‘It’s a Faustian agreement’: Bloomberg Media talks about the dilemma of platform publishing

At the Digiday Publishing Summit Japan in June, publishers gathered to share their success and challenges in expanding into Asian markets. We made the best sessions from that summit available on iTunes and Stitcher through Digiday Live, a podcast series from Digiday that features the best conversations and presentations from the summits we host around the world, all downloadable for easy listening.

In the latest episode of the podcast, Bloomberg Media talks about what it’s coming up against in the region. Parry Ravindranathan is managing director for Bloomberg Media’s business across EMEA and APAC. He spoke at the Digiday Publishing Summit in Japan in June about Bloomberg’s reticence when it comes to platform distribution, the challenge of hiring for digital video and competing with entrenched local media players for ad dollars.

On platforms: “It’s both an opportunity and a challenge. I don’t fully understand the economics of the model for a big media publisher like us […] it’s a Faustian agreement. They could change the rules tomorrow and we could be stuck.”

Want to hear more international summit highlights? Listen to other sessions from the Digiday Summit Japan below.

  • How the Financial Times balances advertising with a subscription model in the AIPAC region.
  • How Time Inc. builds loyal audiences at scale.

To hear more from our summits around the world, subscribe to Digiday Live on iTunes or Stitcher.

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