Fox News fixes what wasn’t broken — and makes it better


By Jason Stverak / November 13, 2013 /

A VISION: Those who expect Roger Ailes to rest on his laurels simply don’t understand how this media visionary operates. Never satisfied with the status quo, Ailes’ spirit of innovation has fueled Fox News’ unprecedented run of dominance atop the cable news ratings.

By Jason Stverak
When Roger Ailes decided to shake up the prime time lineup at Fox News — the most successful lineup in the history of cable news — earlier this year, many in the pundit class were all too eager to criticize the move.
But those who expected Ailes to rest on his laurels simply don’t understand how this media visionary operates. Never satisfied with the status quo, Ailes’ spirit of innovation has fueled FNC’s unprecedented run of dominance atop the cable news ratings.
Six weeks into FNC’s primetime shakeup, the verdict is in, and to the surprise of no one except perhaps the punditry, it’s been a resounding success.
The network drew nearly double the viewership of its two closest competitors, CNN and MSNBC, last week, averaging 2.1 million viewers per night and posting sizable gains in the critical age 25-54 demographic, known as “the demo.”
Growth through innovation has been the story of FNC since Ailes started the network in 1996.
In just five years, Fox News rose from a lonely cable outpost to No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings, a position it hasn’t given up in the nearly 12 years since. During this period, the network has struck the right balance between adhering to its guiding philosophy and embracing change, building outward from cornerstone programs like The O’Reilly Factor and taking chances on promising young personalities like Shepard Smith, Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier.
By 2013, FNC’s evening lineup of Baier, Smith, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren was consistently dominating every time slot from 6-11 p.m., every night of the week.
Yet Ailes resisted the temptation to slip into complacency. And, noting the network’s slight decline in 25-54 viewership — which organizations like Media Matters gleefully noted as they predicted further decline — Ailes decided to revamp his lineup to aggressively target a younger audience. He inserted the popular and social media-savvy Kelly into the critical 9 p.m. slot, and revamped Smith’s program with an increased focus on “hard news.”
Now, FNC’s ratings are higher than ever before.
The initial rise of Fox News from 1996-2001 was stunning, but what Ailes has done this year may be even more impressive. It’s one thing to make changes when you’re at the bottom, when it’s easy to see where you need to go — up. But when you’re on top, it can be difficult to overcome complacency and continue to innovate, fixing what’s not broken to make it even better.
Ailes and his team at FNC have done it once again, and if they spend another 12 years atop the ratings, it really shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Jason Stverak is president of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity and publisher of Watchdog.org.




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