Bloomberg partnering with Infectious Greed blog

Paul Kedrosky of the highly respected Infectious Greed blog has agreed to partner with Bloomberg across its various platforms. When asked by Business Insider yesterday why he agreed to the partnership, Kedrosky, previously an analyst for CNBC and TheStreet.com, answered, "Money, data, scale and a more global platform, without having to change much of what I'm doing anyway." And regarding his regulars, Kedrosky concluded, "readers shouldn't really notice the difference -- other than maybe my graphs are better and the data is fresher."

Further, from Infectious Greed:

It is a multi-platform deal, across web, television (which Bloomberg is rethinking in some creative and interesting ways), radio, and Bloomberg's terminal product. The days when financial information was just about television (or print, or radio), etc., are long over, and so, in the age of Google/Twitter/blogs/etc. being multiplatform is everything. 

Kedrosky is a good catch for the deep-pocketed Bloomberg in this new multiplatform era. Social media, to put it mildly, is not Bloomberg's strong suit. The BloombergNews Twitter account exists entirely to tout exclusives from Bloomberg.com (and naught else). But with just over 72,000 Twitter followers, Kedrosky's personal brand, now on loan to Bloomberg, involves a funny, highly respected, insightful financial blogger who -- most importantly -- understands social media. Finally, Dr. Paul S. Kadrosky, the blogger, also just happens to be a professional investor who has run a seed capital program based out of the University of California at San Diego and is an advisor to venture capital firms. He's not exactly a risky gamble as far as rebel blogger hires go by major media businesses.

Bloomberg, a private company, has been slowly unlocking the potential of its multimedia companies across its many platforms for a couple of years now. The Great Recession caused incredible uncertainty in the financial services sector, the main customers of Bloomberg's terminals. In 2008, a startling 85% of Bloomberg's $5.4 billion revenues came from their terminals; Bloomberg's media segment back then accounted for only 10%. Since then, the company, under chief content officer Norm Pearlsine, has been working on ways to increase its media segment.

The Infectious Greed blog's mix of information, analysis and humor will perhaps somewhat offset the sometimes way-too-dour tone of Bloomberg -- remember when the Bloomberg.com website had the forbidding black and amber design? If social media is not Bloomberg's strong suit, the organization is positively bone dry -- across all its platforms -- in the category of humor. 

Humor is, of course, a large component in the conversation that goes on across social media platforms. And while financial news is not a game, in this new digital era publications should not be afraid to have something of a sense of humor, no matter how corny. Kedrosky, who has been known to give the odd edgy Tweet in his day, is an interesting blog partner, showing some humor (see his announcement in its entirety) even as he conveys vital financial information.