A different audience for business coverage

Marketwatch.com media columnist Jon Friedman writes Monday about an interview he had with CBS business correspondent Anthony Mason,, who notes that the network’s business coverage aims for a different audience than those watching CNBC and Fox Business.

Friedman writes, “While the competitors have their strengths, Mason believes that CBS is not at a disadvantage in the battle to perform its task.

“‘I think we have a different audience,’ he explained in an episode of ‘Media Matters with Jon Friedman.’ ‘People who are really interested in business, they’re going to Fox, they’re going to CNBC. Our audience tends to be people who are curious to know the general direction of the market. But they’re more worried, are they going to have a job next week?’

“As much as anything else, Mason believes his responsibility is to connect with viewers on a level that means he gives them more than the headlines through the prism of Wall Street. CNBC has been criticized for giving short shrift at times to small investors at the expense of catering to the professionals.

“‘If the business channels miss anything,’ Mason told me, ‘I think they’ve been incredibly disconnected from Main Street. They express certain anger about political figures but what they’ve completely missed is how frustrated the middle class in America is with the way things work.'”

Read more here.