Ailes competing against himself

Tim Feran of the Columbus Dispatch interviewed Ohio native Roger Ailes as he gets ready to launch the Fox Business Network on Monday. Here is an excerpt: Q. You didn’t start CNBC, but you were a driving force behind its success in the ’90s. Does it feel strange or like you’re completing the circle by […]

Fox Business Network must knock out CNBC

Marketwatch media columnist Jon Friedman writes Friday that for Fox Business Network to eventually be successful, it’s goal is simple — it must beat CNBC. Friedman wrote, “To topple CNBC, FBN must display, in abundance, the trademark swagger of the Fox News Channel. Look for it to reflect the feistiness of Roger Ailes, the head […]

Why the NYTimes covers the media business thoroughly

Bruce Headlam, the media and marketing editor at the New York Times, explains in a Q&A with readers why the paper pays so much attention to the media business in its business section. Headlam said, “The worlds of media and advertising tend to create — ­ or at least elevate — ­ big, volatile personalities […]

Don't overemphasize big Christmas shopping days

TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs has some advice for business reporters getting ready to cover the Christmas shopping season: It’s been stretched out so long that individual days no longer have the same impact as before. Fuchs wrote, “We saw this last year, remember? The Business Press Maven predicted a decent Christmas shopping season, and […]

Michaels made Malcolm Forbes possible

Alex Ben Block of Hollywood Today writes about his two tours of duty at Forbes under former editor Jim Michaels, who died last week and, Block writes, made the success of Malcolm Forbes possible. Block wrote, “His experience in India was not only a landmark in Michael’s career as a reporter; but it was also who […]

Financial Times parent to sell stake in German biz newspaper

Aaron Patrick and Marcus Walker of The Wall Street Journal write Tuesday that Pearson, the parent company of The Financial Times, is negotiating to sell its stake in a German business newspaper. Patrick and Walker wrote, “Over the years, some investors have called on Pearson to concentrate on its larger educational and book-publishing businesses and […]

Top financial news web sites in August: Yahoo! and Forbes

Yahoo! Finance was the No. 1 financial news web site in terms of site visits and average time spent on the web site, according to August numbers released by Nielsen/Net Ratings, while Forbes.com had the most visits among business publications, according to Douglas McIntyre‘s post on 24/7 Wall Street. Yahoo! Finance had more than 16.8 […]

A dumb moment in business journalism history

Brad Stone of The New York Times writes the following on the Bits blog: “We’re sad to report that employees of Business 2.0 magazine were told today that the monthly publication will close next week, after they finish the October issue. “As we wrote in July, executives at Time Inc. were weighing whether to shutter […]

SF Chronicle's anti-union headline

Randy Shaw writes on the BeyondChron blog that the San Francisco Chronicle’s Aug. 14 Business section headline, “Union rejected at papers,â€? had a decidedly anti-union tone. Shaw wrote, “A reader would logically conclude that workers at a local newspaper voted against union representation. But the subheadline and the article itself revealed the far different, and […]

Wal-Mart, Home Depot stories ignore competitors

TheStreet.com’s Marek Fuchs writes that earnings stories on Wal-Mart and Home Depot where the economy and the weather are blamed for poor results ignore the fact that competitors Target and Lowe’s aren’t having the same issues. Fuchs wrote, “Now let me show you how a whole mess of articles gets this important weighting wrong. Then […]