• by Wayne Friedman , Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 12, 2007

News Corp., which is seen as the leading candidate to acquire financial news giant Dow Jones & Co., Wednesday said it would launch its new Fox Business Network on Oct. 15. The vertical cable news network would launch with 30 million subscribers, including coverage in financial Mecca New York City, where it will be carried on an expanded basic cable tier.

The launch comes years after Fox News rival CNN aborted an ill-fated CNNfn, a financial news channel that was shut down in 2004 due to lack of support from advertisers and cable operators.

Television's financial news leaders currently are NBC Universal's CNBC and Bloomberg Television, the 24-hour cable news network that is part of a financial news media empire owned by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

News Corp. appears to have its eyes set on that thrown with the launch of Fox Business Network, and potentially Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of The Wall Street Journal and other financial publications, newswires and television and radio properties.

News Corp. is in the process of conducting due diligence on a hostile $5 billion bid to acquire Dow Jones, and if successful, is likely to integrate Dow Jones financial news organization and powerful brands with the fledgling Fox Business Network.

The channel, headquartered in News Corporation's street level studios in midtown Manhattan, already has established bureaus in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco (Silicon Valley), Washington, D.C. and London, and is the brainchild of and Roger Ailes, chairman-CEO, Fox News and Chairman of Fox Television Stations, who will oversee it.

The new network has put Kevin Magee, executive vice president of Fox News, in charge of the channel's day-to-day operations. Cavuto will oversee all editorial decisions, and will have a dominant role as an on-air personality. Both Cavuto and Magee will report to Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News and chairman of Fox Television Stations and Fox Business Network.

Fox Business Network hopes to repeat the performance of its sister network, Fox News, which began as an unknown in the mid-1990s and rose to become the dominant industry leader in cable news ratings. Fox Business Network will face NBC Universal's CNBC, which has been the dominant financial news network for years.