Claman: Biz reporting is about striking a balance

Jeff Pfeiffer of Channel Guide Magazine interviewed Fox Business Network anchor Liz Claman about her job, including how she plans before interviewing billionaire Warren Buffett.

Here is an excerpt:

When you report on business, are you aiming toward insiders who already know the details of the business and financial world, or do you also try to make it accessible to people who may just be starting to pay attention to those subjects, and who may only pay attention to finance from time to time? Is that a hard balance to walk?
It’s extremely insulting to aim toward insiders. I let other guys do that. I come from the standpoint that everyone cares about their money: substitute teachers, fast food workers, mid-level managers, UPS delivery folks. I try to strike a balance where I’ll be sure to define words from the business lexicon but make it sophisticated enough for more educated investors. Fox Business’ viewer profile skews toward higher per-capita income viewers but I’ll always be mindful that I might have a college grad tuning in who’s just opened his or her first investment account.

How has business/financial reporting changed, if at all, since you started working at FBN?
The amount of data and information has turned from a lap pool to a tsunami. Huge amounts of information — only some of it reliable — are out there now for people to learn from. And it’s all real-time information. 15 years ago when I first started covering business news, our ticker was 20 minutes delayed. Imagine that. Today it’s within a nano-second of the last print. What *hasn’t* changed is that viewers will always rely on journalists who can clear through the insanity and clutter and give you the facts with a little personality thrown in.

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