About Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News is the news division of Bloomberg L.P., the global financial-information company, and one of the largest international news organizations operating in Canada. With bureaus in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver — plus bureaus in 120 other countries — its Canadian newsgathering operation covers markets, the economy, energy, banking and federal policy for a global audience of investors, executives and policymakers. Its presence in Canada dates to 1985, when the company delivered its first Bloomberg Professional service desktop in the country.

Overview

Bloomberg News is the journalism arm of a company best known for the Bloomberg Terminal — the market-data computers used by professional traders and investors worldwide. The journalism serves, in large part, as a companion to the market data: reporting that gives investors context and analysis to accompany their trades. In Canada, that means deep coverage of the Toronto stock market, Canadian banks, the energy sector, mining, real estate, telecommunications and technology, alongside federal economic policy and the Bank of Canada.

Bloomberg's Canadian push began in earnest in the early 2010s. As the Canadian economy outperformed during the global financial crisis, Bloomberg made Canada an increasing priority: it expanded its Calgary staff to cover energy and the oil sands, positioned a correspondent in Winnipeg to cover agriculture, and grew its national reporting and editing staff to around 30 journalists across the country — including well-known hires such as Ottawa bureau chief Theophilos Argitis and Toronto bureau chief Jacqueline Thorpe, the former deputy managing editor of the Financial Post. The company has described itself as the largest international news organization in Canada's capital, Ottawa.

History

Bloomberg's presence in Canada dates to 1985, when it delivered its first Bloomberg Professional service desktop in the country — the terminal business that funds the journalism. The news operation grew alongside the data business, and by the early 2010s Bloomberg News was undertaking a deliberate expansion in Canada to take market share from domestic business-news competitors. The expansion covered the country's economic geography: Toronto for markets and banking, Ottawa for federal policy and the central bank, Calgary for energy, Montreal for Quebec business, Vancouver for the West Coast economy.

Leadership of the Canadian operation has included Jacqueline Thorpe as Toronto bureau chief from February 2012 until her retirement — Thorpe had been deputy managing editor of the Financial Post, which she joined in 1998, where she was economics and markets editor, a columnist and a reporter — and her successor Danielle Bochove, named Toronto bureau chief after joining Bloomberg in June 2015 following a career that included anchoring for CBC News and Canada's Business News Network and seven years with Reuters in Chicago, Tokyo and London. Kevin Orland, Bloomberg's Canadian energy reporter and Calgary bureau chief since joining the company in October 2003, later moved to Toronto to cover banking; he had previously worked for the Associated Press in Milwaukee for 18 months, and holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Marquette University and an MBA from Benedictine University. Thorpe, for her part, wrote a weekly Financial Post column called the "Big Picture" on major economic trends in Canada and around the world, covering economic indicators, currencies, central-bank and government fiscal policy, stock markets, bond markets and trade. Bochove's Reuters years took her through Chicago, Tokyo and London, covering stories including the launch of the euro, the Asian economic crisis and the collapse of the dot-com bubble; she has also written freelance for Maclean's, The Globe and Mail and The Economist Intelligence Unit, and teaches broadcast performance part-time at the University of Toronto, where she is a senior fellow at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History. The Ottawa bureau was led around the time of the expansion by Theophilos Argitis, named one of the 100 most powerful and influential people in Ottawa by the Hill Times. Among the Toronto bureau's reporters was Matt Walcoff, who joined Bloomberg in 2009 after reporting on business for The Record in Kitchener, Ontario, and the Tribune Chronicle in Warren, Ohio; on his passing, editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler memorialized him to staff as a reporter who "truly exemplified the Bloomberg spirit."

Bloomberg's Canadian media partnerships have been significant. Bloomberg TV Canada launched in November 2015 and began airing "Bloomberg North" in February 2016, but the company cut its original Canadian television programming in August 2016 — with anchor Amanda Lang departing for BNN. Then, in 2018, Bell Media and Bloomberg Media announced a partnership to create BNN Bloomberg, a Canadian business-news service spanning digital, television and radio, launching in spring 2018. Under the deal, BNN's website became BNNBloomberg.ca, carrying Bloomberg's international news coverage with articles, graphics, market data, photos and video; the agreement also expanded BNN's syndicated radio content across Bell Media Radio stations, including rights to distribute the Bloomberg Radio livestream in Canada and a new channel on iHeartRadio. Bloomberg noted at the time that it had five bureaus in Canada in addition to its bureaus in 120 other countries, and that BNN had operated in Canada since 1999.

Content

Bloomberg News in Canada covers the full business agenda: equities and the S&P/TSX Composite Index, the Canadian banks and financial services, energy and the oil sands, mining, telecommunications, technology, real estate, agriculture and federal economic policy. Its reporting is written for a global professional audience — investors, traders, executives and policymakers — and is distinguished by its integration with market data: stories routinely carry the quantitative context that terminal users expect.

The Canadian file feeds the global Bloomberg wire, so a Bank of Canada decision, a major Canadian bank's earnings, or a development in the oil sands is covered for readers in New York, London and Hong Kong as well as Toronto. The BNN Bloomberg partnership extends that content to Canadian television and radio audiences through Bell Media's platforms.

Coverage & Audience

Bloomberg News covers Canada through five bureaus — Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver — as part of a global network spanning more than 120 countries. Its audience is the global financial professional class: terminal subscribers, institutional investors, corporate executives and policymakers, plus the general readers of bloomberg.com and, in Canada, the viewers, listeners and readers of BNN Bloomberg's television, radio and digital platforms. The Canadian operation's journalism reaches far beyond the country's borders: Canadian economic and corporate news, reported from the Canadian bureaus, is distributed across Bloomberg's worldwide platforms.

Ownership

Bloomberg News is the news division of Bloomberg L.P., the privately held financial-information, software and media company headquartered in New York. In Canada, its business-news distribution is extended through the BNN Bloomberg partnership with Bell Media, announced in 2018, which combined Bloomberg's international newsgathering with BNN's Canadian television, radio and digital distribution.

Digital Presence

Bloomberg's digital flagship is bloomberg.com, the global news site carrying the agency's journalism — including its Canadian coverage — across text, video, graphics and market data. In Canada, BNNBloomberg.ca serves as the domestic digital home of the BNN Bloomberg partnership, combining Bloomberg's international coverage with BNN's Canadian business journalism. Bloomberg Radio's livestream is distributed in Canada through Bell Media Radio and iHeartRadio under the partnership. The company's social and multimedia presence extends the wire's reach to professional and general audiences alike, while the Bloomberg Professional service remains the commercial core that funds the journalism.