Phil Griffin Interview…

Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher interviews MSNBC President Phil Griffin…

That diverse array of talent, including hosts like Tamron Hall, Touré, Melissa Harris-Perry, and Rev. Al Sharpton, and ubiquitous contributors like Joy Reid, Goldie Taylor, Karen Finney, Prof. Michael Erik Dyson, Chairman Michael Steele, Eugene Robinson, and Jonathan Capehart, is an organic result of the network’s editorial philosophy, rather than an end unto itself, says Griffin.

“It wasn’t like we said ‘Oh, we have to have a diverse person on here and there,’” he said. “We made a decision. We made a commitment in ideas, issues and everything – the audience followed, and that goes back to four or five years ago. As we grew, we recognized that it was the right thing to do. It’s giving a voice to people in these kinds of programs who don’t always get a voice. Our look is as diverse as any on mainstream TV. I’m incredibly proud of it. It’s not like we decided ‘We’re going to increase our African American viewership by 60%,’ but I’m thrilled that it happened, and it says a lot about what we’ve been doing over the last few years.”

2012 was also a year in which race played a central part in some huge news stories, and MSNBC was instrumental in putting them on the public’s radar. Thanks in large part to Rev. Al Sharpton, they were early to cover the Trayvon Martin story, and stayed on the Republican effort to depress minority turnout through voter I.D. laws.

Griffin isn’t patting himself on the back for covering voter I.D., though. “I think it’s outrageous more media outlets didn’t go to the story and do it,” he said. “Many people said they though it was the so-called ‘liberal issue. Voting in America is not a ‘liberal issue’ – it is an American issue. We took it head on, and I guarantee you, in 4 years if the same thing happens again, you’ll see many more media outlets doing it, because they’ll recognize how important it is.”

Press Releases: 01/07/13

CNBC (1)

CNBC EXPANDS PROGRAMMING SLATE GREENLIGHTING TWO ADDITIONAL UNSCRIPTED SERIES ON CNBC PRIME

PASADENA, CA. — January 7, 2013 — CNBC today unveiled the network’s primetime rebrand, CNBC Prime, which will debut March 5. The rebrand includes a new look, a new attitude, a new reality and a new logo that embodies the shift in primetime programming. By day, CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news providing real time market coverage and financial information. The inherent conflict of buy and sell and fear and greed that plays out on the air every day moves to the evening with colorful characters involved in gripping, emotional storylines that live in a world of ambition, achievement, affluence and consequences. By night, CNBC Prime is an entertainment network with a programming slate that is an extension of CNBC’s distinct brand.

“It’s an exciting time at CNBC,” said Hoffman. “We are capitalizing on the success of our network. We’re no longer about bulls and bears when we are off the clock. The theme of money threads through everything we do, but the programming equity in primetime lies in the stories and characters themselves.”

Building on the momentum of CNBC Prime, the network also announced today it has greenlit two additional series. FAMILY BUSINESS PROJECT (working title) from Embassy Row and executive produced by Michael Davies, gives owners of small family businesses a chance at a game-changing big money prize. Family businesses may be the backbone of our economy and given these tough times, many of them are struggling to stay afloat. Each week, “Family Business Project” will feature three family businesses that are desperate for cash. They will compete in hopes of winning a substantial dollar prize that may save their businesses from shutting its doors. While the families will make their case to a panel of judges, the real power lies in the hands of the audience who will ultimately make the call and decide which family business is most deserving of the investment.

Betty Liu Profile…

Wanchee Wang pens a profile of Bloomberg TV’s Betty Liu for The Penn Gazette’s Alumni: Profiles…

After a few years in Asia, Liu returned to the United States to take a job with the Financial Times as its Atlanta bureau chief.

“Really, it was a one-person band,” she says. “They supplied me with a laptop and I bought a car, and that was my office.”

While in Atlanta, she did guest segments on CNN about China, its politics and economy, leveraging her experiences in Asia. Then CNBC Asia offered her a foreign-correspondent position in Hong Kong.

“I decided to take the plunge and do television,” she says, and a few years later, Bloomberg TV offered her a show in New York. Financial news is a highly competitive field, and Liu acknowledges that balancing family and career was a major challenge.

“Like many women, I struggled for a while with ‘How do I have kids while continuing to grow my career? Should I stay home?’” she recalls. “I started to look at role models during that time, women whom I saw were working and having great careers, and they had children and they were still able to be at the very top of their fields. So I said, ‘I won’t change my goals. I’ll just make them all fit together.’”

Megyn Kelly Profile

Harper’s Bazaar’s Julia Reed profiles Megyn Kelly…and manages to prolong the life of the should-have-been-euthanized-already “Megyn is a rising star” meme which is too bad because, excepting that, the article is very a very good profile piece.

While Kelly deftly credits her boss Fox News chief Roger Ailes with the idea of doing the decision desk interview (“I wouldn’t have made that trek if it hadn’t been for him”), in the days that followed she was showered with kudos. Media critic Howard Kurtz wrote a Daily Beast column in which he reiterated his assessment of Kelly as a “breakout star” and reminded network brass that her contract would be up this summer. Such an unlikely fan as The New Republic’s Noreen Malone praised her ability to “control the spin.” Bill Hemmer of Fox’s America’s Newsroom, Kelly’s onetime coanchor, references what he calls “her greatest asset as a TV partner—the Megyn Kelly curveball. She always brings an element of surprise. It’s as if a record is spinning and it gets stopped midsong by Megyn’s hand.”

Lately her hand seems to have the golden touch: Fox’s election-night ratings were the highest in the network’s history, and her two-hour weekday show was the most watched on all of cable programming in its time period during the month of November. The numbers are all the more remarkable given that she has been in the business for less than a decade.

Free for All: 01/07/12

What’s on your mind?

Peter Barnes Profile

The Washington Post’s Thomas Heath profiles FBN’s Peter Barnes…

The 54-year-old senior Washington correspondent for the Fox Business Network is also a serial entrepreneur who is batting one for three in business start-ups.

One hit. Two whiffs. No home runs.

I caught up with Barnes in several phone conversations between his Fox TV appearances last week, where he was telling viewers how much more they were going to fork over to the feds under the new U.S. tax rates.

Barnes is not just any working journalist. He is a resilient risk-taker, qualities that I envy.

The entrepreneur has actually put his cash, time and reputation into three start-ups. He has written business plans, raised money, met a payroll, paid taxes, hired and fired and — when it didn’t work — figured out the next thing. He can read a balance sheet and knows that “discount rate” is not the price of something at Wal-Mart.

“I really understand how hard it is to be an entrepreneur,” Barnes said. “Every person who is successful and is a gazillionaire, a lot of them have failed.”