Media Insider: Bloomberg Launches Streaming Service, Quartz Sold to CEO and Staff, LA Times Settles Discrimination Case

Welcome to Media Insider, PR Newswire’s round-up of media stories from the week.

Source: Bloomberg

MEDIA PLAY NEWS | ERIK GRUENWEDEL
Bloomberg Launches QuickTake News Streaming Service

Bloomberg LP built its multibillion-dollar business selling high-priced data terminals to institutional customers. These days, it is focusing much of its energy on reaching media consumers. The company has launched a 24/7 streaming news network, Bloomberg Quicktake, featuring 10 original series and four live daily news shows. The online news network aims to cover a broad range of subjects spanning business, technology, culture, society, personal finance, politics, climate, and the business of sports, food, travel, and entertainment. Quicktake will report on global stories through the lens of business, backed by Bloomberg’s newsroom of 2,700 journalists in 120 countries. It will feature content produced in a variety of formats, including documentary-style original series, anchor-led live news shows, data visualizations, motion graphics, on-the-ground breaking news, and live events.

Read Bloomberg’s announcement.

In more streaming news: President Trump is reportedly eyeing his own streaming media channel.

DIGIDAY | MAX WILLENS
‘More Is More’: News Publishers Dial up the Marketing Heat on Their Subscription Products

With many of their ad businesses still shaky, particularly in local news, and with many now smarter about what kinds of offers convert the most users, publishers have been promoting their subscriptions more aggressively as the year has worn on. Recent research conducted by the paywall platform Piano found that the median percentage of site visitors who were shown a subscription offer was nearly three times higher in September than in March. The tactics are paying off. Gannett, which has been focused on standardizing the subscription promotions approach used across its more than 100 titles, announced that it had reached more than 1 million digital subscribers. The Dallas Morning News posted 39% subscriber growth year-over-year. And Hearst said subscriber growth has continued to accelerate throughout the year.

Read next: How the San Antonio Express-News used a COVID-19 timeline to drive subscriptions. 

TECHCRUNCH| ANTHONY HA
Uzabase Sells Quartz to the Site’s CEO and Staff

Quartz is going private, with co-founder and CEO Zach Seward buying the business news site from its current owner, Uzabase. In his post announcing the deal, Seward described the move as a management buyout that will also see Editor-in-Chief Katherine Bell and the rest of the Quartz staff taking equity in the new company. Seward suggested that while Uzabase’s ownership was “helpful,” the company is “better off right now as a startup, freer to chart our own path.” And as a startup, it’s looking to raise outside funding. The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news that Uzabase wanted to sell the property, also reported that Uzabase CEO Yusuke Umeda has made a personal loan to support the site.

ICYMI: WarnerMedia announced layoffs, with at least 1,000 reportedly affected.

COLORADO INDEPENDENT | COREY HUTCHINS
Colorado Publisher ‘Bullish’ After Buying Denver-Area Newspapers in a Pandemic

Colorado Community Media, which operates nearly two dozen newspapers in the Denver suburbs, announced it bought a collection of Denver-area papers from Kentucky-based Landmark Community Newspapers. That’s right, a newspaper purchase during the pandemic — and a publisher “bullish” about the future. “We’ve seen a lift recently in advertising, and definitely have seen a lift in terms of people wanting to contribute to journalism,” says Jerry Healey, president and publisher of Colorado Community Media. The sale is part of a broader trend. “Small deal activity increased significantly during the third quarter, with nearly 20 transactions closing since August,” wrote Santa Fe-based newspaper brokerage firm Dirks, Van Essen & April in its November newsletter. “The vast majority of buyers were small groups or independents, as most of the large newspaper companies remained on the sidelines while weathering the pandemic.”

In more good news: USGA brings back Golf Journal after 17 years.

ASSOCIATED PRESS | STAFF
LA Times to Pay $3M to Settle Journalist Discrimination Case

The Los Angeles Times and Tribune Publishing have agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit that said minority journalists and women were paid less than white reporters. Nearly 240 current and former reporters and editors will benefit from the settlement that was granted preliminary approval last month by a judge in San Bernardino County. The lawsuit, filed in June, alleged that the Times violated California’s Equal Pay Act and the state’s Business and Professions Code. The paper and its former owners denied the allegations and don’t acknowledge any wrongdoing in the settlement agreement. Chicago-based Tribune Publishing sold the Times in June 2018.

Across the pond, the BBC was cleared of unlawful pay discrimination after an investigation.

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Maria Perez is director of web operations at Cision. In her spare time, she runs Bags of Love Foundation, a local nonprofit that provides cancer patients with care packages aimed at making their treatment more comfortable. She also enjoys kickboxing, baking, and cuddling with her dog Toody, who thinks he rules the world.