• Ad Age, Tuesday, March 23, 2010 11:04 PM

For years, Fox News' pitch to advertisers and the press was that it was bigger than other cable-news network. Now the network intends to pitch itself against mainstream cable networks -- and convince media buyers cable news isn't a downscale ad buy -- and that its audience consists of more than Republican retirees.

Paul Rittenberg, exec VP-ad sales for Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network and Fox News Digital, said: "For the last six months, we've been trying to position ourselves as more than just direct competition with CNN; that's over for us in a way," he said. "The general perception among media buyers, especially the 25-year-olds who don't watch TV news anyway, is that it's downscale. But there's no number that doesn't contradict that." CNN continues to command a higher price for many of its programs despite ratings attrition in 2009; however, Fox News is the most profitable sector of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

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