Categories: OLD Media Moves

Fox Business Network must knock out CNBC

Marketwatch media columnist Jon Friedman writes Friday that for Fox Business Network to eventually be successful, it’s goal is simple — it must beat CNBC.

Friedman wrote, “To topple CNBC, FBN must display, in abundance, the trademark swagger of the Fox News Channel. Look for it to reflect the feistiness of Roger Ailes, the head of Fox News who is leading this new venture. Ailes, who ran CNBC before leaving to start up Fox News, has always personified a scrappy, viewer-oriented approach.

“Ailes’ style, as much as the programming, enabled Fox to become No. 1 among cable news networks. Much has been made of Fox’s calculated strategy to reach out to disenfranchised red-staters — and, yes, it was a brilliant business decision. It’s no accident that Fox boasts the most loyal audience — the ‘Foxies,’ as the respected Associated Press TV writer David Bauder calls them — in the news world.

“Fox’s success boils down to its ability to convey an attitude. It proclaims a gung-ho, can-do, we’re-all-in-this-together-America spirit. At Fox, every broadcast and staff meeting (and even the company parties) practically scream: ‘We’re winners!’ If Fox ever needed to come up with a sports-type nickname to reflect its competitive spirit, I’d suggest the Vikings.”

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.