I created Off Grid to house my writings beyond credit, but this particular piece is still related to the topic because I’ll be analyzing Asia’s credit news and research landscape.
The Players
In general, there are four types of players:
🔸 Mainstream Media
Credit can be an awkward beat in the mainstream media: the asset class involves big money so it can’t be entirely ignored, but covering it requires a specialized crew who has the technical chops and contacts.
Some mainstream media may not have the resources or commitment to invest in credit, so their coverage risks oversimplifying the topic. On the other hand, these media have a broader audience that some credit professionals would like to appeal to.
🔸 Bloomberg
Bloomberg has built an ecosystem around its terminal, which integrates data, news and messaging. The corporate giant has also made considerable investments in its Asia credit coverage over the past few years.
While Bloomberg’s brand and platform should open doors for its reporters, it also has established processes that may require coordination across teams and geographies.
🔸 Niches
Niche publications typically use this playbook to accelerate their growth:
Raise money from investors
Scale the operations and ramp up output
Early investors may exit fully or partially
New investors scale the business further, add functionalities, or repackage with other products to support higher valuations
Niche subscriptions tend to charge premium rates and pitch a recurring revenue base to potential investors. However, there are three risks with this model:
Scaling requires high fixed costs that could weigh on the business if they are not matched by an increase in sales
Volume does not necessarily translate into signal
Bundling multiple products with incompatible cultures or functions may erode the overall value
🔸 Individuals
Individual analysts or reporters have more flexibility and access to modern tools that can facilitate a direct relationship with their readers.
However, the biggest barriers are distribution and scale, as a solo operation has to offer enough quality content to build an audience from scratch.
In short, individuals can move faster and be more authentic, but they may also lack the institutional resources if they want to cross a certain threshold.
Acrostics Asia
Asia is a diverse region that runs on long-standing relationships, so covering it requires local knowledge and networks.
Imposing a broad model risks flattening the different markets, while building coverage from the ground up in each country takes time and resources.
Acrostics Asia’s collaborative model draws signal from a network of local experts and delivers it to end users including investors, bankers and advisors. It offers a win-win because Acrostics Asia operates as a grid that can help collaborators to reach a wider audience.
Curation is necessary because the effectiveness of a grid depends on the quality and consistency of the signal. Nevertheless, this model is aligned with my belief that Asian credit should benefit in the long run from more diverse voices.