Justin Smith Steps Down as Bloomberg CEO

He teams up with N.Y. Times’ Ben Smith for startup.

Justin Smith, the CEO of Bloomberg Media Group, is leaving the company to start his own media venture.

“After 8 years at Bloomberg Media, and more than 25 years in quality journalism, I’ve decided to pursue a personal dream, and a market opportunity, to launch a new kind of global news media company that serves unbiased journalism to a truly global audience,” Smith said Tuesday.

According to the New York Times, media columnist Ben Smith will join Justin Smith in the new endeavor.

Smith had been the CEO of Bloomberg Media since 2013, and prior to that, he was the president of Atlantic Media, the parent company of The Atlantic. Bloomberg's digital news section, the magazine Bloomberg Businessweek, the streaming service QuickTake, the company's live events business, Bloomberg Radio, and Bloomberg TV are all part of Bloomberg's media division.

During his time at Bloomberg, he shifted the company's focus to digital content and pushed it into streaming with its TicToc streaming service, which was eventually rebranded as QuickTake. “The shift in consumption in business information, financial information and more general quality news information has decisively moved away from linear television to digital and largely social mobile platforms.” Smith told THR when QuickTake debuted a little over a year ago.

Bloomberg Media formed a deal with WME roughly a year ago to develop its articles into film and television projects.

Smith's resignation was initially reported by the Wall Street Journal.


Chen Rivor

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