Ali Velshi, Chief Business Correspondent, CNN and from January 2012 will co-anchor the Asia primetime evening edition of CNN’s ‘World Business Today,’ which airs weeknights at 7.30pm in India. Velshi will co-anchor the program from New York, alongside Andrew Stevens in Hong Kong and Nina dos Santos in London. Velshi is the co-author of “How To Speak Money,” which released recently; and author of “Gimme My Money Back,” which released in January 2009.
CNN is the world's leading global 24-hour news network and one of the world’s most respected and trusted sources for news and information. The CNN brand is available to two billion people via 18 CNN branded TV, internet and mobile services produced by CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System Inc and a Time Warner company. CNN International is the international directorate of CNN Worldwide and distributes news via 14 services in seven different languages. CNN International can be seen in more than 280 million households, hotel rooms and specialized outlets in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, including over 44 million across the Asia Pacific region and online.
Replying to Anil Mascarenhas of IIFL, Ali Velshi says, “Analysts are a crucial part of our ability to cover stories, but journalists have to tell a much bigger story for a much broader audience.”
Give us your perspective on how the financial news space has evolved over the years?
15 years ago, financial news was a product for professionals. It was usually a way for financial professionals in the world to get real time analysis about what was going on and have access to CEOs or experts who they couldn’t access in their daily lives, because they worked for a bank or an investment firm. It has evolved now. It first evolved into a product for what we call the retail investor, the average person who has a job who invests in a retirement fund, or maybe they have a stock trading account. It was probably about 10 years ago when people started to become day traders. Now we have evolved into a place where we provide context and analysis for the everyday viewer, from the laborer to the professional, so not just for the business or financial professional anymore. Now we do mainstream business news, which is as important as having weather news, or health news, or political news. It’s something that helps people make decisions to allow them to prosper.
Is there a thin line between analysts and journalists – besides the pay?
There is a very distinct line between analysts and journalists. The jobs are different. Analysts specifically analyze companies, industries and regions for the purpose of determining their value, their investment value and their potential. Journalists have a much bigger mandate. Our mandate is to find truth from lies, to find a context to understand different sides of the same story. Analysts are a crucial part of our ability to cover stories, but journalists have to tell a much bigger story for a much broader audience.