July 20, 2020
During a virtual event today, Bloomberg announced the New Voices media training program will add a cohort of Black executives in the United States.
Bloomberg News launched the New Voices initiative in 2018 with the goal of increasing representation of women and other under-represented experts in the media industry. The program provides female experts in finance and business with one-on-one media training in 10 global cities to get the executives TV-ready for interviews on Bloomberg Television and other outlets. This week, New Voices will begin taking nominations for an additional cohort of female and male Black executives in finance and business across the United States.
Speaking at the event, Laura Zelenko, Bloomberg News Senior Executive Editor for Diversity, Talent, Standards and Training said: “We specifically named the program New Voices to ensure we would try to address every dimension of under-representation. And now we want to expand to launch a cohort specifically for Black executives in the U.S. to accelerate our progress in improving representation across our media platforms.”
The event also hosted a panel discussion on the importance of increasing representation of diverse voices in the media industry. The panel was moderated by Bloomberg’s Romaine Bostick, and featured William Heard, CEO and CIO of Heard Capital, and Tiffany McGhee, Partner, CEO and Co-CIO of Institutional Investment Services at Momentum Advisors. McGhee spoke about her experience with the program stating, “The New Voices training taught me tools. Things that I should expect… All of those things made me comfortable and also in helping me to advocate for myself too.”
Since launching in early 2018, outside guest appearances of women on Bloomberg Television have more than doubled to 26% from 10%. The program has also provided media training to over 180 women in global cities including New York, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Dubai, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Sydney, Washington D.C. and Singapore. The participants have appeared more than 530 times on Bloomberg Television and have been booked on and quoted in other media outlets as well.
To apply or nominate someone for the New Voices media training program, please click here.