On Wednesday, FOX Business Network (FBN), owned by News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) (NASDAQ:NWS), announced it re-signed senior correspondent Charlie Gasparino to a multi-year deal. His role encompasses reporting for FBN and FOX News Channel.
The veteran Wall Street journalist joined FOX in February 2010 and covers news affecting Wall Street and the financial markets. He has reported such high-profile business stories including the MF Global collapse and Knight Capital; he has also interviewed financial leaders such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) CEO James Gorman.
Gasparino has also participated in stories on the Lehman Brothers collapse, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), restructuring efforts at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley as well as scoops in sports business including Tiger Woods’ return to golf after his extramarital affairs and the 2012 cancellation of the New York City Marathon.
At the February 2013 Harbor Investment Conference, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman gave a shout out to Gasparino for his interview with Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) president Des Walsh.
Kevin Magee, Executive Vice President of the network said of the news in a press release, “Charlie thrives on holding Wall Street accountable and his tenacious, hard-nosed approach to journalism has made him one of the most respected reporters in the industry. We look forward to his continued success in breaking market-moving news.”
Prior to joining FBN, Gasparino’s Wall Street career has been all-encompassing. At CNBC he was an on-air editor.
He has also been on the print side of financial journalism including a stop at Newsweek magazine as a senior writer and at the Wall Street Journal, where as a reporter his 2002; his writings had been submitted for a Pulitzer Prize. He’s received a number of business journalism accolades and he’s been a best-selling author of financial books; this includes the recent Bought and Paid For: The Unholy Alliance Between Barack Obama and Wall Street.
Gasparino showed the love right back to Fox with the comment, “Unlike many other financial news outlets, FBN doesn’t play the Wall Street apology game, which gives me the freedom to do my job.”
For Fox Business Network, the five-year-old channel is seen as a major challenger to CNBC. Just this week, the network released an ad highlighting the CNBC policy that barred contributors from appearing on the network and one of its competitors on the same day.
Looking to gain viewers and increase the competition among financial news networks, FBN has been on track for a while. Back in August had it scored quite a coup from its coverage of the Republican National Convention, topping CNBC’s coverage in the number of viewers by more than 2 million.
