Bloomberg Television's David Ingles wears two hats at the 24-hour financial news network. Being Co-Anchor of Bloomberg Markets Asia, he also oversees markets coverage and charts/data content for the network's Asia Pacific coverage.

Telum Media recently caught up with him to find out how he manages different tasks while hosting a show, his memorable moments in journalism, life hacks as a successful anchor, and trends he is interested in covering. 

Could you share with us what a typical day of work is like for you to host Bloomberg’s morning programmes?
A typical day starts just after 3am - going through overnight developments, updates from the London, and New York teams, assisting early shows (our US team hands off live programming to APAC at 6am HKT) to ensure we’re hitting all the right stories and have the necessary visuals to tell those stories. I then “slip out” around 4ish for a quick run/workout (better upper than coffee though I load up on that too!) before physically getting to the premises around 5:30am. Fortunately I’m on the later shows so don’t need to come in that early. Between 6-9 (the China show which I co-anchor starts at 9) is basically a circus – editorial meeting with news planning, interviews, output teams and co-anchors, more reading, guest prep, making charts, tracking any breaking news/data, make up and changing out of my usual lazy, extremely casual attire into something more respectable haha. APAC live shows end at noon, quick break then straight into prep with the team for the next day. I’m usually out of the office physically by around 3pm and continue from home with some late afternoon calls/zooms a few days a week. Lala land by 8:30.

What is the single most memorable story you have covered or hosted on?
The 2015 China market crash, the 2016 Brexit Referendum and the onset of the pandemic in early 2020. When these types of stories drop (and anyone in live news broadcast will attest to this), you got no choice but to take what’s now a dated/useless show rundown, wrap it in something nice and send it to that ex who dumped you so they can live happily together in your past. But seriously, if somehow one had lingering doubts about the quality of one’s team, it’s during these minutes/hours/days those doubts are put to rest. In between silent glances of “what’s going on”, everyone just goes into this almost singular zone to put together entire live shows on the fly. Just so happens our main focus is financial markets so things literally change by the minute. Fun. On top of obvious the shock element, it’s that process that remains so vivid.

You are also Bloomberg TV’s Head of Markets Coverage for Asia Pacific. With this other hat on, don’t you need more than 24 hours? What makes you keep going?
I drink like a fish. Kidding. Only sometimes. Again kidding! But yes, I could definitely use 40 hours a day. Who doesn’t?! Wearing two hats is a bit unorthodox but funnily enough works and that’s really because my team is ridiculously amazing. And also it’s not like the other hat comes off when we’re live. I’m fortunate enough to be blessed with two complementary roles that actually help me do both better (though best to confirm with my bosses if that’s accurate). Additionally and this may seem counterintuitive to the initial point on time is getting enough sleep, often enough – helps keeps productivity/energy high from pre-dawn to post-dusk!

Any other life hacks for those who aspire to become an anchor of an around-the-clock news network?
Love, live and breathe your content whatever it is – business, politics, gossip, fashion, celebrity, current events, science, animals. Listen to podcasts. Read. (and please don’t pretend to read like some folks in coffee shops that are really just on IG). Keep learning. When your curve is flattening, find something that’ll re-steepen in. Learn every role in the entire newsroom and re-learn it again after a bit coz things change. Leave the ego at the door, seriously. This is gonna sound super frank but people that have egos bigger than their brains are the worst ones to have around. Their incentives/motivations are naturally misaligned with the group. It’s not about you. Not to say you shouldn’t work on yourself. In fact there’s a crucial element of the job of constantly watching yourself/shows back and seeing what you could’ve done better. But point is - it’s about the show. That’s the product. You’re just a part of it. Now if you happen to have a big ego (sorry to hear that – kidding!), channel that to make the product better. There’s so much to learn from everyone. And be nice to people. This is a small industry. Don’t be that person.

Do you work with PRs at all? Any top tips for them if they want to engage with you and have their clients hit Bloomberg's shows?
Yup we do work with PRs regularly, both agency and in-house. Our interviews team may have better insights to be honest being the regular touch points. My two cents if this matters here is timing, especially when pitching. And good timing is frankly impossible without an awareness of the rapid news cycle in financial/business news. So that's another thing. PRs know exactly what their clients’ expertise, and messages are (hopefully). It goes both ways. On our end, we’re constantly on the lookout for resource speakers, immediate reactions, and new angles, especially when stuff breaks. When those things align, it’s magic! And finally to state the obvious, having a good network and close working relationships helps. Being a WhatsApp message away can’t be a bad thing right? Sorry, was that helpful? Oh and ya, put “Re: … ” in the email subject line to trick the recipient you guys are already in the middle of an email exchange. I’m kidding. I hate that. Please stop. You know who you are.

Any particular trends or topics that are getting your attention at the moment?
Inflation.