Bloomberg Lays Off 100 In TV And Radio; Plans To Staff Up Print, Sales Still On For This Year
This story was written by David Kaplan.
Bloomberg has let go 100 staffers in its U.S. TV and radio operation, but a spokeswoman told paidContent that the company still expects to hire 1,000 new employees in print news, product development, sales and customer service. The reduction of the TV/radio staffincluding 45 in the newsroomwas part a of planned global reorg. Bloomberg is currently mulling additional staff cuts in the TV/Radio segment in Europe, UK and Japan. The TV network now has 11 separate channels in seven languages, each with its own distinct programming. The Bloomberg rep said: "These broadcast operations need to restructure in order to grow and in order to create a truly global network." The financial information services company, which employs 10,000 people worldwide, wants to figure out how to better coordinate production and content at its 145 worldwide bureaus to create cross-border programming.
Bloomberg has stepped up its TV offerings as more demand for financial news has brought more challenges to the dominant CNBC. Furthermore, the company believes it can benefit from of newspapers' dire situation as well, by getting consumers to go to its website and TV channels directly. Media continues to be a small part of its operations, as the bulk of Bloomberg's revenues come from the $1,500 monthly rentals of its financial data terminals. But with the implosion of investment banks since the fall, Bloomberg has been more aggressive about building up both its website and the TV offerings by striking deals with AOL (NYSE: TWX) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) TV Ads.
By David Kaplan