CNBC searching for talent

Paul Bedard of The Washington Examiner writes about how CNBC is looking for new talent to shore up some of its time slots.

Bedard writes, “Reports like one in the New York Post suggests that Larry Kudlow, the 7 p.m. anchor who is popular and respected in Washington circles, could be replaced soon by former CBS anchor Harry Smith. Other reports, like one on Valuewalk.com, suggest that the business cable wants to use the hour for a lively talk show like Fox’s The Five.

“Nielsen Media Research numbers show that evening CNBC shows like The Kudlow Report and Mad Money are in a tailspin. Kudlow is down roughly 60 percent in its key 25- to 54-year-old target audience.

“Some industry observers point peg the decline’s beginning of Kudlow’s decline to 2011 when Fox Business Network began airing Lou Dobbs Tonite. Dobbs has since beaten Kudlow several times in the grab for larger audiences. In May, Dobbs was the top watched Fox Business show.”

Read more here.

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.