Bloomberg Media invests in climate reporting, launches new brand

Credit: Courtesy: Bloomberg Green

Bloomberg is the latest publisher to turn up the heat on climate emergency reporting with its new editorial brand Bloomberg Green.

It is joining media brands like The Economist which has dedicated an entire issue to the topic last year, while many other news outlets, such as BBC, the Guardian or the Independent have climate reporting sections.

To make itself heard in the increasingly crowded market of climate news, Bloomberg Green will leverage its network of 2,700 journalists and analysts in 120 countries and report on the topic from a global and constructive point of view.

"I was struck by how much of the coverage of this global subject was inevitably national or focused on some parts of the story (normally politics, ecology or science)," John Micklethwait, Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief, wrote in a letter.

"The more I discussed this with colleagues and friends, the greater the opportunity to look at climate change in the round seemed, especially given its interlinked complexity and the common thirst for understanding — not just for news but for facts and data."

One of the world’s top plastic polluters, the Philippines, is giving its trash a second life by turning them into roads https://t.co/V0FUH7Az3f (Video by @QuickTake) pic.twitter.com/jMprJvk47i

— Bloomberg Green (@climate) January 26, 2020

The publisher has the advantage of already having an established audience for climate, sustainability and green finance coverage. The new brand, however, will look to engage readers across a number of platforms: the global, interactive climate data dashboard, a daily email newsletter, a podcast, and a magazine. It will also include integration across digital video, QuickTake by Bloomberg, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg TV+, Bloomberg Radio, and Bloomberg Live events, the press release states.

The editorial team will also use Bloomberg's deep data expertise to produce original, solutions-driven coverage, as well as business and investment-focused content, according to Bloomberg Green editor Aaron Rutkoff.

"The Green Data Dashboard, for instance, which appears alongside every story, is at the centre of the project," he said.

"It is a scorecard for humanity's progress in dealing with the climate crisis, including some depressingly familiar metrics, such as the carbon clock.

"But we will also chart the progress that renewable power is making. It will give readers a straightforward, highly visual way to understand what's happening in climate developments right now. These live data points, original to Bloomberg Green, include tracking of tree loss, air pollution, carbon-free energy and more."

You already know Greta Thunberg and Elon Musk. But here are other interesting people who are offering solutions to the climate crisis https://t.co/GbZDGLZEA7

— Bloomberg Green (@climate) January 26, 2020

The first set of stories includes a guide to 30 pioneers and trends in climate progress in the year ahead; a data-driven assessment of China’s attempt to meet its emissions targets; and a chronicle of a major winemaker’s 50-year bet on surviving in a warmer world, added Rutkoff.

Later this month, the news brand will look at the entrepreneurs who are making fortunes from climate solutions, examine the numbers behind plastic waste, and focus on some innovations that can have an immediate effect on emissions.

To finance the project, Bloomberg Green partnered up with corporations, such as Amazon, HP Inc. and Tiffany & Co., that have committed to supporting Bloomberg Green across its launch year.

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