OLD Media Moves

Cavuto's simplified approach to business news

January 19, 2010

Chelsea Greenwood of Success magazine profiles Fox Business Network head and anchor Neil Cavuto, who talks about the network’s simplified approach to presenting business news.

Greenwood writes, “That work thing started in 1996, when FNC’s founding CEO, Roger Ailes, hired Cavuto to cover business news for the fledgling channel. ‘He was very wise to ask early on, ‘How will you define what you do in business news for FOX?” Cavuto recalls. ‘I said, ‘I’m going to preach to the mainstream. Let the other guys preach to Wall Street.’ And that became ultimately the DNA for FBN.’

“Cavuto and his teams on FNC and FBN are extremely self-critical, he says, and they’re constantly watching their work to find areas for improvement: ‘Is there a better way we can present this? Is there a better way we can focus on this issue? Is there something we’re missing in this health debate that no one else is pounding?’

“Being prepared for every show is a daily challenge, and, on top of reading the news every morning, Cavuto does all the research he can on specific guests and issues. What drives Cavuto and his team daily is a collective, deep-rooted passion for journalism. ‘We follow [news] with a great passion, like a dog with a bone,’ he says.

“That passion helped tremendously when FBN was founded in 2007. ‘People say, ‘Boy, you have such an uphill climb here, and you’re against entrenched competitors. But you guys seem to be either oblivious or just so psyched,” Cavuto says. ‘It’s the psyched part. We don’t pay attention to the naysayers.'”

Read more here.

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