CNN hyping Lou Dobbs return
With 'Lou!' back, CNN hopes viewers will be too
Matt Kempner - Staff
Saturday, May 12, 2001
This is CNN, but the network might as well adopt a new slogan: This is Lou.
The 24-hour news network has begun a full-court press to promote the return of "Moneyline" anchor Lou Dobbs, who two years ago abdicated his throne at the top of cable business news.
In TV spots that began airing last week, the network compares Dobbs to Darwin, da Vinci and Edison. In another it shows him preparing to enter an arena with cheering fans waving pompoms and a placard showing dollar signs.
On Monday --- Dobbs' first day back on the air --- trucks will haul mobile billboards through Manhattan proclaiming "Lou's Back!" and major newspapers will carry Lou ads.
His return is sparking a fresh battle with rival network CNBC, which tried to hire Dobbs earlier this year.
But CNN's effort to hype Dobbs also shows how much emphasis it is putting on the return of one straight-laced personality to help rebuild ratings. This time around, however, Dobbs faces a far more competitive news environment.
Until recently CNN boasted that news was its star. But ratings have slumped amid increased competition from CNBC, Fox News and MSNBC. CNN executives say they will try to put more news stars on the air and beef up promotional efforts.
That push has gotten extra attention with the recent arrival of Hollywood network veteran Jamie Kellner as chairman and chief executive of Turner Broadcasting System, which includes CNN.
But no one believes Dobbs will march in and get his former viewers back right away.
Even Dobbs predicts it will take him a year just to reach ratings parity with CNBC's top-ranked evening business show, "Business Center."
"I'm not sure he will be able to get back to where he was," says Tim Spengler, executive vice president of Initiative Media North America, a major media buyer for advertisers such as Home Depot and Disney.
"CNBC has really emerged and so has Fox News.... Now he has competition," Spengler says. For advertisers looking for places to run TV spots, "Moneyline" is no longer "the only place to reach the CEOs and the $150,000 a year Wall Street guys."
After 19 years as host of "Moneyline," Dobbs quit in 1999 in a battle of management personalities and concerns about his role in an Internet company, Space.com. At the time, "Moneyline" had the biggest business news audience on cable and was CNN's most profitable show.
CNBC, which had been growing already, soon caught up as "Moneyline" struggled. Now, CNBC's evening business show, "Business Center," is perched in the top spot, with double the ratings that "Moneyline" managed last month. "Moneyline," meanwhile, has seen a drop in profits in addition to ratings.
The show has been hosted by Willow Bay and, until his resignation earlier this year, Stuart Varney.
CNN has been so anxious to turn the show around that executives have rushed to get Dobbs back on the air rather than wait for planned changes such as a new set, new graphics and a larger reporting staff.
Still, Dobbs says the show will be substantially the same as when he left.
Rival CNBC isn't sitting on its ratings lead. The network announced that beginning Monday it will expand "Business Center" by a half hour, starting at 6 p.m. and giving it a jump on "Moneyline," which starts at 6:30 p.m.
CNBC Executive Vice President Bruno Cohen predicts Dobbs may pull some viewers away from Fox and MSNBC in the short run, but not CNBC viewers. "I don't think we are going to get hurt at all."
While CNBC wanted to hire Dobbs, it was CNN that really needed him, Cohen says. "CNN had to have Lou Dobbs; they had nothing else. CNBC didn't have to have him."
The on-air rivalry is intensifying. CNN plans to have Dobbs and Kellner ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange Monday.
CNBC had "Business Center" anchors Ron Insana and Sue Herera do the same thing earlier this week.
"Push me harder," Cohen says, "See how hard I push back."
CNBC is promoting a four-part series next week showing its "exclusive" access to Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, billionaire nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd.
Dobbs' first day is scheduled to include interviews with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and the chairmen of Intel, Disney and Citigroup, as well as the chief executives of Ford Motor Co. and J.P. Morgan Chase.
Marquee guests are one thing, but what Dobbs really needs is viewers willing to give him another shot. "Do me a favor," he tells a reporter. "Tune in 6:30 p.m."
accessatlanta.com |
