The Orlando Sentinel’s Hal Boedeker writes about how marketing helped drive FNC’s success…

Fox News Channel has flourished mainly because of effective marketing. For decades, journalists have privately discussed whether their coverage is fair and balanced. Fox News Channel took the bold step of proclaiming itself fair and balanced. That’s chutzpah.

Other news organizations have watched Fox News with amazement and envy: If only we had our own slogan, maybe we too could share the Fox News gravy train.

Just look at the way local stations and newspapers try to market themselves with catchy phrases. In that way, Fox News revolutionized news. Like groupies, Fox News supporters can quote the channel’s successes in ratings and money, although the channel still runs far behind the audiences for the evening newscasts on NBC, CBS and ABC.

Fox News also brought bigger and bolder graphics to the news presentation; and it put bolder, more opinionated stars in prime time. Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly will upstage CNN’s Larry King every time.

Cable News Ratings for September 29, 2006

P2+ Total Day
FNC - 810,000 viewers
CNN - 465,000 viewers
MSNBC - 269,000 viewers
CNBC - 143,000 viewers
HLN - 210,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC - 1,401,000 viewers
CNN - 577,000 viewers
MSNBC - 362,000 viewers
CNBC - a scratch with 76,000 viewers
HLN - 313,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC - 278,000 viewers
CNN - 162,000 viewers
MSNBC - 113,000 viewers
CNBC - a scratch with 45,000 viewers
HLN - 84,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC - 361,000 viewers
CNN - 170,000 viewers
MSNBC - 133,000 viewers
CNBC - a scratch with 26,000 viewers
HLN - 103,000 viewers
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CNN announced that the Express Yourself Tour will be arriving in Albuquerque, New Mexico from October 8th through October 10th…

The CNN Election Express Yourself tour visits Albuquerque, N.M., from Friday, Oct. 6, through Sunday, Oct. 8, when it arrives at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. The hot-air balloon festival – the largest ballooning event in the world – marks the fourth major stop for this unique traveling exhibit as it makes its way across the United States in the weeks before the mid-term elections. Its final destination is New York City, just prior to Election Day, Nov. 7.
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TV Week’s Marrianne Paskowski writes about the impending showdown between FNC and Cablevision as the first skirmish in FNC’s carriage renewal campaign…

In the bigger picture, Cablevision with its 3 million subscribers is small potatoes compared with Comcast Cable Communications and Time Warner Cable, the nation’s two largest MSOs. But they aren’t up for renewal yet.

And there is absolutely nothing predictable about the Dolan family, which runs Cablevision, so expect some surprises-the family never fails to deliver on that front. First it was father pitted against son as Chairman Chuck Dolan and his son, President and CEO Jim Dolan, were publicly at odds over the fate of Voom, a satellite service that the elder Dolan wanted to launch and maintain against the wishes of his son, who convinced the board to deep-six the service.

Then just two years ago, Cablevision did an about-face after announcing it would take the company private. Well, they changed their minds. Again.

So stay tuned. This battle of the wills will provide more twists and turns and for better or worse will set the stage for Fox’s upcoming negotiations with the big dogs: Comcast and Time Warner. The game is already in progress.

The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz has a profile of FNC’s Roger Ailes…

While Fox remains No. 9 among all cable networks, some slippage in the ratings over the past year has Ailes concerned. For the last three months, Fox is down 28 percent from the same period last year, compared with declines of 21 percent for CNN and 12 percent for MSNBC.

Ailes responded with a recruitment ad that included such lines as “Can You Work Well With People Without Being a Territorial Jerk?” and “When You’re Tired, Can You Keep Going Without Whining or Making Mistakes?” He also summoned executives to a 5 a.m. meeting to critique morning programming. “Sometimes we get ourselves thinking our job is to send memos to each other. I wanted to make them justify their paycheck.”

Fox executives have been touting a proposed business channel, but Ailes has resisted the idea unless the new network can get distribution in at least 30 million homes. Fox has now cut a deal with YouTube to provide the Web site with video of “the craziest moments in news.”

The New York Times’ Elizabeth Jensen writes about CNBC’s swagger coming back to primetime in programs like Mad Money and Fast Money…

What changed CNBC’s evening fortunes was “Mad Money,” with its host, James J. Cramer, a former fund manager and a founder of TheStreet.com. Mr. Cramer had been a co-host of a more sober CNBC show with Lawrence Kudlow. But in “Mad Money,” which began in March 2005, Mr. Cramer unleashes his inner fund manager, picking winners, trashing losers, accompanied by choruses of “booyah,” flying toy bulls and the occasional thrown chair.

The program is shown first at 6 p.m., then repeated at 9 p.m. and midnight Eastern time. It attracted an audience of 395,000 cumulative viewers a night, on average, in 2006, substantially more viewers than Mr. Miller and Mr. McEnroe drew. Mr. Ratigan, a co-creator of “Fast Money,” calls it “ ‘The View’ for men.” He joined CNBC in 2003, after an eight-year career at Bloomberg, in which he rose swiftly from covering initial public offerings to global managing editor and host of its morning TV program.

Undeterred that Mr. Ratigan’s first effort, “Bullseye,” failed after 15 months (replaced by Mr. Cramer’s show), CNBC now counts on him to anchor the first hour of its top-rated “Closing Bell,” the successful year-old evening news show, as well as “On the Money” and “Fast Money.” Eventually, when “Fast Money” is permanently on the schedule, Mr. Ratigan will not be doing all three.

USA Today’s Peter Johnson writes about FNC’s 10th Anniversary…

As penetration of cable TV reaches a saturation point and with increased competition from the Web, Fox’s “job is going to get harder now, just as it got harder for CNN 10 years ago,” Rosenstiel says. “The big-growth era in cable seems to have come to an end.”

That’s why Ailes has been on something of a tear lately. He has been shaking up his daytime lineup some, calling surprise staff meetings, putting more emphasis on Fox News’ website by partnering with YouTube in launching “The Blast,” a dedicated page in which Fox News provides online video junkies with the craziest moments in news.

“This is hard work every day,” Ailes says. “We have to maintain an intensity.”

Anchor Shepard Smith says that although the ratings competition “for us is in cable, the Internet is clearly pulling eyes, and anybody who says otherwise is being disingenuous. Ten years ago you couldn’t log on to find out what was going on. We need to integrate and use the Internet better. We have a long way to go.”

UPDATE: According to reports, Johnson’s article was put on Page 1A of USA Today. When was the last time CNN or MSNBC got a Page 1 article anywhere? Anybody know?

UPDATE 2: Added picture of the Front Page of USA Today.