JONATHAN FOSTER - Kenny vice-president, international sales director, Bloomberg Businessweek
- What do you provide for a business audience that others don't?
Being acquired by Bloomberg last December has brought immediate scale, expanded global coverage and given access to exclusive data for Businessweek magazine. We can now draw on 1,700 reporters in 146 bureaux across 72 countries, which gives us unmatched scale and an incredible global perspective to deliver to our readers. We have the largest dedicated newsroom of any business publication and we are now uniquely positioned to inform our audience of critical issues that no other business publication has the capacity to cover.
- What innovations have you introduced recently?
We relaunched Bloomberg Businessweek on 22 April. The redesigned magazine features double the stories, 20 per cent more editorial pages, increased frequency and improved paper stock. The new magazine draws on the strengths and resources of Bloomberg and builds on the magazine's 80-year history to create a more compelling source of insight and information for today's global business executives and an engaging platform for advertisers across Europe and the world.
- How important to your product is investment in quality journalism
We have access to more than 2,300 news and multimedia professionals worldwide. Bloomberg employs some of the world's most influential, award-winning reporters, giving us access to a vast pool of talent. In November last year, the editor, Josh Tyrangiel, joined us from Time magazine, where he served as the deputy managing editor. Under his leadership, we are also investing in our editorial team to strengthen our expertise and deepen our coverage. Some notable examples include: Charlie Rose, the acclaimed interviewer; Rich Jaroslovsky, the leading technology journalist; Tom Keene, whose EconoChat is a quick, high-level Q&A with newsmakers who are moving global markets; and Richard Turley, the creative director who joined us from The Guardian in March.
- What lessons have you learned from the global financial meltdown?
That investment and growth in your product is essential at times like these. We have been bold enough to relaunch our magazine at this critical time, and we feel it is more important than ever to service the global business community and continue to report on critical issues.
- How do you see the business world changing for the better in the coming years?
While the global recession has been catastrophic for many in business, there have been lessons learned, and many businesses are coming out of this stronger and bolder. One thing it has proved is that you never know what is around the corner in business, and you need to understand your consumers and give them quality.
PAUL MARAVIGLIA - vice-president of sales, EMEA, CNBC
- What do you provide for a business audience that others don't?
Thanks to our global network, CNBC is able to break all the major stories as and when they happen around the world, reporting directly from the major financial markets with live market data and analysis. We speak with more CEOs and business leaders, and have more "firsts" and "exclusive" interviews, than any other business and financial news channel. The US president Barack Obama recently admitted to hearing first about the Securities and Exchange Commission's probe of Goldman Sachs on CNBC. From our studios in London, we broadcast seven hours of content each business day, intertwined with programming from the US and Asia-Pacific.
- What innovations have you introduced recently?
Earlier this year, CNBC made the decision to go free-to-air in the UK as part of our strategy to aggressively grow our distribution. And to build on this, CNBC joined the Freesat platform in February, increasing our distribution in the UK to 12 million households, and to 110 million across the EMEA region. We've just announced that people can now watch a live stream of the channel on their iPhone (and, soon, BlackBerry) through a partnership with Livestation. In April, we also unveiled a new editorial hub in Bahrain, allowing us to co-anchor our Capital Connection programme out of the Middle East, as well as Singapore and London.
- How important to your product is investment in quality journalism
CNBC has built its global reputation over the past 20 years as the leading business news channel under the core qualities of being fast, accurate, actionable and unbiased. Our presenters and journalists are at the core of the product identifying, analysing and even making news. Our influence makes an impact and frequently what's said on CNBC is information that can move the stock markets.
We have a skilled set of UK-based journalists, including Geoff Cutmore, Steve Sedgwick, Louisa Bojesen and Ross Westgate, who are complemented by US household names such as Maria Bartiromo and Erin Burnett.
- What lessons have you learned from the global financial meltdown?
Be prepared. When the meltdown came, we focused on two key areas: ensuring our viewers got real value out of every piece of content we aired, and staying close to our customers by providing compelling solutions to help them communicate often complex messages. We've pioneered the area of strategic branded content, creating innovative campaigns for clients such as HSBC Private Bank, Shell, Credit Suisse, Philips and Allianz. In a declining market, we also grew our market share, as budgets declined and advertisers were attracted to the channel due to the quality of our audience, which ensured minimum wastage. As we head down the road to recovery, we'll continue to focus on our customers and the quality of our content.
- How do you see the business world changing for the better in the coming years?
We will see a new era of reality and getting back to business basics. That's good for our business as companies will need to rebuild their reputations and investor confidence in their brands. They'll need to communicate to stakeholders, opinion leaders and the wider public, and our network is perfectly placed to help them achieve this.