A CNBC Brain Drain?
Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman posits the question…
Still, the spate of departures prompts this question: Does CNBC have a problem, in the form of a brain drain?
Perhaps this revolving door is simply the price an organization pays for enjoying sustained success. Its foes invariably cherry-pick its talented journalists in the hope of spreading around some of that CNBC gold dust.
Most recently among the former CNBC stalwarts, Melissa Francis and Trish Regan joined, respectively, the Fox Business Network and Bloomberg Television. (Fox, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by MarketWatch’s parent, News Corp.).
Plus, Erin Burnett, Liz Claman, Margaret Brennan, Dylan Ratigan, Charles Gasparino, Rebecca Jarvis and Dennis Kneale, among others, have also comprised a virtual who’s who of well known former CNBC journalists that found new professional homes.
Of the names Friedman listed the ones that really stand out are Burnett, Ratigan, and Gasparino. The others weren’t as central to CNBC’s core programming.
January 18, 2012 at 11:10 am
With the possible exception of FNC I don’t see the talent comings and goings at CNBC being any more or less significant than any other cable news net.
Hosts arrivals and departures rarely make a major impact in ratings; either up or down; and reporters and pundits matter even less.
Even cable news stars like Olbermann or Beck leaving their networks had little long term effect on their old time-slots ratings.
January 18, 2012 at 12:04 pm
I love it when one of ruperts media properties dawg the competitiion. I mean come on, do you expect folks to read your piece with some objectivity? the bias really shows. Rupert has turned the WSJ into nothing more than another tabloid rag.
January 18, 2012 at 6:51 pm
I challenge the assumption that there was a brain to drain. Freidman talks about the CNBC brand and I agree that is what matters most. Problem is, their “brand” was seriously damaged during and after the financial crisis when they were exposed as shallow Wall Street cheerleaders. I think this could be a good opportunity for them to retool and build a legitimate news organization instead of a corporate infomercial.
January 20, 2012 at 12:01 am
And conservatives like to assume CNBC is liberal (just because MSNBC is). Last time I checked, there aren’t too many liberals in this country who are as pro-corporate as CNBC personalities.