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Bloomberg and Reuters: The Coke and Pepsi of journalism?

Bloomberg and Reuters are not only healthy: unlike most of the journalism industry, they're growing. That’s because the two publications have something no other player in the news business does: subscription-only financial data and services that pull in billions of dollars.

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Mary Altaffer/AP/Pool/File
In this file photo, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg presents the Fiscal Year 2013 preliminary budget in New York. Along with Reuters, the Bloomberg publication is cornering the journalism market, with billions in funding allowing for top flight journalist and editor salaries.

Very tough to make a go of it in the journalism biz these days without the stream of revenues coming in from a terminals business (Bloomberg gets at least two grand a month per installed terminal - that pays a lot of editor and reporter salaries).

AdWeek is calling the two news n' data giants in this duopoly "The Future of Journalism"...

Awash in subscriber revenue, Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters are those truly rare things: news organizations that not only are healthy but also are on a hiring spree. Bloomberg boasts about 2,400 edit staffers, up from 2,100 three years ago, while Thomson Reuters has added 600 full-time journalists over the past four years for a total of 3,000. Each employs more newspeople than The New York Times and The Washington Post combined.

In Bloomberg’s case, the handsome newsroom salaries are legendary. “They’re spending like drunken sailors on all these top-flight journalists,” grumbles an exec at a competing media company. “It’s allowed them to corner the talent market.” That’s because Bloomberg and Reuters have something no other player in the news business does: subscription-only financial data and services that pull in billions of dollars.

Compare that to the calamitous newspaper industry, where some 13,400—about one-fourth—of newsroom jobs were lost between 2006 and 2010, according to Pew’s State of News Media 2012 report. As that carnage continues, consumers remain steadfast in their refusal to pay for news online—and news outfits are left scrambling to figure out a profitable future.

Tough to take on Coke and Pepsi, but not impossible - there's always been a Dr Pepper kickin' around after all.

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