Issue of the week: Is Fox Business Network worth watching?

Issue of the week: Is Fox Business Network worth watching?

“The stock market can close,” said Alessandra Stanley in The New York Times, “but on Fox Business Network, the fun never stops.” That, at least, seems to be the guiding principle behind the new Rupert Murdoch–owned cable outlet that launched last week. FBN clearly sees itself as the antithesis of CNBC, the buttoned-down, 18-year-old business network owned by General Electric. In contrast to jargon-laden CNBC, FBN is “sunny, informal, and downright perky,” its anchors and reporters remaining “giggly and upbeat” even when the stock ticker crawling below their images shows a market rout in progress. Unlike CNBC, “this is not a network that caters to money managers and day traders.” Rather, it’s business news “for people who don’t follow the economy very closely and hate to hear bad news.” And as befits an offshoot of Fox News, it’s unabashedly pro-business, inhabiting a world in which “global warming is natural, and so are tax cuts.”

The difference between the two business channels isn’t just stylistic, said Matea Gold in the Los Angeles Times. CNBC’s coverage begins and ends with the stock market, with plenty of in-depth analysis of individual stocks. Fox doesn’t ignore the stock market, but it aims to connect events in the business world to viewers’ everyday lives—an approach summed up by the “mantra” constantly invoked at FBN’s New York offices: “From Wall Street to Main Street.” That strategy might win viewers, but it remains to be seen whether they will be viewers that advertisers want to reach. The now-defunct CNNfn tried a similar populist approach when it launched in 1995, but it never managed “to simultaneously provide mass market programming and target an elite audience.” Advertisers want to reach CEOs and well-heeled Wall Streeters; FBN’s coverage isn’t likely to pull those viewers away from CNBC.

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But if anyone can make the populist approach work, it’s Rupert Murdoch, said Simon Evans in the London Independent. Sure, it’s “very easy to mock” a channel whose first day of programming featured an interview with the Naked Cowboy, who stands in Times Square strumming his guitar while wearing “just a hat, underpants, and boots.” (Viewers learned that the performer cleared $250,000 last year.) But the Australian media mogul heard similar derision when he launched Fox News, and he enjoyed the last laugh when Fox News marched past CNN in both viewers and buzz. FBN may be “tacky and horribly obvious, with an unashamed ‘greed is good’ philosophy,” but if it succeeds at shaking up “the staid world of business television,” it will be a welcome addition to the airwaves.

But FBN lacks the crucial ingredient that makes Fox News so engaging: villains, said Jeff Bercovici in Portfolio.com. “For all the talk of how upbeat and optimistic Fox News is,” its coverage is “defined by what it’s against: activist judges who parole child molesters, elementary-school principals who ban Christmas decorations, presidential candidates who refuse to wear flag pins on their lapels.” How does that translate to business? The obvious answer would be to adopt a libertarian stance: “embattled entrepreneurs versus heavy-handed tax-and-regulate government.” But while that message would sit fine with CEOs and stockbrokers, it won’t exactly rouse the small-time investors at whom the channel is supposedly aimed. What’s a media mogul to do? Stay tuned.

What the boss can learn from the Boss

Rick Newman

USNews.com

When it comes to keeping the customer base happy and coming back for more, said Rick Newman in USNews.com, CEOs can learn a lot from rock legend Bruce Springsteen. Just watch him in action. During his concerts, Springsteen is always “starting one song before the other one ends.” That keeps the crowd involved and even on their feet—the equivalent of introducing new products while the old ones are still being enjoyed and customer goodwill is high. Springsteen also knows how to innovate, “expanding his brand image” with unexpected musical flourishes, without ever shifting his “center of gravity.” But he is not shy about “giving the people what they want,” always mixing new material with old favorites such as “Badlands” and “Born to Run.” The biggest secret to his success, though, may simply be that Springsteen clearly loves what he does. “Enthusiasm is contagious. If you’re pumped about what you do, those around you are more likely to twist and shout right along with you. And keep on spending.”

Yes, virtue can be very rewarding

Ray Fisman

Slate.com

Doing well by doing good: It’s an attractive theory of business, but it hasn’t been scientifically tested, said Ray Fisman in Slate.com. Until now. Two Harvard researchers recently “set out to discover whether consumers prefer to buy from do-gooder companies.” For their experiment they chose ABC Carpet and Home, an upscale home-furnishings store in New York City. First, they set out two brands of towels and candles and stuck a “fair labor” label on one brand of each item. Sure enough, the labeled items sold much better than the unlabeled ones. Then the researchers marked up the prices on the “fair labor” towels and candles by 10 percent. “Quite remarkably, this increase made people buy even more towels and candles,” possibly because “the higher prices made the products’ fair labor claims more credible.” Granted, this experiment was carried out in liberal, affluent New York. Would shoppers at a Midwestern Wal-Mart behave the same way? There are two Harvard researchers who would be “happy to spend a few more nights in the stockroom with a label gun to find out.”