Tag Archives: Fox Business Network
Knowing how not to get in trouble
by Chris Roush
Latoya West of The Journal News in Westchester County, N.Y., interviewed Fox Business Network reporter Charles Gasparino about his career.
Here is an excerpt:
Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in journalism?
A: It certainly wasn’t the money. My parents hated the fact that I wanted to go into journalism for both the low pay and particularly because my father hated reporters for bringing down Nixon (he was one of those “silent majority” types who wasn’t so silent). I just liked the fact that I could write something and get a reaction from lots of people. I did this first by sports-writing at the old North County News, then covering local government for various papers in northern Westchester.
Q: Do you remember the first big story you broke in Westchester?
A: I was at the Peekskill Herald and it was a story about how the city basically was in violation of county law by the way the police department was run. It was on the radio and everyone in government read it. It was also a little scary because it was being debated as I was in the meeting, but that what makes this job worthwhile.
Q: Did your experience working for small papers help shape the journalist you are now?
A: Definitely, because I paid my dues. Kids come out of college wanting to go right into big-time journalism and opine about national events. That’s fine except they really haven’t worked their way up through the ranks, and made their mistakes at smaller places where you can learn from your mistakes. I got to the WSJ in 1995 and I was a fairly experienced reporter. I knew how not to get in trouble and how to handle the pressures of working in big-time journalism because I spent so many years at smaller papers. The kids I saw who made the jump from college to the WSJ didn’t have that same background and they often ended up washing out or getting tired of the pressures and grind of the job.
Read more here.
Buffett is the master media manipulator
by Chris Roush
Jon Friedman writes on Indiewire.com about how Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett is excellent at manipulating the media.
Friedman writes, “This can’t be an accident. I suspect that once the word of Buffett’s prowess began to spread, and he was quickly deluged with interview requests again and again, he studied the print and broadcast media (the Web hadn’t come along yet), the way a politician might do.
“He quickly sussed out who were the industry’s power players, and wisely gave them time and access accordingly. No one would ever take Warren Buffett for granted because of media overexposure. Soon, journalists began to covet a few minutes of face time with Buffett, the way Rolling Stone once pursued John Lennon or Bob Dylan or Mick Jagger.
“Of course, if the great man gave you some of his precious time, the tacit agreement was that you OWED him something — call it a courtesy (‘Don’ Warren, the Godfather of Wall Street) — which he expected you to pay up every time.
“I imagine that any scribe who dared to cross him wound up on the outside looking in. That’s also the way the game is played.”
Read more here.
CNBC copies the Fox Business playbook
by Chris Roush
Brendan Byrne of ValueWalk.com writes about how CNBC has copied Fox Business Network‘s strategy of visiting cities around the country.
Byrne writes, “Taking a page from their playbook might be a little generous, to look at the promo for CNBC’s Opportunity USA Tour. It immediately harkens you back to September when Fox Business Network launched a four-day road trip to explore cities that have bucked national economic trends for the better in their ‘Open For Business: Houston’ and ‘Open For Business: Cleveland’ specials. To say ‘borrowed’ is to use the word loosely, it looks like downright theft. They even went so far as to use a former FBN anchor to precipitate this ‘shared’ idea and used Houston to kick off their ‘own’ three day tour just as Fox Business Network did before them.
“Last September, Melissa Francis, Host of FBN’s ‘MONEY’ took to Houston to highlight, over the course of two days, why Houston is one of America’s most successful cities. A city which has recovered every job lost to the most recent recession. In her blog post promoting and previewing the show and the city of Houston, Francis highlighted the secrets to Houston’s success and even solicited dining advice from readers. The post also provided a roll-call of area politicians, entrepreneurs and CEO’s that the two-day trip would interview. Ironically, or perhaps not, one of the restaurants most suggested to her by readers of the post was The Pass and Provisions on Taft near downtown Houston.
“The irony or ‘coincidence’ is the fact that that is precisely where former Fox Business Network anchor Brian Sullivan broadcast his show ‘Street Signs’ live from today.”
Read more here.
From a romance novel to business journalism
by Chris Roush
Fox Business Network’s Tracy Byrnes talked with the Opportunist magazine’s managing editor Leslie Stone about her path to business journalism.
Here is an excerpt:
Opportunist: How did you go from a Big Four accounting firm like Ernst & Young to broadcast journalism?
Tracy Byrnes: Wow, that’s a lifetime and a bottle of wine long. [Laughs] I always wanted to be a writer. I took fiction-writing classes at night and even tried to write a dumb romance novel. All the publishers I approached basically told me, ‘Don’t quit your day job.’ Then I stumbled upon nonfiction and discovered I was pretty good at it. Financial World magazine, which is now defunct, gave me my first writing gig. Three months after I got there, they decided to quit publishing. But it was a weird blessing because Jim Cramer was starting TheStreet.com on the Internet. I was his eleventh hire. That’s where I met Dagen McDowell, who to this day is one of my good friends at Fox. I left TheStreet.com when I got pregnant and was doing some freelancing for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post when someone said ‘Let me put you on air to talk about an article you wrote.’
Read more here.
Going through struggles to make it
by Chris Roush
Christopher Pape of Metro Resident interviewed Fox Business Network reporter Shibani Joshi about how she got into business journalism.
Here is an excerpt:
R: How did you get into the business?
SJ: I had a different path than most, if there is a typical oath to getting on television. As a Finance and Accounting major in college, all I wanted to do was come to New York and work on Wall Street. I grew up in Oklahoma and went to the University of Oklahoma which was a crazy route if I wanted to get to Wall Street since there’s no direct path. But there was always a feeling that this was where I was supposed to be.
For whatever reason I have always been drawn to New York, and it was what I wanted to do since I was 22 years old. I made it happen when I got a job in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. It was amazing and very hard, with lots of long hours and commuting, but pretty breathtaking since I was 22 and working on $100 million deals with CEOs and CFOs. But that wears off quickly. If you don’t love what you’re doing there’s no point in doing it for 100 hours a week, so I started thinking about other things I wanted to do with my life and financial news came to mind since I’ve always been a veracious consumer of media and loved finance.
I thought this could be a good marriage of the two. At the time, CNN Finance existed, which it doesn’t anymore, but I took a Production Assistant job there. That was a rude wake up call; at first I was discussing huge accounts with CEOs and now there was a huge pay cut and rolling prompters and making graphics. I thought to myself that I could be doing a heck of a lot more, but these were the struggles you have to go through to make it. Overall, it was what I wanted to be doing, the stars aligned, and there was a good amount of work and tenacity that’s part of success – and of course, a sprinkling of luck.
Read more here.
Fox Business Network hires new reporter
by Chris Roush
Fox Business Network has hired Jo Ling Kent from NBC’s owned and operated station WVIT (Hartford), announced Kevin Magee, head of the network.
“Jo is an extremely accomplished reporter,” said Magee in a statement. “Her experience overseas will help our audience understand international markets and economies.”
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“Starting May 1, Kent will serve as a business reporter covering breaking financial news and international market moves. She will be based out of Fox Business Network’s headquarters in New York.
While at WVIT, Kent covered local businesses as a general assignment and investigative reporter. Prior to that, she was a campaign embed reporter for NBC News, covering the 2012 presidential race.
Before joining NBC, she covered the Chinese economy, human rights, Taiwan trade and environmental issues as an associate producer in CNN’s Beijing bureau.
She got her start in television working as a web reporter for ABC News where she covered the Beijing Olympics, 2008 Taiwan elections, unrest in Tibet and the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Read more here.
Focusing on the things that matter most to viewers
by Chris Roush
Jeff Ostrowski of the Palm Beach Post interviewed Fox Business Network anchor Lou Dobbs about his career and his life.
Here is an excerpt:
First job: Police and fire reporter in Yuma, Ariz., at a 500-watt radio station. I loved it. I learned how to report, how to write, how to take responsibility for my reporting. When you work in a small town, your audience is also part of your life. Whether you’re going to the grocery store or the hardware store, everyone is going to have an opinion. If you criticize someone, or just report about someone, you have to see them. Having that opportunity to work in a small organization, and to learn the business, was a great boon to everything I would do later.
What’s the most successful thing you’re doing right now? We’re having terrific success on the show. Our approach to the news of the day is to focus on the things that matter the most to our viewers, and that’s the political economy. Whatever poll you look at, people are focused still on the economy. The bedrock of the country is how successful people are, and the idea that their kids will do better than they have. That’s been challenged over the past five years, and neither party has a good answer for the issue.
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in business? If you’ve had a career as long as mine, you can’t just single out one. I’ve learned from each and every one of them. I have regrets, but I have no regrets about having regrets. One of the lessons I learned was not to dwell on mistakes.
Read more here.
Fox Biz Network’s stock reporter celebrates 25,000 reports
by Chris Roush
Fox Business Network‘s Nicole Petallides celebrated her 25,000th report from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.
She received gifts from the stock exchange, including a gold badge.
Gasparino re-signs with Fox Business
by Chris Roush
Merrill Knox of TVNewser.com is reporting that business journalist Charles Gasparino has re-signed with Fox Business Network.
Knoz reports, “Fox Business has re-signed Charlie Gasparino to a multi-year deal. Gasparino will continue in his role as senior correspondent for both FBN and Fox News Channel.
“‘Charlie thrives on holding Wall Street accountable and his tenacious, hard-nosed approach to journalism has made him one of the most respected reporters in the industry. We look forward to his continued success in breaking market-moving news,’ FBN EVP Kevin Magee said in a statement.
“Gasparino joined FBN from CNBC in 2010. In a statement, he praised FBN, saying the network ‘doesn’t play the Wall Street apology game, which gives me the freedom to do my job.’”
Read more here. And here’s the release.
Anti-CNBC ad runs on CNBC
by Chris Roush
Paul Shea of ValueWalk.com reports that a Fox Business Network ad slamming competitor CNBC ran on CNBC.
Shea writes, “The appearance of an advertisement lambasting a network policy would, under normal circumstances, be considered an insult. Most networks would have attempted to have it removed from the air. CNBC, however, allowed the advertisement to air on their network. Either the network grinned and bore it, or, more worryingly, nobody important enough noticed.
“Clearly Fox Business Network bought advertising time with the cable provider, meaning CNBC probably wouldn’t have known the advertisement was coming. However, the ads could have been removed by the cable provider, like they were last year when FBN ran ads on CNBC after it aired planned reruns during the after the United States’ credit rating was downgraded.
“FBN began airing ads aimed directly at that decision. The ads contrast its schedule, which remains business oriented throughout the evening, to that of CNBC. CNBC’s new line of reality shows, an attempt to boost ratings in off peak hours, is being exploited as a sign of weakness.”
Read more here.
