Perfect timing for TV biz news show

Susie Gharib, an anchor for the PBS show “Nightly Business Report,” reflects on the show’s founding as it celebrates its 30th anniversary.

Gharib writes, “I was a writer at Fortune magazine when I first heard about Nightly Business Report. It was 1979.

“Reporting business news on television was a new concept back then. I remember Dan Cordtz left Fortune in 1974 to become the economics correspondent at ABC News. Around the same time Michael Jensen went to NBC from the New York Times. And Newsweek‘s Jane Bryant Quinn reported business news for CBS. That was it. There was no CNN. No CNBC. No Fox Business News. So it was a really big deal that Nightly Business Report came on the scene with an all business news program five nights a week.

“The timing was perfect. The U.S. was in a recession when NBR got started and there was tremendous interest in understanding what was going on — very similar to the economic situation we’re in today. Not surprisingly, NBR quickly established itself as the show of record in the world of business — a concise wrap up of the day’s business and economic news.

“I kept a close eye on NBR as I built my own career as a business news television anchor at the networks and on cable TV. I was excited when I came to NBR in 1998 and joined Paul as his Co-Anchor.”

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