The market volatility of 2025, while harrowing, was great for Bloomberg Media’s business.
The financial news publisher grew revenue, subscriptions, and advertising last year, capping a year of steady gains as its paying subscriber base surpassed 700,000 and its advertising business rebounded across global markets, according to internal results shared with staff in a memo obtained by ADWEEK.
Total revenue rose 6% year over year. Subscriptions revenue increased 10%, while total advertising and sponsorship revenue—including live events—grew 5%. Licensing and partnerships revenue declined 2%.
“This balance matters,” Bloomberg CEO Karen Saltser said in the memo. “It reflects a diversified revenue model where each business reinforces the others—and where we stay focused on what differentiates Bloomberg Media, rather than chasing others’ strategies or trends.”
The results extend the momentum that Bloomberg Media outlined publicly in August, when it reported growth across subscriptions, advertising, and events in the first half of 2025 following a reset of how it counts enterprise subscribers.
At the time, Bloomberg said it had more than 660,000 paying subscribers; the publisher now reports more than 707,000 paying subscribers, reflecting double-digit year-over-year growth driven by improvements in pricing and retention, according to the memo.
Live events were a major contributor to growth in 2025. Sponsorship revenue from events rose 30%, aided by the return of the New Economy Forum and expansion of franchises including Bloomberg House Davos and Screentime. Bloomberg said live events helped offset quarter-to-quarter volatility earlier in the year.
Advertising grew across markets, with every international market finishing 2025 up year-over-year. Europe led with 11% growth, followed by Asia-Pacific at 8%, the Middle East and Africa at 6%, and North America at 3%. The publisher also reported an 82% client retention rate across its advertising business in 2025.
By format, audio advertising rose 16%, driven primarily by 36% growth in podcast revenue. Video advertising across linear, digital, and streaming platforms increased 1%, while digital display advertising was close to flat.
Audience engagement underpinned those gains. Bloomberg Media averaged 55 million monthly unique viewers in 2025, with hours watched across linear, digital, and streaming up 25% year over year. Audio continued to grow, with average monthly listeners up 15% and podcast downloads rising 26%. Monthly newsletter users grew 20% year-over-year following a shift toward more subscriber-only newsletters.
