certainly in the seven figures, and compared with what the rest of CNN's on-air talent earns, it might only be topped by Larry King's, which is $5 million a year, sources said. Dobbs said he would finish his radio commitment to NBC that began six months ago - unusual, given that CNN has its own radio news service. Dobbs will also maintain his equity shares and board position in Space.com, which he joined in June 1999 at the height of dot-com mania. Dobbs, though, said he would give up management and voting power in the site's day-to-day affairs.
Dobbs said that since departing for Space.com, he hadn't considered returning to CNN (though it was widely reported that CNN founder Ted Turner tried to bring him back). A few things changed. Dobbs said the new AOL Time Warner management and its plans for expansion impressed him. He also said Space.com is in good shape, in contrast to many Internet companies, with profitability expected by this year's fourth quarter. One of that company's publications, SPACE Illustrated magazine, had a significant sales rate on newsstands, he boasted.
Dobbs didn't mention that Rick Kaplan, the veteran producer with whom he publicly clashed, is no longer at CNN, having been booted in a management shake-up last August. In an interview on Fox News Channel, anchor Neil Cavuto brought up Kaplan, and Dobbs replied, "I'm sorry. Who?"
On his return to the cable airwaves, Dobbs will face a far different landscape from before. Business news competition has intensified, not only because of CNBC, but also thanks to Fox News Channel, where ratings are on the rise and financial news and information have been beefed up.
At the same time, the market has crashed from its Internet-juiced peaks. Will people still tune in to market news if the Dow is down? Dobbs doesn't think that his ratings will be tied to the looming recession. "At the margins, there may be some truth (in that theory)," he said. "But in two decades, we have a very sophisticated audience that has lived in down cycles and up cycles."
Copyright ©2001 Powerful Media Inc.
