Bloomberg Media: Publishers should pause before rushing to platforms

Bloomberg CEO Justin B. Smith said that as publishers pump content directly to Facebook, Snapchat and other platforms, they “need to consider what’s really happening there.” Speaking at the Digiday Publishing Summit in Vail, Colorado yesterday, Smith urged caution.

“It’s not that it’s pure doomsday scenario, but rather a call for caution and really sensible, data-driven and logic-based analysis about where this is all going to lead,” he said.

Bloomberg is “fortunate enough,” he said, not to feel compelled to jump into every trend because its core business is selling data to clients through its terminals, and financial news doesn’t typically resonate well on social networks. Smith also questioned the ultimate wisdom of the distributed model over keeping content in a space where publishers can fully control ad revenue.

“When the tide goes out, it’s going to be an interesting situation,” he said.