Categories: OLD Media Moves

Second life for news magazines on CNBC

Michael Learmonth of Variety writes about how the news magazine show on television, once an endangered species, is getting a second life on CNBC.

Learmonth wrote, “The next crop of documentaries will include a look back at the stock market crash of 20 years ago, ‘October ’87: Crash and Comeback,’ and a look inside the business of a professional baseball franchise, a project he expects to complete early next year.

“To make the documentaries pay, CNBC wrings an enormous number of airings out of both the newsmagazine and the docs. The network’s first, ‘The Age of Wal-Mart,’ produced before Howard arrived, has aired more than 60 times since it debuted in 2005.

“But when CNBC airs an original doc, it typically draws its biggest aud of the evening. When the McDonald’s doc premed in August, 514,000 viewers tuned in at 9 p.m. and an additional 307,000 joined at midnight.

“It has aired 10 more times since gathering 5 million viewers in the process. Elements of the doc have also appeared on ‘Today,’ ‘Nightly News’ and MSNBC.”

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.