Categories: OLD Media Moves

Dobbs has breakout year at Fox Business

Tom Kludt of CNNMoney.com writes about Fox Business Network anchor Lou Dobbs, who had a stellar 2016.

Kludt writes, “Viewership for ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight,’ which airs nightly on Fox Business at 7 p.m. ET, spiked nearly 200% from 2015 to 2016, according to Nielsen. Among viewers aged 25-54, the demographic most coveted by advertisers, the show saw a jump of 282% last year.

“It was also the best year ever for Fox Business, which launched in 2007. The network gave its mothership, Fox News Channel, a foothold in the realm of financial news, and an opportunity to challenge the king of the genre, CNBC. But it spent much of the last decade struggling to catch its rival. At the end of the last year, Fox Business claimed to have its first ever quarterly win in business and total day viewers over CNBC. (CNBC largely uses services other than Nielsen to track ratings in order to capture out of home viewing.)

“Dobbs’ show averaged 266,000 viewers a night last year, which Fox said made it ‘the number one program in business television.’

“Internally, many at CNBC view Fox Business as less of a rival in the financial news sector than Bloomberg News.

“That’s because Fox Business, save for the stock ticker at bottom of the screen, often looks and sounds like nothing more than the conservative political coverage found on Fox News. 90% of viewers who watched at least six minutes of Dobbs also watched at least an hour of Fox News, according to Nielsen data from the fourth quarter of last year.”

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.

Recent Posts

UN ambassador blasts Russia over WSJ’s Gershkovich

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has lambasted Russia over its continued detention of…

11 hours ago

WSJ shifting Asia ops to Singapore, layoffs occurring

Wall Street Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker sent out the following on Thursday: Today we announced…

18 hours ago

Is it a news organization, or a hedge fund?

Clare Malone of The New York writes about Hunterbrook, which is using reporting from journalists to…

19 hours ago

Awards editor Coates is leaving The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter awards editor Tyler Coates is leaving the news organization. His last day will be…

19 hours ago

Purkess promoted to consumer features editor at The Sun

Laura Purkess has been promoted to consumer features editor at The Sun. She will maintain…

19 hours ago

Ferrier, senior biz reporter at Coloradoan, is retiring

Pat Ferrier, senior business reporter at the Coloradoan in Fort Collins, is retiring after 23…

19 hours ago