CEO Vanguard Award
2026 Honoree
Karen Saltser
Chief Executive Officer · Bloomberg Media
Building durable growth around trust, audience and a diversified media model.
The CEO Vanguard Award
The CEO Vanguard Award recognizes an enterprise leader helping define where the industry goes next. For the inaugural award, The Revenue Room™ looked for more than innovation or a strong year. We looked for a CEO building durable growth in a rapidly changing media environment, balancing the economics of today's business with investments that can sustain the company tomorrow. Karen Saltser's leadership of Bloomberg Media stood out for exactly that reason.
Why Karen Saltser was selected
Trust, diversification and commercial execution.
Bloomberg Media is one of the world's most influential business-information brands, operating across digital, television, streaming, audio, print, subscriptions, advertising, live experiences and partnerships. Under Saltser's leadership, those businesses are increasingly working as parts of one diversified growth model.
In 2025, Bloomberg Media reported 6% year-over-year total revenue growth. Subscription revenue increased 10%, live-event sponsorships grew 30%, and the advertising business retained 82% of clients. The company finished the year with more than 707,000 paying subscribers.
Audience engagement increased alongside revenue. Hours watched across linear, digital and streaming increased 25%, while Bloomberg Media averaged roughly 55 million unique monthly video viewers. Podcast downloads increased 26%.
The business has continued to invest rather than retreat. Bloomberg has expanded its subscription strategy, live events, streaming distribution, international presence and premium video programming while continuing to operate around the asset that has always differentiated the brand: trusted information for people making consequential decisions.
Building a more diversified Bloomberg Media
Expand influence. Diversify audience and revenue.
Saltser has described Bloomberg Media's mission in two parts: expanding Bloomberg's overall influence and diversifying audience and revenue. That strategy is visible across the business.
Subscriptions
A major investment launched in 2024 across product, engineering, editorial, sales and marketing accelerated the subscription business. By early 2026, Bloomberg Media had surpassed 707,000 paying subscribers, while subscription revenue grew 10% during 2025.
Subscriber-only newsletters also helped deepen engagement, with monthly newsletter users increasing 20% year over year.
Live Experiences
Live events have become another important component of the revenue model. In 2025, sponsorship revenue from live events increased 30%, supported by properties including Bloomberg House Davos, Bloomberg Tech, Screentime, the Qatar Economic Forum and the return of Bloomberg New Economy Forum.
Video and Streaming
Recent investments include streaming distribution, Bloomberg Originals, new global production capabilities and expanded digital-video programming. In 2025, hours watched increased 25%.
By May 2026, Bloomberg Media reported an all-time high of 73.7 million cross-platform digital-video and streaming viewers, up 44% year over year.
Recent moves
Continuing to invest.
Bloomberg India
In August 2026, Bloomberg Media launched Bloomberg India, a premium news destination for investors, business leaders and decision-makers in the market. The offering combines localized business coverage with Bloomberg's global newsroom, video, newsletters, podcasts and subscription capabilities, including local-currency payment.
Bloomberg New Economy Forum Comes to India
The 2026 Bloomberg New Economy Forum is scheduled for New Delhi, marking a major global expansion of one of Bloomberg's flagship convening platforms. The forum is expected to bring together more than 500 government and business leaders to address global economic and geopolitical challenges.
Expanding Bloomberg Originals
Bloomberg Media also continued building premium video franchises in 2026, including the launch of Post Credits, focused on changes reshaping entertainment and the creator economy, and a new season of Quantum Marketing, distributed across Bloomberg Television and major streaming platforms.
Karen Saltser
CEO, Bloomberg Media
The CEO Vanguard case
Karen Saltser represents a kind of CEO leadership that matters enormously to the future of media. She understands that durable growth cannot come from protecting one legacy revenue stream.
It comes from strengthening the core while deliberately building new relationships between:
- Content
- Audience
- Technology
- Subscriptions
- Advertising
- Events
- Partnerships
At Bloomberg Media, that strategy is producing measurable results.
Just as importantly, it is being executed without sacrificing the trust and quality that created Bloomberg's influence in the first place.
That combination of trust, diversification, audience growth and commercial execution is why Karen Saltser is the inaugural CEO Vanguard honoree.
The 2026 Vanguard Awards
