One of the keys to success in The Cable Game is "the get." That is, who can you get on your show? On your air? Oprah Winfrey and some kid web-casting from his basement, a la "Wayne's World," have access to pretty much the same technology, but people watch Oprah for her, and for her guests--her gets.
Of course, such "getting" is hard work. And as Marisa Guthrie details in Broadcasting and Cable, Claman is willing to work hard. Guthrie quotes an old boss at KCBS in Los Angeles, Jose Rios, recalling admiringly, "Liz always had an incredible work ethic. She always had her nose to the grindstone. You don't have to manage the process with her. You just give her the goal.”
That was 20 years ago. And today, she's still at it:
On a recent afternoon at FBN's New York studios, news breaks that GE has arranged to sell $3 billion in preferred stock to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. Tracey Byrnes, an FBN analyst, muses: “Someone should call [former GE CEO] Jack Welch.”
Claman picks up the phone next to the flat screen TV tuned to FBN's coverage of the chaos on the trading floor and GE's free-falling stock. In seconds, she has Welch's assistant. Claman's doggedness and enthusiasm combined with a market acumen honed over a decade on the business beat means CEOs take her calls.
“I don't have the M.B.A.,” she says, “yet CEOs still want to talk to me, it seems.” Claman probably talks to Buffett more than most business reporters. She had the first major interview with the then somewhat mercurial CEO in 2006 while at CNBC. When she jumped to FBN, Buffett offered to be her first interview on her first day on the air.
“She jumped in with both feet and brought an enormous Rolodex,” says Kevin Magee, executive VP of FBN. “I've got a picture in my office of her interviewing Warren Buffett and Bill Gates at the same time. That's $120 billion worth of people in those chairs. And I don't think we could have gotten them without her.”
FBN and Claman are still #, but they are trying harder. In a year or two, don't be surprised if there's a big change. Maybe even less time than that.
