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Posted on 01/09/2004 7:37:54 AM PST by veronica
Commentary: Cavuto's straight talk is wooing viewers
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Ask Neil Cavuto, the managing editor of business news for the Fox News Channel, to name his dream interview and he gets right to the point.
"The Pope," Cavuto said.
"I'd ask, `How long are you going to stay?'" Cavuto said, tongue-in-cheek.
That's the kind of feistiness that the media industry has come to expect from Fox (FOX: news, chart, profile), News Corp.'s (NWS: news, chart, profile) cable television network.
While Fox is ordinarily associated with such highly opinionated talk show hosts as Bill O'Reilly, Cavuto's work is quietly paying off, too. In 2003, Cavuto's weekday show, "Your World with Neil Cavuto" - which appears from 4-5 p.m., Eastern Time on weekdays -- wooed more than a million viewers on a daily average basis, according to Nielsen Media Research
Other Fox business shows are also finding an audience. "Cavuto -- not CNBC -- now boasts the five highest rated stocks and bonds programs on the cable dial," the New York Daily News said on Thursday.
This is especially satisfying for Cavuto, 45. When he left CNBC to join Fox, its business coverage was nowhere, almost literally.
"When I came here in 1996, I had as many viewers as I could fit into my office," Cavuto remembered in a telephone interview on Thursday "We weren't even on in New York at the time. I thought, `Maybe I WILL take that Staples management job.' "
Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes kept the faith. "Ailes was very patient," Cavuto said.
Cavuto embarked on the humbling task of building a following. "People would stop me on the street," he observed, "and say, `Nice show.' They thought I was still on CNBC!"
He had a game plan.
"I sent out letters to a thousand executives and told them I was on Fox," Cavuto said. "I would do the little things, like sending out letters and cards to every guest."
Before long, Cavuto was interviewing CEOs.
These days, the show starts off with the day's business news highlights. On Wednesday, for example, the first 10 minutes featured a wide-ranging discussion of a hot-button issue, illegal immigration.
Then, the show discussed the Fastow settlements relating to the Enron case, whether Wall Street wants Howard Dean to win the Democratic nomination for President and whether mutual funds had emerged as good investments.
Cavuto also encourages the public to comment on his show, to varying degrees of insights. As one Fox employee noted, one viewer volunteered that Cavuto bore a distinct facial resemblance to Eddie Munster of "The Munsters" TV show of the 1960s.
Succeeding
Why have Fox's financial news shows succeeded?
"People appreciate (that) we do it in straightforward English," Cavuto said. "We try to avoid jargon and acronyms. A lot of business shows preach to the converted, and they're out to impress brokers."
People who have worked with Cavuto understand what his show is going after.
"It appeals to a more general audience," said Neil Shapiro senior vice president at Intermarket Communications and Cavuto's senior producer at Fox from 1997 to 2000, when the show was called the "Cavuto Business Report."
"When I was there, it was a business show and we didn't cover the general news developments," Shapiro noted. Plus, in those days, the show was on the air at 5 p.m.
At the same time, it remains a mystery to many industry professionals why CNBC, the gold-plated brand in TV business news, doesn't routinely squash its foes.
CNBC senior vice president David Friend didn't sound too flustered by the ratings boom at Fox.
"The Nielsen numbers don't accurately our numbers and never have," he said. He noted that CNBC's 25-to-54 audience, the key audience demographic for TV networks, jumped 11 percent year over year.
Cavuto says business shows should "return to programming for the investor. It's not only about the scandals. Stocks are jumping again and it's time to say how people can make money."
Cavuto's ascent comes at a fortuitous time. News Corp. leader Rupert Murdoch is said to be planning to roll out a business and finance show on DirecTV. (Fox spokespeople declined comment).
At CNN, officials aren't exactly bowled over by Cavuto's numbers. In an email message, CNN spokeswoman Sarah Cohn said: "Obviously, Lou (Dobbs) does not run against Cavuto, and it's not appropriate to compare shows in different time periods. The performance of `Lou Dobbs Tonight' is very strong and blows away the business news competition in its time slot -- which is only CNBC."
Fox benefit
In addition, Fox is benefiting from having a general-news audience.
"There is a great wind at our backs," Cavuto conceded. "Fox is a phenomenon. We've got to keep it going."
But he attributes his ratings to his vision for the show.
"We believe in trusting capitalism," he said. "Sometimes you think all mutual funds are crooked or all CEOs are crooks," he said.
He said other shows have "a certain sameness" and "generalities.that are anti-capitalism. I like capitalism and human success stories. It's not a downer to come to Fox."
He has harsh words for self-serious members of his profession.
"A lot of my competitors should get over themselves," Cavuto said. "This is a business where you deal with very big egos. It doesn't pay to be pompous. You can be up one minute and down the next."
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | Missouri | 291.00 |
10 |
29.10 |
331 |
0.88 |
198.00 |
14 |
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Better than all the other Fox shows combined, IMHO!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.
Cool.
Neil Cavuto is not shill and is not a "financial reporter." Is he an optimist? Yes. He prefers to look at the glass half-full rather than the glass half-empty. I like that. He covers a wide range of topics and his "Common Sense" segment is THE BEST commentary on TV.
Please ping your lists to this post. Jeb Bush might be our president someday so this is relevant to Terri's fight and to national politics.
I assume that you mean 2003. If so, you must be doing something wrong. My stock portfolio was up over 53% for 2003 and is up over 5.5% so far in 2004. And I don't use a broker.
If he errs it won't be because he was malicious or compromised his integrity.
I often say a little prayer for his health.
I so agree with that. His commentary is always intelligent, insightful, entertaining, thought-provoking, and still somehow manages to be tear-jerking occasionally.
Can you tell I have a thing for Cavuto? lol
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