Bloomberg Media has reported growing online subscriptions, advertising and events revenue in unaudited half-year accounts.
Bloomberg Media (separate from the Bloomberg Terminals newswire business) is a private company based in the US, meaning it is not required to share its actual revenue and profit figures. But it said overall revenue was up 7% in the first half of 2025 compared to a year earlier.
Subscriptions revenue was said to be up 8% year on year. It said almost 100,000 new paying subscribers have been added in the past year to reach a total of more than 660,000.
Bloomberg Media previously announced it had reached 740,000 paid online subscribers in October 2024, driven by growth in group and enterprise subscriptions. However, it has since changed its methodology so that it does not count the total number of potential users in an enterprise subscription, but only users who have actually claimed their free sign-in. After this change, the publisher said it had 625,000 paying digital subscribers in February. 2025
Bloomberg Media chief executive Karen Saltser said in a business update to staff: “One year ago, we green-lit an enhanced commitment to accelerate the growth of our subscriptions business, focusing on opportunities across product, engineering, editorial, marketing and group sales. That investment is paying off.”
The work across the past year has included moving many of Bloomberg’s newsletters behind the paywall. Alongside the launch of 30 new ones, Saltser said the portfolio has grown to three million unique subscribers receiving a newsletter each month, up 26% year on year.
Last summer Bloomberg pivoted its Business Week product towards having more deep-dive longer reads and took it monthly in print (it was previously weekly and then bi-weekly).
Saltser said Business Week’s online articles are “at the top of our charts for user-to subscriber conversion rates”.
Also last year Bloomberg launched a Weekend Edition product with more features, lifestyle and cultural stories designed “for the way that people read and watch and listen differently on the weekend”. Saltser said the product has successfully helped increase the number of visitors going to Bloomberg.com and the app at the weekends.
Saltser said adding new paying subscribers and keeping existing ones around longer had meant “this sustained group of deeply-engaged consumers bring true value to the advertisers who spend with us”.
This meant a year-on-year “rebound” in total advertising revenue, including events sponsorship, of 6%.
Core advertising was up 3%, Saltser said, with video across linear, digital and streaming up 3%, a 12% increase in display across Bloomberg.com, the app and in print, and a 15% rise in audio advertising with podcasts up 40%.
In addition, Saltser said, events revenue was up 19% from the likes of the flagship Bloomberg New Economy Forum.
Audiences were also said to be up with 6% growth in average monthly users across all platforms to an overall audience above 100 million, audio listeners up 64% with podcasts up 68%, and average monthly video viewers up 16% to more than 60 million with video hours watched up 34%.
Overall, Saltser told staff, the work for this growth “didn’t start in January 2025. It started this time last year with ambitious goals, strategic planning and an honest look at where to put our energy and resources.
“Our daily focus must remain on creating engaging products and content for decision makers, building sustained relationships with our audience and clients and delivering a pipeline for growth that benefits all of Bloomberg.”
Despite fears in the industry around the growth of generative AI as an information source, several other media giants have also reported positive results in the past week including News Corp, The New York Times, People Inc (formerly Dotdash Meredith) and Thomson Reuters.
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