Assessing Fox Business Network, Two Years Later
Guests: One interesting wrinkle we’ve found while researching this story was several people describing ways the big guy (CNBC) seemed to bristle, and in some cases do much more than that, at the thought of a guest appearing on the little guy.
It happened to Weisberg. “They were upset at me because I was doing the early morning Bloomberg show,” he said of CNBC. “They said I have to choose between Bloomberg and CNBC.” While he regularly appears on FBN and sometimes on Bloomberg, now CNBC doesn’t “even talk to me,” says Weisberg.
A former FBN employee relayed a similar story. “Some networks would say if you go on our show we’re never having you back,” said the former employee we spoke to. “The really important guests were not going to be bullied by another network. I think sometimes people were looking for an alternative. Maybe they didn’t have a great experience somewhere else.”
This practice has been written about before. And it seems in the business news world, even more so than at general cable news outlets and in network news, the need for “exclusives” and “firsts” is that much more intense. It leads to CNBC, the clear #1 in business news, to tout exclusives that clearly stretch the definition of the word beyond recognition.
The guest ultimatums and exclusive pushes is a tacit recognition by CNBC that FBN, at the very least, is a competitor. To demand guests, who often are unpaid workers in the financial sector, stick with CNBC over another network is a boost to the idea Fox Business Network is growing. “I think it’s unbelievably unwise to tell somebody who is a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, for some booker in New Jersey to tell them what they should be doing,” said Magee.
And the fact is – do they even really need to do it? Said a former FBN employee we spoke to, “It obviously was harder to book guests there because our audience isn’t huge. So either way people would rather go somewhere more people would see them…the hardest part was getting them to come on the first time, because I think some people equate it with Fox and think it’s going to really conservative. But a lot of times, they come on once and they want to come back.”
The Future: When we recently talked to Bloomberg TV head David Rhodes recently about the changes at his network, we asked about FBN, the sister network of his former home (Fox News). “I think you’d have to talk with Fox about what their strategy is for that channel, and for their broader business,” he told Mediaite. “That’s really their thing. From our perspective, we have a strategy of our own and we’re working on executing on that.”
Well one strategy that has worked is the online one. Foxbusiness.com gets solid traffic, helped by Foxnews.com’s business section directing all readers to the sister site. But also, FBN has several web only shows that have succeeded in connecting viewers to the channel that may not be able to get the network at home (it’s still in only 50 million households). These viewers can’t be measured, but the connection is an important one. “What’s great about the web is it is a more intimate relationship,” anchor Jenna Lee told Mediaite when we talked about the Imus launch earlier this month. “I know what they think about the story, or if they even care about it. In a lot of ways the relationship is more equal.”
And her co-host on the web show in the morning, McShane, said in an interview earlier this month the reach will only grow “now that the technology is catching up.” Besides the technology (watching the show on laptops, iPhones and more), the FBN web only product is produced to look like it would on TV. Despite web shows from Fox News, CNN, ABC and CBS growing in production value, the FBN shows look the best.
Examining the cable news landscape as a whole, FBN host Bolling, a former CNBCer, said: “The hardcore business viewers are people tuned into Bloomberg, the really professional trading types watch CNBC and the rest of America, who are interested in the economy, have FBN. I’m not sure the CNBC model is going to survive.”
That may be extreme – CNBC isn’t going anywhere, and despite some ratings drops year-to-year, it is still bringing in big numbers compared to the business news competition. But the point about audience is important. From the very beginning, FBN has touted it’s appeal as ‘main street over Wall Street.’ There has been a conscious focus to present business news in a way the average viewer can understand it. While the ratings may not reflect this as a winning strategy yet, FBN has stuck to the plan. While business news continues to become simply ‘news’ the accessibility could be a positive attribute.
Two years is not a long time in the cable news world, even though it may feel like it at times. (Point of reference – two years ago today MSNBC’s Countdown debuted its current graphics/intro look.) With Imus’ hiring, the network has shown it is willing to take short term criticism for a step backward in business news coverage while taking a step forward to boost ratings. A lot will depend on how the other new hires (and potential hires) fit in with the business world FBN is supposed to be covering. Can they find their Glenn Beck – a dynamic, hugely popular, personality that also fits perfectly with the overall theme of the network?
For a company that prides itself on being #1, they’ve got a long way to go. But if the path of Fox News has been any indication, expect it to be a fight.
