Fox Business Network was launched on October 15, 2007, when America was on the brink of a financial crisis, and a unique approach to business news coverage that prioritizes Main Street as much as Wall Street has helped the network thrive as it celebrates its 15th anniversary on Saturday.
“Fox Business is a living television wonder in my opinion, and I’m not being overly dramatic here. I really mean it because we can remember so many moments, especially all the originals, that we just flew in at the seat of our pants,” longtime presenter Liz Claman told Fox News Digital
She explained that FBN “blew up like a plane, but we still riveted the wings on,” so Claman and other original hosts weren’t exactly ready.
“But we just started. And 15 years later, it’s a great honor to even think back on some of those fun memories. I mean, we really couldn’t put up a single stock chart at certain points, and we would. There sits David Asman and I and Charles [Payne] and Neil Cavuto, we would just talk and talk and talk and do our best,” Claman said.
Fox Business Network President Lauren Petterson and the network’s stars celebrated FBN’s 15th anniversary by ringing the Nasdaq opening bell.
(FOX)
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But Claman and other FBN hosts didn’t just talk to each other, and she was able to get billionaire Warren Buffett on the airwaves on her first day.
“We were able to convince him, and it didn’t even take too much effort to convince him that Fox Business, a Fox network that would be business-focused, would do it — maybe not right away.” , but it would be worth it one day… and he was smart enough to know that,” Claman said.
Claman believes much of the success is due to the network’s ability to attract Fortune 500 CEOs, Treasury secretaries and virtually every major financial newsmaker, despite attempts by other business networks to keep influential guests away.
“There was this line where they used to say, ‘There are more people in your building lobby than Fox Business sees,’ but guess what? What our competitors haven’t considered is, #1, you don’t get to tell winners, people who’ve made it to the top of their industry or the top of government, how and where to get their message out.” , Claman said. “No. 2, they didn’t take into account that it’s not about the size of the dog in the fight, it’s about the size of the fight in the dog. We might have been the Chihuahua to start and they were the Great Danes, but we struggled so much.”
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Liz Claman has been with Fox Business Network since inception in 2007.
Fox Business Network has come a long way since then, recently ending the third quarter of 2022 with a larger Business Day audience than CNBC for the second straight quarter. Claman said she’s proud of pretty much everything the network has accomplished over the past 15 years, but one accomplishment really stands out.
“We finally started winning. That’s when we finally started beating CNBC,” she said.
“I mean, they were the Goliath and we were the David. And in 2018, we covered the presidential election better and from a better business standpoint than anyone else,” she continued. “And we were rewarded for that by viewers who were craving for just that, and that I started in 2007 and it took all these years to finally get that recognition, I was floating … I still am.”
Neil Cavuto believes Fox Business Network’s “no-nonsense, no-jargon” approach to reporting business news has helped democratize an entire industry.
(FOX)
While Claman pointed to the ratings success, Charles Payne, another original Fox Business Network host, struggled to think of a specific moment that he felt was the most memorable
“It’s hard for me to make a selection, there have been so many of them that have stood out, especially during the time that we have been in it because we came in during a crisis and you know we had a crisis and then we had another crisis … and now we’re in another crisis,” Payne said. “No kidding, it just feels like every day stands out in its own way.”
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Payne believes Fox Business Network has been successful because it behaves like a news network and “puts the viewer first” and relates to all Americans, rather than just targeting Wall Street investors.
“We don’t just talk jargon to each other and try to impress each other. And I think that’s really one of the things that sets it apart from what’s out there,” Payne said.
Claman said she always knew FBN would ultimately prevail because it was a superior product, but the support of FOX Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch really put the network on the map.
“Not once in the years that we haven’t won have we fidgeted…not once has he said, ‘Guys, if you guys can’t pull this off, I’m pulling the plug,'” Claman said. “We’ve watched other networks go dark…they don’t have the vision that Rupert Murdoch has. And not once did he say, ‘I’m done. That does not work.’ He knew it takes time and persistence, and as long as we all did our best, he would stand by us. And I’m so thankful he did.”
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As Fox Business celebrates its 15th anniversary, Payne is already thinking about the next decade and a half.
“Investors who watch the financial media will want to see some of the promises materialize over the next 15 years because thanks to Charles in the 1970’s we really only had individual investors who bought into the market en masse Schwab and some of the things what he did was lower commissions to begin with, and now you have commissions that are even much lower than that. But then there were all these amazing products that came out, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, packaged products, and they everyone came with promises,” Payne said.
“And they are about 20 years old at the moment. I don’t know if the majority of them live up to the initial hype, but Americans bought it for trillions of dollars. Here’s how I think about it. Over the next 10 to 15 years, Americans are going to tend to invest more. To get more into the story. They want a part of the action, and they should. They’ll be looking for the payoff, too.” Payne continued, predicting new ways for people to make fortunes. “I think it’s going to be an exciting time. We are in the fourth industrial revolution.”
FBN’s Charles Payne has been with the network since it launched on October 15, 2007.
(Fox News)
Fox Business Network President Lauren Petterson and many of the network’s stars — including Claman and Payne — celebrated FBN’s 15-year anniversary by ringing the NASDAQ opening bell on Friday morning.
Earlier this month, Fox Business announced the return of its popular program line-upFBN Prime, which will continue to celebrate success stories in major American industries.
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