Mike Bloomberg had built the most accurate bond data and superior technology to analyze it (and, later, stocks too). His Market Master product, later called the Terminal, was renting briskly. The company had about 150 employees and was growing. But Mike wanted more people to benefit from Bloomberg’s data and analysis capabilities. Matt Winkler would help Mike take the first step in this direction.

Matt was a Wall Street Journal reporter who, in September 1988, wrote a front-page story on Mike’s company. He highlighted how the Terminal was becoming a vital tool in helping institutions make bond-purchasing decisions. Matt also helped Mike realize that adding text news to existing Terminal capabilities would create something that didn’t exist on Wall Street. Mike decided to launch a newswire business and compete against the Wall Street Journal’s parent company, Dow Jones, and Europe’s financial news leader, Reuters. Mike hired Matt, and they were off to the races.

Mike’s goals for the newswire business were clear:

• Collect and relay the news
• Advertise the analytical and computational powers of Bloomberg Terminals by highlighting their capabilities in each news story, which would increase Terminal subscriptions
• Include Terminal functions (links to datasets) in news stories to give more information to Terminal subscribers and encourage them to subscribe—the more people read news that included Terminal functions, the more people would subscribe to Terminals

Mike took a different approach in launching the new business in 1990. His terminals generated significant revenue, so the newswire business didn’t have to pay for itself as a stand-alone product. He wasn’t beholden to advertising revenue and didn’t have to run after eyeballs. He approached creating news stories with a technology-first mindset and leveraged computers to produce and deliver financial news. This computer-driven approach got news out faster and cost less to produce. Mike’s timing was significant because the looming 1990 recession meant reporters were looking for jobs, which allowed him to hire great talent.

Mike’s strategy worked, and the newswire became popular. The service stood out because it combined traditional text news with calculations and graphs from the Terminal. The illustrations and data complemented the words, enhancing the experience for readers.

Dow Jones and Reuters didn’t take Bloomberg seriously until the newswire service was already a breakout success. By then, it was too late. Bloomberg could replicate what the established financial news companies offered, but they couldn’t replicate what Bloomberg offered. Going up against slow-moving incumbents had worked to Mike’s advantage. Being flexible and offering more for less allowed Bloomberg to become a credible competitor before the big boys realized what was happening. By the end of 1990, the New York Stock Exchange had three official news organizations: Dow Jones and Reuters, both over 100 years old, and Bloomberg News.

With his newswire successfully distributing information and analysis, Mike set his sights on the next distribution method: broadcasting.