. And they’ll invest in advertising in traditional media like print and radio, according to Smith.
“Print remains an important vehicle for driving influence around the world. We will continue to invest in our print magazine and radio platforms, while our competitors pull back,” said Smith.
Perhaps they realize, as Forbes.com pointed out months back, that fewer print ads make that channel more effective in the long run.
“With more and more businesses relying solely on the Internet for their advertising needs, the decline of print publication can actually be used as a marketing advantage. The publications are less crowded, allowing more room for your ad to shine, and possibly even cheaper prices for that ad space.” (Forbes.com)
It’s fantastic to see a huge media company like Bloomberg Media recognize the value of traditional media while they are aggressively building a parallel digital empire.
Smart marketers are seeing more clearly that print, so often neglected in the past few years, is still a vital and important channel for building reach and engagement. We wish them all the best as they move forward.
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