How to Sell News Corp.’s ‘Crown Jewel’ Fox News

By Chris Ariens 

Fox News plans to parlay its stability and its place the number one cable news channel to advertisers during this upfront season.

“We don’t have new programming, but a good story in the elections that drive ratings,” Roger Domal, vp of ad sales tells THR’s Georg Szalai, who got a behind-the-scenes look at FNC’s upfront plans. The fall election is “the Super Bowl of cable news,” Domal says, but beyond that, FNC “is as safe and stable a buy you can make.”

Unlike NBC News’s splashy luncheon on New York’s Upper East Side last week, Fox News will take its show on the road with anchor Bret Baier telling FNC’s story to gatherings in Chicago and beyond.

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The pitch includes FNC TV and FoxNews.com.

The Fox News ad sales team, which currently writes more than $60 million in digital ad business, will during its presentations also share some figures that [ad sales EVP Paul] Rittenberg said are designed to show that “two plus two equals five when people advertise with us on multiple screens.” He added: “Our audience is very engaged. You could argue that we were Facebook before Facebook [launched].”

Szalai writes, “Fox News is seen as one of News Corp.’s crown jewels. [Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin] Swinburne estimated its fair-market value at $12.4 billion, making it News Corp.’s most valuable business in his model. 
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