Fox Business Network anchor Stuart Varney talked with John Hudson of The Atlantic about what he reads and how he prepares for each day.

Varney said, “I wake up at 3 a.m., that’s my opening bell. I scan the major newspapers: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph, which isn’t out of nationalistic obligation, it’s just because The Telegraph is accessible and gives a good view of events in Northern Europe. Since nobody will deliver those papers at 3:30 a.m., I’m scanning them online for about 45 minutes. By 4:15, I’m checking quotes on key markets, what’s the yield on Italy’s 10-year bond, where are prices on the dollar, oil, gold, Dow Jones futures, equities, bonds and currencies. At 4:20 or 4:30 I’m leaving my house for work.

“At the office, I’m hashing out what the most important financial story of the day is with Fox & Friends producers and I’ll go on air at about 6:15 or 6:30 for the segment. At 6:50, we hold a team meeting for my show Varney & Co. fleshing out the guests and subjects of the show.

“So far, I haven’t found much need for business websites or blogs. I look at Drudge. I’ll check The Daily Caller, I’ll look at The Huffington Post but it’s not a religion. Is Business Insider any good? I don’t know. I try to stay out of the weeds. On television, jargon is the kiss of death. The second you start talking about the Federal Reserve and QE3 you’ve lost your audience. I mean, how many people really know what the Federal Reserve is and does? Far fewer people know what QE3 is. That’s why you’ll never hear me say, ‘The yield on the 10 year bond is X or Y percent.’ Instead, I’ll tell a general audience that Italians are having trouble borrowing money and that’s how you pull them in. One of the differences between CNBC and Fox Business is we’re going after a different market. We’re expanding beyond traders to a broader audience while staying on subjects that are related to money and investing.”

Read more here.

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Fox Business Network gets its largest number of viewers in the key 25 to 54 age bracket for the business day before noon, according to Nielsen data provided to Talking Biz News from an independent third party.

Its largest number of viewers in that key demographic occurs between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., according to date for October. In October 2011, Fox Business had 17,000 viewers during that hour, up from 14,000 viewers in that same hour during October 2010.

Its second-biggest audience in that key demographic occurs in the 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and the 11 a.m. to noon slots, when it had 10,000 viewers in October. The viewers were unchanged from October 2010 in the 9 a.m. hour, but down 2,000 viewers for October in the 11 a.m. hour.

Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney‘s show begins at 9:20 and runs until 11 a.m. It is followed by “Fox Business,” which begins at 11 a.m. and runs until 3 p.m.

The data also shows that Fox Business business day programming is not getting much of an audience from the “Imus in the Morning” show that runs on the network from 6 a.m. to 9:20 a.m. That show had just 4,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic in October, down from 6,000 viewers in that demographic in October 2010.

Fox Business averaged 8,000 to 9,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic for each hour in October after noon until 4 p.m., when the average dropped to 5,000 viewers. Viewership was up slightly from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. compared to October 2010.

The network’s afternoon shows include “Closing Bell” with Liz Claman, which runs from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., and then “After the Bell,” which features Claman and David Asman.

NOTE: This post has been updated to reflect that Talking Biz News looked only at Fox Business Network ratings during the business day, not its entire programming.

Chris Hodenfield of New Canaan-Darien Magazine profiles Fox Business Network reporter Charles Gasparino, whose career has included stints at the Tampa Tribune to trade publications to The Wall Street Journal and CNBC.

Here is an excerpt:

It seems you did something right when managing your career.

No one ever gave me  break in this business. I came out of university and was a beat reporter for the Tampa Tribune. But I left because I hated living in Tampa. I started working for trade magazine on Wall Street where I learned, from the bottom, how Wall Street works, how  information is used, how sleazy the Street can be.

When the financial crisis was going on, there was a lot of esoteric stuff that led to it. I’ll give you an example: the repo market. Firms essentially finance themselves because they repo in money. They lent out collateral and took in cash. They took in thirty times more cash than they lent out. It’s called leverage. It’s the way the Street worked. It caused their downfall. They borrowed much more than they had on hand in collateral.

Read the rest of the interview here.

D.M. Levine of AdWeek writes Thursday about the ratings of Fox Business Network, which celebrated its four-year anniversary last month.

Levine writes, “It was an abysmal month for Fox News’ young sibling channel. Fox Business Network saw an average daily viewership of around 65,000 for October, according to Nielsen, which also happened to be the month of the network’s four-year anniversary. In its target 25-54 demo, though, Fox Business only drew an average of 10,000 viewers per day. This, compared to the network’s chief competitor, CNBC, which saw around 201,000 viewers on average and 59,000 in the 25-54 age group. A source familiar with the network says that four years in, they expected Fox Business to be performing ‘a lot better than 10,000 in the target demo.’

“Adding to the network’s woes is the fact that Don Imus’ program, Imus in the Morning, which Fox Business debuted in 2009 as the network’s daily morning kickoff program, is performing miserably—with an average of just 5,000 daily viewers in the target demographic for the month and 90,000 total viewers. By comparison, Squawk Box, which airs on FBN’s chief competitor CNBC at the same time as Imus’ show, received 179,000 total viewers on average for the month and outdelivered Imus in the target demographic by more than 1,100 percent, with 65,000 viewers.

“There is one relatively bright spot for Fox Business—its early prime-time 4 p.m.-8 p.m. slate, which includes shows like Cavuto and Lou Dobbs Tonight. The network pulled around 85,000 average daily viewers for the month, including 12,000 viewers in its target demographic, during those hours. But even that figure is still well behind the 212,000 total viewers CNBC received for that same time slot.”

Read more here.

Simone Brummelhuis of The Next Women business magazine interviewed Fox Business Network anchor Sandra Smith about her job and what she likes about covering business news.

Here is an excerpt:

As female business reporter, do you attract a similar/different audience than your older male counterparts?

Our audience is filled with smart, curious people who care about their money. I specifically target an audience that wants to put their money to work with my branded segment called “The Trade”. It is a segment about actionable ideas to make money in the stock and commodity markets.

Sometimes I hear women say they think investing their money responsibly is a man’s world. I like to show all viewers, male and female, the options that are out there to make their money make money.

What business news makes you tick?

BREAKING news. I love the adrenaline rush of breaking news as it happens. Lately I have been reporting from the trading pits of the CME Group in Chicago, and there is nothing more exciting than seeing arms flying, hearing voices raised, and feeling the energy of a big move in the trading pits. Sometimes the markets tell is something is happening before it hits any news wire. I LOVE getting the story. What is causing this?? It’s the best.

Read more here.