The Bloomberg Way Since 1996, Bloomberg Press has published books for financial professionals, as well as books of general interest in investing, eco- nomics, current affairs, and policy affecting investors and business people. Titles are written by well-known practitioners, Bloomberg reporters and columnists, and other leading authorities and jour- nalists. Bloomberg Press books have been translated into more than 20 languages. For a list of available titles, please visit our website at www.wiley .com/go/bloombergpress. The Bloomberg Way
A Guide fo r Journalists
John Micklethwait Paul Addison Jennifer Sondag Bill Grueskin Cover image and design: Bloomberg Studio Copyright © 2017 by Bloomberg LP. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. The Bloomberg Way was previously published in eleven editions by Bloomberg for its employees. Subsequent editions, including the fourteenth edition, were published by Wiley. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or trans- mitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record- ing, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifi - cally disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fi tness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the pub- lisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profi t or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762- 2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993, or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http:// booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Micklethwait, John, author. | Addison, Paul, 1952- author. | Sondag, Jennifer, author. | Grueskin, Bill, author. | Winkler, Matthew, Bloomberg way. Title: The Bloomberg way : a guide for journalists / John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief ; with Paul Addison, Jennifer Sondag and Bill Grueskin. Description: Fourteenth edition. | Hoboken, New Jersey : Bloomberg Press, [2017] | Series: Bloomberg ; 2884 | Includes index. | Identifi ers: LCCN 2017013991 (print) | LCCN 2017033178 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119272328 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119272311 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119272328 (ePDF) | ISBN 9781119272335 (ePub) Subjects: LCSH: Bloomberg News (Firm) | Journalism, Commercial—Authorship—Style manuals. | BISAC: REFERENCE / Writing Skills. Classifi cation: LCC PN4784.C7 (ebook) | LCC PN4784.C7 W56 2017 (print) | DDC 070.4/4965—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017013991 Printed in the United States of America. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ffi rs iv 11 November 2017 4:11 PM Contents
Introduction ix
Chapter 1: What We Do 1 The Bloomberg Way 2 Bloomberg Editorial & Research 4 Collaboration in Action 9 Chapter 2 How We Report 15 Learning a Beat 15 Sourcing 21 Interviewing 26 Breaking News 30 The Multiplatform Approach 33 Beyond Breaking News 37 Pitching Your Story 42 Research Using the Terminal 44 Chapter 3 How We Write 49 Headlines 50
v vi Contents
Leads & Nut Paragraphs 60 The Whole Story 69 Writing Well 74 Corrections & Lapses 80 Sending Corrections 83 Social Media 83 Chapter 4 How We Use Data 91 Charting 92 Commonly Used Terms 95 Common Errors 100 Automation 101 Technical Analysis 103 Chapter 5 Ethics & Standards 107 Accuracy & Fairness 108 Defamation 110 Privacy 113 Access 114 Plagiarism 115 Conflicts of Interest 116 Conduct 120 Endorsements & Paying Our Way 122 Events & Interviews 123 Contests 124 Chapter 6 How We Cover Markets 127 What’s Moving (& Why) 128 Traders & Investors 131 Markets Style 133 Equities 135 Debt 138 Currencies 143 Commodities 147 Chapter 7 How We Cover Companies 153 Earnings 154 Deals 160 Corporate Debt 166 Finding News 170 Contents vii
Context & Valuation 173 Corporate Equity 177 Chapter 8 How We Cover Economies & Governments 183 Economies 184 Governments 192 Acknowledgments 197 Appendix 199 Words & Terms 213 Index 323
Introduction
Every army of journalists needs its marching orders and rules of engagement. Ever since its founding in 1990, Bloomberg News has followed The Bloomberg Way. Written by Matt Winkler, our founder and editor-in-chief until 2015, it has been one of the most successful journalistic bibles of modern time. The Bloomberg Way has played a huge role in turning a tiny upstart, which began with just a dozen reporters crammed into two offices in New York and London, into the leading provider of financial and business news around the globe. Its first version, a guide to reporting and editing the story of money in all its forms, was a 30-page manifesto, inspired by The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White; its last edition was almost 10 times that length, encompassing far more than just financial markets and making it a resource for the world’s leading journalism schools. Looking back, Matt’s starting point was a simple one: Bloomberg would follow standards that were at least as strict as its more established rivals—and often far stricter. This partly reflected the reality of compe- tition. Bloomberg’s journalism is aimed at possibly the most sophisti- cated audience in the world, for whom accuracy is essential: Billions of
ix x Introduction
dollars can move within seconds of a story being published. From the beginning, Matt made sure that there would never be an opportunity for any of our competitors to claim that we cut corners. Bloomberg News might have started as a guerilla army, but the Bloomberg Way meant that it was a highly trained and disciplined army, one that relied on facts, numbers and credible sources to break news. The Bloomberg Way was always about more than just beating the competition. Its tough standards, and especially its ethical credo, also reflected the values of its author as well as those of the man who employed him. Ever since it first appeared in the then-opaque bond market in 1982, the Bloomberg Terminal has been a force for trans- parency: It gives customers the data they need to make decisions. When Mike Bloomberg rang the self-described “happiest reporter at the Wall Street Journal” on the second Wednesday in November 1989 to ask what it would take to get into the news business, Matt replied with a question of his own. “All right,” I said. “You have just published a story that says the chairman—and I mean chairman—of your biggest customer has taken $5 million from the corporate till. He is with his secretary at a Rio de Janeiro resort, and the secretary’s spurned boyfriend calls to tip you off. You get an independent verification that the story is true. Then the phone rings. The customer’s public relations person says, ‘Kill the story or we will return all the terminals we rent from you.’ What would you do?” “Go with the story,” Mike said. “Our lawyers will love the fees you generate.” It is not unusual for journalists to write about their customers, especially advertisers. But Bloomberg occupies a unique role in finance: We are in a way both its parish newsletter and its journal of record. By putting transparency and independence at the heart of Bloomberg’s journalism from the very beginning, Matt and Mike established something that could last. We will make mistakes—all journalists do—but they will not be ones that spring from bias or commercial interest. Indeed, our only interest is maintaining the value of what we do for the community that we serve—and that comes from telling the story as honestly as we can. Capitalism needs its chronicle—that is our job. Introduction xi
Given the success of the Bloomberg Way over the past quarter century, why have we decided to update it? Well, in one way, it is not changing at all. The basic principles are the same: Indeed, the very start of this book’s first chapter sets out Matt’s vision of the Bloomberg Way. It remains our credo, especially when it comes to questions of transparency and independence. The main aim of this edition is to apply those principles across all the platforms where Bloomberg journalism appears—and in many cases to tighten them. When an anchor on Bloomberg TV discusses the profitability of a company, we want him or her to highlight the same numbers as the reporter who covers the company. Bloomberg Businessweek has used shortened versions of company names; now it will use the same full names as the rest of the group. We are one newsroom. Henceforth, there will be one Bloomberg Way for names, numbers and standards. Those examples also hint at the first reason for updating the Way. Bloomberg has changed. The scrappy upstart is now the market leader in business and financial journalism: We can afford to be more self-confident. We have also become far broader. The old Bloomberg Way targeted the written news story on the terminal, the core of the original Bloomberg News. Now (as Chapter 1, What We Do, lays out) Bloomberg Editorial & Research is spread out across many dif- ferent platforms: the terminal, the internet, magazines, television, radio and events. It also uses multiple formats. A “story” can be as short as a First Word item or as long as a 35,000-word essay on computer coding. A successful digital video demands a different ver- nacular from a headline or a tweet. So this guide tries to say how we present journalism on different platforms—as well as where we need to be the same. The four- paragraph lead—Matt’s way of presenting the reader with a compelling who, what, when, where, why and how—is still a very effective way to begin a 600-word news story, but a magazine piece that is five times that length needs to entice a reader more subtly. This edition lays down some rules but also makes clear where they can be broken. Its guiding principle is the audience: What is the clearest, quickest way to communicate the story in the most convenient xii Introduction
format? Our readers and viewers tend to be intelligent people who have more money than time. A second prompt for change is technology. Journalism is an evolving craft. At one time a news story had to be the whole story, with a lot of background explanation, because it had to treat all readers the same. The story needed to include a lot of boilerplate information, because even if the head of Pimco knew exactly how a U.S. Treasury auction worked, Aunt Agatha might not. But now we live in a world of clickable links and background explainers, like QuickTakes. The head of Pimco doesn’t have to be slowed down, but Aunt Agatha can click through to find out exactly what a repo is. Another technological prompt is automation as computers can help deliver information very quickly and increasingly spot links before human brains do. Again, this is something that should help us do our job better. But this must not become a Wild West: People need to be made aware when they are listening to a machine’s voice, as opposed to one mediated by a human being. Machines are only as objective as the people who set their controls. A third immodest reason to update the Bloomberg Way is me. Every editor-in-chief has his or her peculiar preferences, and they are reflected in the style books of the organizations that they lead. My preferences are sometimes different from Matt’s, just as my successor’s will be different from mine. But—and yes, I just used that word—we still agree on the big things, the eternal verities. The army is still marching in the same direction, toward the sound of gunfire.
John Micklethwait 1
What We Do
Our mandate at Bloomberg Editorial & Research is to be the chronicle of capitalism, meaning we provide definitive coverage of everything that matters in business, finance, markets, economics, technology, and politics and government. This requires focusing our firepower so that terminal users, television viewers, radio listeners and magazine readers get what they want, when they want it. Sometimes, our most important story of the day is a scoop that moves markets and beats the competition by seconds. At other times, our biggest story is an astonishing, richly reported investigative piece, an exclusive television interview or an interactive graphic that guides the user through a complex topic. No matter the vehicle, meaningful reporting on money and power—and the people who have them—is at the heart of our mission. To quote Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Matt Winkler:
Following the Bloomberg Way requires precision in language, atten- tion to detail, a hunger for knowledge, persistence in getting any task accomplished no matter how daunting, the humility to recognize that none of us is infallible and the decency to address anyone and every- one with concern and kindness. 1 2 The Bloomberg Way
These goals bridge the gulf between the pressure to “just get the news out” and the responsibility to get it right the first time. We can and should do both.
The Bloomberg Way Guiding Principles It isn’t news if it isn’t true. Accuracy is the most important principle in journalism. There is no such thing as being first with news if we’re wrong. Show, don’t tell. Support statements and assertions with facts, figures and anecdotes. Write with nouns and verbs; be sparing with adjectives and adverbs. News is a surprise. What do we know today that we didn’t know yesterday? That question will offer guidance when decid- ing which facts to highlight first. Why are we reporting this? Why are we reporting this now? No story is worth writing unless we answer these questions for our readers. Names make news. People want to read and hear about peo- ple—the actors and the victims. The bigger the name, the big- ger the audience. Not invented here. We immediately report news from other orga- nizations and then seek to advance the story. We don’t accept the idea that if we didn’t break the news, it didn’t happen, and we should never fail to acknowledge who did break the news. Follow the money. Explaining the role of money in all its forms—from capital flows to executive compensation to the cost of an acquisition to election spending—reveals the mean- ing of news. We then examine how that information relates to shareholders, bondholders and anyone else with money at stake. One story for all. Write with a style and simplicity that a lay- man can understand and a professional can appreciate. The more we prepare, the luckier we will be. We develop the necessary sources and knowledge in advance so we can deliver What We Do 3 our best judgment when news breaks. That is what readers, listeners and viewers need most at the moment their interest is greatest. We adhere to the Five Fs. We strive to be the most Factual word on any topic, the First to report the news and the Fastest to report the details. We should also be the Final word—or the most definitive source—on major events as well as the Future word that tells our audience what’s next.
Ethics & Standards We avoid conflicts of interest, whether they’re actual or per- ceived, whether they’re political, financial or personal. We are not deceptive, duplicitous or dishonest in gathering and reporting news. We don’t hide the fact that we are journal- ists, and are transparent in interactions with our sources, read- ers and viewers. We never break the law, and we don’t ask another person or group to violate laws on our behalf. We don’t pay sources for information or access, and we don’t accept payments from sources or institutions we cover. We write accurately, making every effort to verify facts, pro- vide appropriate context and obtain complete responses to accusations. We correct any errors promptly, transparently and completely. We write fairly, without bias or agenda. Opinion and commen- tary are clearly labeled as such. We don’t use any public forum, including social media, to express opinions in a way that would harm our ability to cover the news impartially. We are often expected to cover news about customers of Bloomberg LP. We do not allow commercial considerations to shade our news judgment because that would undermine our integrity and reputation.
(For more, please see Ethics & Standards, Chapter 5.) 4 The Bloomberg Way
Bloomberg Editorial & Research Few news organizations in the world have more reach or depth than Bloomberg Editorial & Research. With more than 2,700 journalists and analysts in about 120 countries, we can cover just about any- thing. If a finance minister holds a press conference in Accra, Ghana, we’re there. If workers threaten to strike at a Chilean copper mine, we’re there. If a tech company introduces a major new product in Silicon Valley, we’re there, too. We use the Bloomberg Terminal to make connections that our competitors can’t replicate. Our journalists can leverage data to show that Kenya had the most stable currency in Africa in 2016, that the state of California is the world’s sixth-biggest economy, or that the stock sold in Facebook’s IPO was more costly on a price-to-earnings basis than almost every company in the S&P 500 Index. Showing this relative value makes our journalism unique. Our team includes not just reporters and editors, but also pho- tographers, TV anchors, analysts, Terminal Tip social-media managers, economists, Throughout this book you opinion writers and podcast produc- will find boxes like this one ers. We expect our journalists to wear highlighting the Bloomberg functions we use to break many hats—it’s not uncommon for news and add context to our a reporter to file headlines from an reporting. event, write a story featuring charts he or she designed, and then appear on Bloomberg Television. This kind of talent enables us to produce journalism in the following forms:
Breaking News: This encompasses journalism ranging from rapid-fire headlines delivered in a fraction of a second to stories that report on developments accurately and quickly. One of our most efficient vehicles for such stories is First Word, which pub- lishes articles written as a series of bullet points rather than para- graphs. These pieces can also serve as standalone stories aimed at market professionals who don’t have the time to read long-form prose. What We Do 5
Beat Reporting: We organize the newsroom by coverage area so journalists become experts on their beats—whether they’re report- ing on mining, politics or private equity firms. Beat reporters are responsible for getting the news out and then looking more deeply into what it all means. To tackle complex subjects from multinational mergers to arcane financial instruments, we often have to dig to get the right quotes, color and background to tell a compelling narrative. It’s stories like these that landed Bloomberg a Pulitzer Prize in 2015. Analysis and Research: Readers, viewers and listeners also need sophisticated insight into the economy, corporate strategy and finance. Our journalists look for the meaning behind the headlines and turn to our Bloomberg Intelligence and Bloomberg New Energy Finance analysts for their in-depth research on com- panies and industries. Opinion: Under the umbrella of Bloomberg View, we publish editorials representing the views of the company and its primary owner, Michael Bloomberg, as well as opinion pieces from inde- pendent columnists across the political and economic spectrum. In 2015, we started Gadfly to provide fast commentary on piv- otal market, financial and corporate news. In 2017, we intro- duced Bloomberg Prophets to deliver actionable insights from real-world market participants. Data: Bloomberg’s vast collection of information provides both a source of story ideas as well as the evidence needed to back up our reporting. We create charts to accompany print and broad- cast stories and design ambitious interactive graphics based on our trove of data. Once we’ve produced the content, here are the main channels we use to convey that information to our audience:
The Terminal The terminal is the heart and soul of Bloomberg, and it is where our stories start. The “front page” of the terminal is TOP, with a constantly updated mix of breaking news, scoops, analysis, commen- tary, charts and graphics, along with feature stories and videos. All of Editorial & Research contributes. 6 The Bloomberg Way
Many terminal customers also get their news from alerts pegged to companies, securities, people or keywords. Our news is indexed on hundreds of pages, so readers can find what they need, as soon as it’s available. Some readers also come to the terminal via custom- ized news alert emails on topics ranging from cotton to interest-rate swaps. Terminal stories appear in many languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, German, Turkish, Portuguese and Korean. Our teams produce original articles in those languages as well as translations of published stories. The first Bloomberg News story—a piece about a person- nel change at Goldman Sachs—ran on June 14, 1990, when the company had about 9,500 terminal customers. Today, we pro- duce thousands of stories and headlines a day for about 325,000 subscribers.
Radio & Television Bloomberg’s radio roots go back to 1992, when the company pur- chased the WNEW station in New York. Today, Bloomberg Radio is broadcast around the world. In the U.S., Bloomberg Radio reports and programs are syndicated to more than 300 affiliates. We also broadcast on WBBR in New York, WXKS in Boston, KNEW in San Francisco and WDCH in Washington. Almost two years after Bloomberg Radio got its start, Bloomberg Television began. Now anchored from studios in Dubai, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco and Sydney, its reach is also global, with broadcast affiliates from India
Terminal Tip to Mexico and a network available in MEDI more than 470 million homes.
Watch Bloomberg TV, listen to Bloomberg Radio Magazines and find clips of the most- Bloomberg publishes two maga- watched interviews and events. zines: Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg Markets. What We Do 7
Businessweek, which Bloomberg acquired in 2009, offers a global perspective, timely insights and unique stories to more than 600,000 subscribers. Markets began publishing in July 1992 and was relaunched in 2016 as a bimonthly publication. The magazine caters to financial professionals—mainly Bloomberg Terminal clients, who get it as part of their subscription.
Digital Bloomberg Digital is our gateway to a global audience and reaches more than 80 million unique users monthly. Our website is organized into sections dedicated to Markets, Technology, Politics, Pursuits, Opinion and Businessweek. Bloomberg.com runs a selection of stories from Bloomberg News but does not generally publish content from First Word, Bloomberg Intelligence or other specialized platforms. Our digital team pro- duces original reporting, graphics, videos and podcasts. It also runs our social-media feeds on Facebook and Twitter via our @business account, among others.
Bloomberg Intelligence BI is our research arm, providing in-depth analysis and data on industries, companies, credit, government, economics and litigation. BI has almost 300 research professionals who together write about 500 short reports a day. BI has been part of the Editorial & Research group since early 2015, and the relationship is unique, given BI’s mission. Editorial and BI may Terminal Tip BI talk to each other in general terms about topics, but each team should Find Bloomberg Intelligence research by sector, topic protect its own information and or region. View reports on sources, including unpublished sto- critical themes. ries and research. Reporters are free to quote from published BI reports 8 The Bloomberg Way
in their stories and to interview analysts and economists who have been approved to speak with the media. (You can read more about this relationship in Ethics & Standards, Chapter 5.)
Bloomberg New Energy Finance BNEF offers tools and data to track
Terminal Tip changes in the global energy system. BNEF The group provides independent analysis about the entire spectrum View research from Bloomberg New Energy of technologies and industries, Finance. Filter by sector, from renewables and storage to fuel geography and type of research. cells, electric vehicle batteries, grid integration, liquefied natural gas, carbon markets and climate negotia- tions. BNEF also hosts annual summits in London, New York and Shanghai for energy leaders.
Bloomberg Briefs Briefs are a stable of newsletters that provide curated news on topics such as hedge funds, municipal bonds and economics.
Daybreak Our customizable morning news service started in 2016 as a one-stop mobile product that takes less than 10 minutes to read and gives users everything they need to be ready for work. Delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday from cities including New York, London and Hong Kong, Terminal Tip DAYB each edition is divided into four sec- tions: “Need to Know” summarizes View the most recent edition of Daybreak. the biggest news of the day; “My Topics” allows readers to select news from industries and regions; “My Tickers” provides headlines on companies in users’ portfolios; and “Nice to Know” touches on lighter fare, from sports and entertain- ment to science. What We Do 9
Bloomberg LIVE Our events group convenes newsmakers, influencers and up-and- comers for invitation-only gatherings that range from small round- table discussions to multiday conferences attended by hundreds. Bloomberg journalists conduct the onstage interviews and moderate panel discussions designed to generate editorial content across platforms. Major summits include Breakaway for chief executive officers, Invest for institutional investors and The Year Ahead, which examines the most urgent topics facing business leaders.
QuickTake Bloomberg began publishing QuickTake explainers in 2013, provid- ing concise guides to topics in the news. There are now hundreds of these authoritative, easy-to-read primers on the most important and complex issues of the day, from El Niño and tax inversions to sustainable investment and driverless cars. Each QuickTake links to news stories, videos and View commen- taries, providing the best of Bloomberg in one place. They are living articles, revised and updated in response to news. They are acces- sible by typing QUICK or NI QUICK on the Bloomberg Terminal.
Bloomberg BNA Bloomberg BNA, based in Arlington, Virginia, is a wholly owned sub- sidiary of Bloomberg Inc. that covers legal, tax and regulatory issues. In 2017, Bloomberg Government, also known as BGOV, became part of BNA. The group is managed separately from Editorial.
Collaboration in Action Having multiple platforms gives us a great advantage over the compe- tition, but it also raises the stakes. Success relies on communication between our teams and regions, beginning with detailed prepara- tion and concluding with stories and other content that break news, move markets or have far-reaching impact. Collaboration is the cor- nerstone of this organization, and one of the most important ways by which we will judge our performance in the years ahead. 10 The Bloomberg Way
The first step is to focus on the mission—what are we trying to achieve? The next is to consider what other parts of Bloomberg Editorial & Research benefit from knowing about and participat- ing in a specific event. This could be as relatively uncomplicated as a company’s earnings release or a central bank press conference. It could also be an event that takes months of planning and coordina- tion, such as the Davos World Economic Forum, a country’s election coverage or an interview with a corporate or political leader. Take, for example, Bloomberg’s exclusive interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok in September 2016. Our pur- suit of Putin began with a reporter in Moscow lobbying the Kremlin for more than a year to show his advisers the breadth and depth of Bloomberg’s global reach, including our multiple media formats and languages. That was just the beginning. After we landed the two-hour interview, scores of print, TV, radio, web, visual media, social media and local-language journalists collaborated to publish content on more than 15 Bloomberg platforms and wires in seven languages. Here’s how it happened: Immediately after the interview, we published a raft of flash head- lines for terminal customers, including:
PUTIN SAYS DNC HACK WAS A PUBLIC SERVICE, RUSSIA DIDN’T DO IT PUTIN SEES ROSNEFT SALE AS SOON AS THIS YR TO EASE BUDGET PAIN PUTIN SAYS NO NEED TO TAP FOREIGN DEBT MARKETS FOR NOW PUTIN PUSHES FOR OIL FREEZE DEAL WITH OPEC, EXEMPTION FOR IRAN U.S., RUSSIA NEAR COOPERATION ACCORD ON SYRIA, PUTIN SAYS
The response was almost instan- taneous. Putin’s comments about Terminal Tip Syria, OPEC and privatization ROSN LI
Rosneft’s Two-Day Stock Movement
355
353.60
350 Share pr ice (in Ru bl
345 es)
340
09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00
02 Sep 2016 05 Sep 2016 Source: Bloomberg
Figure 1.1 Rosneft reaches intraday record
At the same time, First Word was filling out the headlines with short stories written in its traditional bullet-point format, and beat reporters were publishing longer narratives for rotation in the TOP page. Those included three exclusives: Putin’s views on the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails; comments on how he’d like Russia and OPEC to reach a deal on freezing oil supply; and his plans to sell a stake in Rosneft. A Briefs newsletter seized on the OPEC story to add perspec- tive on the energy angle. Meanwhile, the Daybreak team led its daily morning digest with Putin’s comments, and the QuickTake team updated its succinct explainer on Putin (“Russia’s Most Popular Man”) to include items from the interview. We also pub- lished transcripts in English and Russian with the full text of the interview. Bloomberg Television, Radio and our Podcast team highlighted different parts of the interview throughout the day as viewers and 12 The Bloomberg Way
Stories relevant to different countries ran concurrently in six other languages:
Russian:
Mandarin:
Japanese:
German: Eurozone könnte schrumpfen nach Brexit-Präzedenzfall—Putin
Portuguese: Putin pressiona por acordo de congelamento de petróleo com Opep
Korean:
listeners awoke in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Bloomberg TV later produced a one-hour program featuring highlights (Figure 1.2). On the web, Bloomberg.com released a special section featur- ing 17 stories (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/special-reports/ vladimir-putin). The Social Media team tweeted highlights from the interview, generating more than a million views, and posted items on Facebook and Instagram. Bloomberg View weighed in with an edito- rial and several columns. What We Do 13
Figure 1.2 Bloomberg TV previews the Putin interview
Then came the high-level political reaction. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe responded to Putin’s comments about a ter- ritorial dispute. And Putin’s observations on the U.S. election led to a retort from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign. We reported on that, too: Putin Sees Opening With Japan on World War II Island Dispute Putin Blasts Both Trump and Clinton for ‘Shock’ Tactics Clinton Camp Says Putin Remarks Show Aim to Disrupt Election
Our coverage didn’t end there. Bloomberg Businessweek showcased Putin on its cover the following Terminal Tip week and ran part of the interview MAG in a question-and-answer format (Figure 1.3). See the latest copies of Bloomberg Businessweek The content was published or and Bloomberg Markets followed by major media around the magazines. world, from the Financial Times, Wall 14 The Bloomberg Way
Street Journal and Reuters to Russia’s Interfax, TASS, RIA Novosti and dozens of websites in China. It’s clear that collaboration before and after the event helped magnify the interview’s impact. To borrow from Aristotle, at Bloomberg the whole is always greater than the sum of our parts. Working together makes that possible.
Figure 1.3 Bloomberg Businessweek’s Vladimir Putin cover 2
How We Report
At the heart of any news operation—whether it’s a one-person industry newsletter or a global wire service—is reporting. The world is awash in opinion, conjecture and conventional wisdom. Bloomberg’s audience depends on us to cut through the noise and chaff, to gather and assess information quickly, correctly and wisely. Our journalists have several advantages—the Bloomberg brand, which conveys authority and accuracy; the terminal, which provides a deep trove of data and background; and a global network of bureaus, which enables us to cover news almost anywhere in the world. But ultimately, the quality of our news depends on our ability to observe, to interview, to research, to investigate and to cultivate sources. That’s what this chapter is designed to help you do.
Learning a Beat How do great reporters master their beats? How do they get scoop after scoop, front row seats at news events, and calls returned from newsmakers? It doesn’t happen overnight. Reporters assigned to a new area of coverage need to invest time to establish credibility. The best journalists take the following steps:
15 16 The Bloomberg Way
Read, read, read Sources will often talk only to the most knowledgeable journalists. Immerse yourself in the minutiae of the beat by reading articles, academic studies, research from Bloomberg Intelligence, industry newsletters, court papers, conference call transcripts, books and memos. A commodities reporter who visits the American Metal Market website will learn about the upcoming Steel Tube and Pipe Conference. (Yes, it’s real.) The editor who studies Securities and Exchange Commission filings can spot when a company changes its stance on pending litigation. By being well-read, you also can avoid spending weeks report- ing a piece only to discover the competition broke the same story months earlier.
Find out who knows the most Identify newsmakers and people behind the scenes influencing what happens on the beat. Who are the managers, lawyers, bank- ers, investors and economists mak- ing or executing key decisions? The
Terminal Tip people search function PEOP on NEWS ON the Bloomberg Terminal helps you find profiles by job title, education, For news about any topic, simply type NEWS ON location, industry and keyword. followed by the subject, Looking for a chief financial offi- date and wire. For example: NEWS ON VODAFONE IN cer in London who’s a graduate of INDIA ON BLOOMBERG Harvard Business School? A quick LAST MONTH search lists a handful of names. Similarly, the security owner- ship function HDS reveals a company’s biggest shareholders, and the fund screener FSRC tracks how fund managers perform against their peers. When reaching out, you may need to start with analysts, lower- level executives or public relations departments. It helps to end every conversation with, “Who else knows about this?” Keep track of your sources using a modern equivalent of a Rolodex, preferably How We Report 17 a spreadsheet or an app on your phone that can be accessed on the fly. Jotting down a note each time you speak to someone can prepare you for the next conversation. Always take care to protect names and other information that could identify confidential sources. Some sources may be less obvi- ous. A reporter who moves to
Detroit to cover the automotive Terminal Tip industry will want to talk to local PEOP dealerships, auto-parts manufac- Use the People Search turers and union workers, as well database to find the world’s as company management. If you’re most influential people. Sort by career, location, industry, covering a big retail chain, don’t just university and keyword. meet the CEO. Visit stores and talk to employees and customers.
Collect string Be disciplined about gathering details, background and examples— also known as “string.” If a company arranges a quick interview or meeting with a newly appointed head of a small unit, spend part of the conversation gathering the kind of personal information you’d want if she’s later named CEO. How did she pick this career? Who was instrumental in her success? What are her interests outside of work? Develop a system for archiving notes and quotes so they’re easily readable, searchable and usable. What are the keywords that need to be in every document? If you keep paper notebooks, are they dated and organized so you don’t have to spend hours digging for a crucial anecdote or quote? If you record an interview, do you immediately transcribe the relevant piece and then label the file so you can easily find it again? Be sure to note if comments were on the record, off the record or on background. There’s often a payoff. In 2015, Bloomberg wrote about Chinese families attempting to secure life-saving cancer drugs for their chil- dren (Figure 2.1). Our reporter visited families’ homes, observed their daily lives and went through bills and medical documents to 18 The Bloomberg Way
get details. She transcribed her notes daily and gave readers these compelling details: Three mothers share a monthly food budget of about 1,800 yuan to ensure their children have some pork, fish or eggs in every meal. They wait until the kids finish to eat what’s left. When asked if he’d like new toys, one little boy, Sibo, gave an answer that was uncharacteristic for a four-year-old: “No, I need to save money to buy medicines, I need the medicines to live.”
Figure 2.1 A child in eastern China battling leukemia
Get out of the office Reporters who stay glued to their desks can miss details that create the most memorable parts of a story. Go where the action is and experience it yourself. Meet people where they work or relax—in an office, on the factory floor, in a coffee shop—to have more candid conversations and note how things look, smell and sound. Industry conferences are fruitful places to build a network. A reporter who’s armed with a steady handshake and a stack of busi- ness cards can meet people cold for hours. Better yet, find out who’s How We Report 19 likely to attend and send them notes in advance to see if they might spare some time on the sidelines. Remember, many conference attendees are from out of town, have time to kill and are there to network, too.
Examine the data Politicians study voter polls, economists examine unemployment statistics, marketing officers hunt for trends in income and demo- graphics. So you, too, should dig into the numbers. Learn your beat’s specialized sets of numbers. Hotel companies, for example, measure their health by RevPAR—or revenue per avail- able room, calculated by multiplying the average daily room rate by its occupancy rate. Beverage companies pay attention to the volume of liquid sold. Ask analysts, investors and executives what data points are important to them. Bloomberg Intelligence can also help. For example, a 2017 BI report on energy deals used data on oil exploration and production, takeovers and valuations to examine whether the pace of U.S. merg- ers and acquisitions would accelerate or slow. Data can back up, or disprove, what sources tell us. Sometimes the data become the story. Sophisticated number crunching helped Bloomberg publish one of its most-read stocks stories in 2015. The reporters exported more than 20,000 lines of daily market performance into a spreadsheet and discovered a surprise: Even though benchmark indexes were near record highs, investors lacked confidence in equities. The story: Stocks Can’t Get Rally Going With Longest Drought Since ‘94 Stringing together gains in the American stock market has become next to impossible. Knocked down 1.5 percent Wednesday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has now gone 26 days without posting gains in back-to-back sessions, the longest stretch since 1994, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Losses in biotechnology and chip companies dragged U.S. stocks to a third day of declines, interrupting another run at a record for the Nasdaq Composite Index as investors sold the year’s best-performing equities. 20 The Bloomberg Way
Prepare! The more we prepare, the smarter we’ll appear when news breaks. Before the Supreme Court issued its 2013 decisions on gay marriage (Figure 2.2), our reporter had spent months researching possible outcomes—and then he prepared 19 possible leads. The legwork enabled Bloomberg to be first with the news and resulted in this lead: A divided U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal law that defines marriage as a heterosexual union, saying it violates the rights of mar- ried gay couples by denying them government benefits. Using the terminal is another way to provide instant context on breaking news. By analyzing data in advance, we can report that a company’s profit rose for the first time in five years, while others write that profit rose 2 percent. Which is more meaningful? You can also use the ALRT function to stay on top of breaking news, economic reports and unusual moves in securities.
Figure 2.2 A demonstrator outside the U.S. Supreme Court How We Report 21
Don’t forget about logistics News is unpredictable. Reporters need to have reliable access to phone numbers and email addresses of their sources and editors so they can get in touch at any hour. Find a secure way to store key contacts in your phone or email. If disaster strikes, the reporter who grabs her press pass and phone charger before heading out the door stands the best chance of breaking news. If you’re assigned to cover people or topics outside your usual area of expertise, think through what you’ll need to be successful. For scheduled events, find out how the news will be dissemi- nated—such as by email, website posting, regulatory filing or an executive’s speech—and devise a strategy ahead of time to publish as quickly as possible. If the announcement will arrive electronically while you’re at the press conference, arrange in advance for a col- league at the office to send headlines and publish the first take. If an announcement might come in the middle of the night in New York, alert an editor in Asia or Europe.
Sourcing Reporters are only as good as their sources, who are often the foun- dation for the biggest scoops and the best feature stories. Finding those sources—and gaining their trust—is a matter of patience and persistence. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Every beat has its own cul- ture, and reporters have their own strengths and interests that can be used to make inroads and build relationships. Can you talk for hours with software engineers about the intri- cacies of coding? Do you pore over spreadsheets and look for pat- terns in data? Do you run marathons or follow cricket? Are you a master of social media or small talk over a cocktail? Any of these traits can help. Here are some strategies to consider:
Get your name out there. It may seem obvious. But the first thing to do is write or broadcast. Sources are typically more willing 22 The Bloomberg Way
to talk with you if they can easily find or already recognize your byline—whether you’ve been covering every news development or recently wrote a memorable magazine feature. Social media and TV appearances can amplify your presence. It’s just coffee. Many people are willing to meet a reporter to explain how their job or industry works. Even if they vow not to disclose news, such conversations provide insights into how they view their business. It’s also a chance to demonstrate your exper- tise. Sometimes people who initially swear off providing news to journalists change their minds, especially when dealing with reporters who know their stuff. Keep in touch. Don’t contact sources only when a big story breaks. If news slows, give them a call. A government reporter who checks in frequently with legislative aides can find out when a senator decides to block legislation. The reporter who regularly emails a managing director at a bank will have the best chance of getting the scoop when that person gets promoted. Seek diversity. While it’s natural to return to people who’ve been helpful in the past, resist relying too much on a small pool of sources. And draw from diverse groups. Great reporters seek a wide variety of perspectives, which hones understanding and enriches stories. That means talking to people who reflect a mix of backgrounds, gender, ethnicities and nationalities. Consider credibility. Find sources who have a record of accu- racy. Citing an economist who has correctly predicted gross domestic product the past six years carries more authority than quoting someone who has gotten it wrong half the time. A broad- cast interview with the manager of the year’s best-performing mutual fund instantly adds credibility to a TV segment. Learn from defeat. You just spent a week chasing tips that your company is poised to name a new CEO, and your competitor lands the scoop. First, do what you can to match the story. Once the dust settles, autopsy what happened. Now that the news is out, your sources may be willing to tell you about when and