Categories: OLD Media Moves

How Varney tries to make business news entertaining

Jon Levine of The Wrap interviewed Fox Business Network anchor Stuart Varney about how he makes business news such as the stock market entertaining to readers.

Levin writes, “‘I go out of my way to be entertaining. I don’t think that’s a fault — I think that’s a plus,’ Varney told TheWrap. ‘Viewers have an extraordinary range of choice as to what they watch, who they invite into their living room or wherever on a daily basis and to be entertaining is of paramount importance.’

“For Varney, that entertainment takes the form of taking a broad view of business — anything that touches ‘money,’ as he puts it — and a firm injunction against insider terminology.

“‘I don’t like erecting a barrier between me and the audience,’ he said. ‘You use jargon and that’s a turn-off. What is QE3 — a battleship?’ he added, referring to econ-speak for the third round of the Federal Reserve policy of quantitative easing.

“The British-born broadcaster’s entertainment-first approach has resulted in a mixed bag on the ratings front. Throughout 2017 and into 2018, Varney has dominated his time slot, pulling in 310,000 total viewers on average last month compared to CNBC’s 221,000. But he still lags slightly behind the Comcast-owned network in the advertiser-coveted 25-54-year-old demographic.”

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.