Fox Business and the tough grind

Chris Ariens of TVNewser.com interviewed Fox Business Network chairman Roger Ailes about the success of the eight-year-old business news channel and its competition with CNBC.

Here is an excerpt:

Adweek: Do you think Fox Business can truly be in a place where they can overtake CNBC?

Ailes: It’s been a much slower start. If you go back and read the press around the time we launched I was always telling Rupert [Murdoch] ‘don’t do it, don’t do it.’ I dragged my feet for a long time, because I said ‘look we’re walking into a climate on business news where there is simply no demand for it.’ But one of the things I love about Rupert is he’s an eternal optimist. So he signed off on a billion dollars like he was ordering a ham sandwich. He bets on people or he bets on his own vision. And you have to face several problems with business news: Is there an appetite for business news on television? Who is that audience specifically? Do you want a market-oriented operation or a consumer-oriented operation? Do you want a bunch of intelligent former stockbrokers on the air or what do you want? You have to play to the Indiana old ladies investment club and you have to play to Wall Street. So it’s tough. It’s a tough grind.

Read more here.