Maria Bartiromo Who? Susie Gharib Is The Real 'Money Honey'

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Move over, Maria Bartiromo.

It's time to talk about Susie Gharib.

"Susie who?" you might ask. After all, nearly everyone who watches TV business news knows CNBC star Bartiromo.

Gharib (pronounced GARE-ib), 57, is the co-anchor of PBS's "Nightly Business Report." Even though she's been on television for 25 years -- when some of her counterparts were still in diapers -- she has remained under the radar.

Measured by viewers, though, she's got the advantage over her CNBC counterpart. As Stuart Zuckerman, vice president of sales and marketing at "Nightly Business Report," points out, PBS' 30-minute show is viewed each night by an average of 700,000 people nationally, while CNBC's "Closing Bell," starring Bartiromo, is seen by an average of 340,000 viewers.

"So, with all due respect to Maria Bartiromo, the media question is: Who's the real 'Money Honey?'" he asked, with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

Without the glitz

I contend that Gharib is the least-heralded TV business-news star around.

"'NBR' is the most-watched daily business report, but most people don't realize that," Gharib said with a frown. "It is frustrating when the big interviews go to the commercial networks. They have deeper pockets, and we're public television. We need to get the word out and market the show to get a bigger audience. The problem isn't the show itself. It just isn't a household name."

Chalk it up to the perennially undercapitalized and decidedly anti-glitz PBS. It simply can't match CNBC and the Fox Business Network when it comes to sophisticated marketing.

"Our mission is to have busy people come to a place where they can get analysis in 27 minutes and 45 seconds," she said. "CNBC and Fox have 24 hours to fill."

NBR has clout with news makers, but Gharib sometimes has to work harder than her peers to land big interviews.

"I pursued [a televised interview with] President Bush for SEVEN years," she said.

TV news shows can create stars. But Gharib just rolled her eyes. She puts the focus on the interview subjects, not herself.

"Making the anchor the star of the show is not my style," she laughed. "I would want to emulate Tim Russert more than Jim Cramer."

Impressive resume

Gharib joined 'NBR' in 1998, after two decades of stints at Time Warner's Fortune, GE's CNBC, NBC, Disney's ESPN and New York City's WABC-TV.

She has also written for the Washington Post's Newsweek, the Associated Press and her hometown paper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer. (She graduated from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.)

When Gharib was at Fortune, ESPN called and her TV career took off. By the time she moved to WABC, financial news was hardly a staple on the newscast.

"The Dow [Jones Industrial Average] was at 2,000, and I had to convince the producer to cover this story," she laughed. "I was on between [weatherman] Storm Field and the sports guy!"

Then, individual investors became enchanted by mutual funds. "The whole dynamic changed in the '80s," she recalled. "The key was when people started managing their own money."

She later worked for CNBC, of which she has fond memories.

"Roger Ailes is a brilliant newsman," she said, referring to the head of Fox's news operations who ran CNBC in the 1990s. "He laid the groundwork for CNBC, and I think he will turn Fox Business into a successful outlet." (Fox, like MarketWatch, is a unit of News Corp. .)

I asked Gharib what she thought about Fox Business Network's lively approach, which contrasts sharply with that of "NBR."

"I feel great about that," she said. "The more people gravitate to business news on television, they'll come to us."

"If Roger Ailes can stir up more interest, I'm all for it."

Tough questions

Gharib is delightful to talk with because she isn't image-conscious. She's also a terrifc storyteller. I asked her what it was like to interview the president at the White House for her TV show.

She related: "It was on March 12, in the Map Room. I was told, 'You have 10 minutes.' I asked, 'What if the president is long-winded? I'd hate to interrupt him.' I was told, 'The president does not like to be interrupted.'"

The interview went well, however. "Bush was exactly on time. He said, 'I'm pumped up!'" she said. "After that, he spent 20 minutes talking with me about common Yale stories [both of Gharib's children attended the president's alma mater] and about Jenna's wedding." (The president's daughter Jenna got married May 10.)

With a smile, Gharib added: "The president put his arm around me and said, 'You ask tough questions, but in a nice way.'"

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By Jon Friedman