Fox Business Changes Top Ranks as Lauren Petterson Replaces Brian Jones

By Brian Steinberg

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The change of a prominent executive is a big story in the world of business. And so too is it atTV networks that cover the world of business every day.

Brian Jones, a longtime Fox News employee who had a hand in the launch of Fox Business Network before he became the top executive overseeing it, is leaving the operation. Lauren Petterson, an executive who has had oversight of the “Fox & Friends” franchise on Fox News Channel, is taking that role immediately, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott announced Thursday.

“Brian is a talented executive and a distinguished colleague who built Fox Business and accomplished a great deal during his 20 years of combined service at both and Fox News Channel.  We wish him continued success as he embarks on his next chapter,” said Scott, in a statement, “Lauren has extraordinary skills in developing programming and working with talent and I am confident she will lead Fox Business to even further success.”

Fox offered no specific reason for the executive change.

Jones, a former TV-news producer who also worked in politics and communications, was a senior member of the start-up team that launched Fox Business Network in 2007 – a little more than a decade after the debut of its sister network, Fox News Channel. In recent months, Jones led the roll-out of a new Fox Business primetime schedule, bolstering a commitment to run live shows centered on politics and business after the close of the stock market as a way to stand apart from CNBC, which airs reality competitions and documentary series at night.

Petterson has been serving as the senior vice president of morning programming and talent development for Fox News Channel. She has essentially been the supervisor of one of the network’s top shows, “Fox & Friends,” for more than a decade. She is expected to keep her talent development duties, which she picked up three years ago.

She had an earlier stint at Fox News in 2007, as a senior producer at “Fox & Friends,” then left to work at New York’s WCBS For a year. She returned to Fox News in 2008 as the executive producer of its morning program. She gradually took on more duties at the franchise and rose through the ranks.  She has extensive A.M. news experience, having been executive producer of the morning news at New York’s WPIX from 2001 to 2007. She graduated magna cum laude from the University at Albany, SUNY with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications.

She will take on a broader portfolio that encompasses everything from Maria Bartiromo’s morning program to Neil Cavuto’s midday monologues to shows featuring outspoken hosts like Lou Dobbs and Trish Regan. Fox Business vies for attention against NBCUniversal’s CNBC, but also mixes a focus on personal finance issues and national politics into its programming mix.