Fox Business personal finance articles promote Fox Corp. subsidiary

Helaine Olen of The Washington Post writes about how personal finance articles on the Fox Business Network website promote services from another Fox Corp. subsidiary, Credible.

Olen writs, “Credible receives a payment from financial institutions if customers obtain a loan, credit card or mortgage they initiated through its website. While the pieces carry a ‘Sponsored by Credible’ tagline next to the author’s name, they also come up through the Google News search engine, where the Credible tagline is not always apparent. On the Fox Business site, topic pages such as this one for student loans present a mix of traditional news reports and Credible-sponsored content.

“The result is articles that can easily take advantage of less-than-savvy readers. ‘I’m blown away,’ says Chris Roush, dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University and author of the forthcoming book ‘The Future of Business Journalism: Why It Matters for Wall Street and Main Street.’ ‘I don’t think the average consumer is cognizant that the content is being used to help Credible grow and to help Credible generate revenue.’

“Financial literacy is often low among even those in good circumstances. And since people who are in financial trouble are particularly vulnerable, ‘I think that puts a huge responsibility on those that are pushing out that kind of information to do right by people,’ says Jonathan Mintz, president of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, an organization that works with low- and moderate-income consumers.”

Read more here.

Fox Business sent this statement:

“Fox Corporation, like many large companies, commonly cross-promotes its majority owned businesses across its owned and operated platforms, including FoxBusiness.com. All Credible content that appears there is fully vetted internally and includes the conspicuous legal disclosure required to ensure readers are aware that the content is sponsored by a majority owned entity of Fox Corporation. Consistent with this practice, at the top of the Personal Finance page on FoxBusiness.com, it clearly states that the page is ‘Powered by Credible.’ This is in addition to an advertiser disclosure stating the page is sponsored by Credible, which is majority owned by Fox Corporation.”

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.