The Wall Street Journal | University of Michigan
Customers who paid extra will no longer get an early look at the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence survey, thanks to a deal between the university and Bloomberg LP. Thomson Reuters, which currently distributes the information, used to grant access to the data two seconds earlier to some paying customers, which was a large advantage for some traders.
New York’s attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, investigated the early-release practice and earlier this year struck an interim agreement with Thomson Reuters to end it.
The peeks will stay on ice for at least five years starting next January, Brody Mullins reports for The Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg “said it would end the practice of charging investors a fee in exchange for an advanced copy of the survey,” Mullins writes.
Bloomberg News will get the data in advance, “in a secure lockup facility at Bloomberg offices to report on the numbers and provide context,” a Bloomberg spokesperson told Poynter.
“Any other news organization has the opportunity to partner with the University and use the same lockup procedure,” the spokesperson said. News organizations that participate in the lockup can release their stories at 9:55 a.m., when University of Michigan releases the data.
Bloomberg’s contract may be renewed, a Michigan press release says, and the “contract ensures that other companies are free to co-sponsor the research and distribute the results on the same terms and conditions as the contract negotiated by U-M and Bloomberg.”
“We are pleased to work with the university to distribute this data on a non-exclusive basis as part of our shared commitment to market transparency and equal access to critical economic information,” Bloomberg Professional service’s Jean-Paul Zammitt says in the release.
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