Broadcasting & Cable, always a must-read for Cable Gamers, scores a sneak peek at the new Fox Business News logo. Reporters Michael Malone and Marisa Guthrie even score an interview with the mastermind:
Ray Lambiase, vice president of Graphics for FBN, who started the project in June, says the gold is a nod to the riches one might garner from tuning in to FBN. The trickiest part was composing something that could work in the various platforms a program exists in today, whether it's on-air, online, or on a promotional item, such as a pen. “Making it look good is tough enough, but it has to work a dozen different ways,” Lambiase says. “It's not one size fits all.”
This is going to be hot! FBN is taking dead aim at CNBC, just as Fox News took dead aim at CNN a decade ago.
Speaking of hot, Market Watch's Jon Friedman analyzes FBN's strategy: to be the anti-CNBC. While acknowledging that CNBC has a huge head start--or course, so did CNN, relative to FNC--Friedman observes that all that is familiar does not glitter:
Familiarity, it's said, can also breed contempt. CNBC's detractors allege that the network has gotten dull and complacent. For better or worse, CNBC has seldom had to sweat over a competitor with the resources and expertise to challenge its stranglehold on the cable-business-news market.
And then Friedman adds these zingers:
Most damaging, perhaps, are the accusations by some that CNBC is out of touch with individual investors' needs. These critics say the network has overlooked the interests of Main Street by getting cozy with Wall Street. (Too cozy, if you believe the critics of star CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo.)
Yes, it will be good to get a little competition in the cable business game, so that, for example, the Maria Bartiromo/Todd Thomsondoesn't get lost.
To paraphrase the famous Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, "competition is the best disinfectant"!
