Final JOUR 352 Blog Post

Bloomberg does well to serve its audience, which is primarily investors, business owners, and people interested in the economy. As a company, their Bloomberg Professional Terminal is a useful asset, as it offers a unique set of tools at a high price to customers who do, and will continue to demand their product.

The company’s website provides quality information in a news industry (business news) that offers loyal audiences. The Bloomberg mobile app is another nice feature; considering the nature of their clientele, easy-to-access equity indices and bond rates are a nice touch. Despite all the good features of the company and the site, their main competition according to the Hoover’s database is Dow Jones.

Though Dow Jones is a publicly traded company whereas Bloomberg is private, the latter would do well to compete for the same audience. Business news readers are an excellent niche group in terms of loyalty points. When many newspaper companies failed their paywall attempts, the Wall Street Journal managed to increase its subscriptions. The audience is there, and there a few things Bloomberg could do to maximize its competitive value.

While a lot of the reporting on Bloomberg’s site is done traditionally – talking-head videos, single-media stories – the site does have a unique videos page called Insights that is tucked away in a dark corner. The site should direct traffic there, since the videos are short and by far the most creative things on the sight.

The company could also consider changing the user interface on its mobile app. While the app does provide great information, it’s very plain, black-and-orange layout doesn’t necessarily encourage a lot of use. All things considered, Bloomberg seems poised to hold, and potentially further its solid position in the business news industry.