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The media becomes an activist for democracy
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July 12, 2016, 12:22 p.m.
Audience & Social

Bloomberg Media and Twitter announced a partnership to livestream select programs from Bloomberg TV — extending the network’s reach beyond its relatively small TV audience and furthering the social network’s aim to be the home for live content.

“By partnering with Twitter, viewers from all over the world will now be able to leverage a powerful, real-time platform to consume and react to the news, accelerating our position as a leader in global business video, and offering new and innovative opportunities for our marketing partners,” says Bloomberg Media CEO Justin B. Smith.

Under the partnership, Twitter will stream three Bloomberg Television weekday shows:

“Bloomberg West” (M-F 6-7 PM ET / 3-4 PM PT), its flagship technology program hosted by Emily Chang.

“What’d You Miss?” (M-F 4-5 PM ET), top stories covering global financial markets hosted by Joe Weisenthal.

“With All Due Respect” (M-F 5-6 PM ET), analysis of the current election cycle by political journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann.

“Partnering with Bloomberg will give people on Twitter the best way to see live financial markets performance combined with the live commentary on the underlying drivers and implications,” says Twitter chief financial officer Anthony Noto.

Twitter is, for all its flaws, the established place for breaking news online, and it’s aiming to boost that with livestreaming video deals. It struck a deal to livestream part of Wimbledon, will stream the Democratic and Republican conventions via a deal with CBS, and is paying $10 million to stream NFL Thursday night games this fall. Twitter is also reportedly near closing about 10 more livestreaming deals, ranging from sports to politics.

As a part of the deal with the network, Twitter plans to sell ads against the content, but only on non-live clips. Twitter, which has stalled at around 310 million active monthly users, is relying heavily on live video to boost activity encouraging the phenomenon of live-tweeting.  “We believe live streaming video is a strong complement to the live nature of Twitter, and it helps instantly explain the value of our service,” Twitter said in it’s Q4 shareholder statement.

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The media becomes an activist for democracy
“We cannot be neutral about this, by definition. A free press that doesn’t agitate for democracy is an oxymoron.”
Embracing influencers as allies
“News organizations will increasingly rely on digital creators not just as amplifiers but as integral partners in storytelling.”
Action over analysis
“We’ve overindexed on problem articulation, to the point of problem admiring. The risk is that we are analyzing ourselves into inaction and irrelevance.”