CNBC’s Quayle lauded for contributions to business journalism

Veteran CNBC producer Matthew Quayle, co-creator of “Squawk Box” and “Squawk on the Street,” spoke with Dean Rotbart of 2020 Business News Visionary Awards about his career.

“Thanks in large part to Matt Quayle, ‘Squawk Box’ reigns today as the longest-running business show on cable television, and ‘Squawk on the Street’ has bragging rights as the first financial news program to originate live, during market hours, from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange,” said Rotbart.

Among the innovations that Quayle and his CNBC colleagues introduced were ‘unscripted’ anchors and correspondents reporting breaking financial news in real-time; dispatching Maria Bartiromo to the NYSE to be the first journalist regularly to report live from the trading floor; and recruiting superstar investor, Warren Buffett, for multiple, on-air, three-hour, commercial-free master classes on investing.

Quayle joined CNBC as an intern while he was still in college. He knew next to nothing about business and investing, journalism, or television production. But he recognized an opportunity when it arose, and he seized it, as he has throughout his nearly 30-year career with CNBC.

“Perhaps an established broadcast journalist could have accomplished all that Matt has achieved at CNBC,” Rotbart acknowledged. “Still, it’s likely that Matt’s fresh perspective on creating and producing financial news for television allowed him to be the extraordinary innovator that he became.”

To listen, go here.