Bloomberg Media reaching 500,000 subscribers, RFE/RL’s new president – weekly news digest

Bloomberg Media, the publisher that targets finance and business news consumers, reached 500,000 paid subscribers, Axios reports. The organisation introduced paid subscriptions in 2018.

Bloomberg Media is part of the larger conglomerate owned by billionaire Michael Bloomberg. His company’s key revenue generator is Bloomberg Terminal, a computer system for financial data.

While Bloomberg Media is based in the United States, it has been courting international audiences more aggressively than most other American publishers. According to Axios, 60% of its subscribers are based in the US, 20% are in Europe and the Middle East and 20% in Asia Pacific.

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a global media network funded by the US government, named Stephen Capus as the company’s President, effective January 1. He will serve in an acting role “until the International Broadcasting Advisory Board is confirmed by the U.S. Senate and can vote on his appointment”, the announcement notes.

Previously Capus worked for close to two decades as president of NBC News and executive editor of CBS News. RFE/RL plays an important role in the media landscape in Europe, particularly in broadcasting for countries that lack press freedom, such as Russia and Belarus.

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On the topic of RFE/RL’s reporting in Russia – the organisation’s journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was detained in the country in October. Holding both Russian and American citizenship, she became the second US journalist arrested by Russia since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine, after Evan Gershkovich.

Kurmasheva has been charged with failing to register as a “foreign agent”, a tool the Kremlin widely uses to suppress remaining free speech in the country. Although the charges are less serious than for Gershkovich, who was accused of espionage, they still carry a risk of a years-long jail sentence.

RFE/RL’s current acting president Jeffrey Gedmin said last week that he fears Russia has taken Kurmasheva hostage and suggested she could be viewed by the Kremlin as an asset for a potential prisoner swap along with Gershkovich.

Source of the cover photo: https://www.flickr.com

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