Working round the clock at CNBC

Meredith Bryan of the New York Observer reports Wednesday on the long hours and reporting tactics that CNBC reporters are putting in with the current Wall Street turmoil.

Bryan writes, “The newsroom was buzzing over the success of a growing list of triumphs in its coverage of the current disaster: the lengthy, hastily assembled program Sunday night, a Maria Bartiromo exclusive earlier that day with Ken Lewis, head of Bank of America and ‘the new king of Wall Street,’ and a smaller coup by reporter Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, who had BlackBerried an NBC reporter at Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s press conference from the White House Monday and prompted her to ask the question on CNBC’s mind—does Mr. Paulson support the Fed giving A.I.G. a bridge loan? ‘He equivocated, but we got it asked,’ said Ms. Caruso-Cabrera, heading home before Nightly News to prepare for another 5 a.m. morning, after getting two hours’ sleep Sunday night. She called the day ‘breathtaking.’

“Mr. Williams’ Nightly News countdown began, and he proceeded to quiz several CNBC personalities on-air about the crisis, among them Erin Burnett, the young, perky breakout star poached from Bloomberg who has been called the new Money Honey, a reference to her status as possible successor to established CNBC star Maria Bartiromo (who was reporting off-site from the N.Y.S.E.).

“Ms. Burnett had been working all weekend—’I think everyone feels a little bit exhausted,’ she had said—and was to leave town Tuesday for a friend’s wedding in the south of France, where she would continue to report remotely. (As of Tuesday morning, CNBC said she’d in fact be reporting from Englewood Cliffs for the rest of the week.) ‘You gotta be available when you gotta be available,’ she shrugged.”

Read more here.