Maria Bartiromo

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Maria Bartiromo

Maria Bartiromo moderating a session at the World Economic Forum.
Born September 11, 1967 (1967-09-11) (age 40)
Brooklyn, New York
Occupation journalist, columnist, news anchor
Title CNBC's Closing Bell co-anchor
Spouse Jonathan Steinberg
Notable credit(s)
Official website

Maria Bartiromo is an American business news anchor and interviewer. Since 1993 she has worked for CNBC television, where she is currently co-host of the Closing Bell program from 3 to 5pm ET on weekdays, as well as host and managing editor for the nationally syndicated Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo program. In 2007, NewsBios.com named her one of the 100 most influential business journalists in the United States.

Bartiromo is also a columnist and writer for several business and general interest magazines and the author of the book Use the News: How to Separate the Noise from the Investment Nuggets and Make Money in Any Economy. She has won awards including the Union League of Philadelphia’s Lincoln Statue Award (2004) and the Coalition of Italian-American Associations' Excellence in Broadcast Journalism Award (1997) and was nominated in 2002 for a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for a series covering the widows of September 11.

Contents

[edit] Personal life

Bartiromo grew up in the Bay Ridge section of southern Brooklyn. As a teenager, she checked coats at her parents' Italian restaurant, at which her father was the chef.

Bartiromo graduated from New York University with a BA degree in journalism and a minor in economics.

On 13 June 1999, Bartiromo married Jonathan Steinberg, son of investor Saul Steinberg. Jonathan ("Jono") was the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Individual Investor Group, a now-defunct financial services company in Manhattan.[1]

[edit] Career

Maria Bartiromo advertisement in Times Square.
Maria Bartiromo advertisement in Times Square.

Before joining CNBC in 1993, Bartiromo was a producer and assignment editor with CNN Business News.

Although Bartiromo was not the first person (she took over from analyst Roy Blumberg) to report regularly live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, she quickly became the most popular. With CNBC she hosted their Market Watch program from 10:00 to 12:00 ET, as well as being a regular contributor to Squawk Box for many years before leaving the morning program. Bartiromo was nicknamed the Money Honey during the boom years of the stock market in the late 1990s due to her striking looks. She was also nicknamed the "Econo Babe".[2]

Since the 90s, the nickname "Money Honey" has spread to refer to attractive female financial news reporters in general. On January 16th, 2007, Bartiromo filed to trademark the term for herself. The multiple trademark applications were for many children's products including piggy banks, cookie jars, mouse pads, jigsaw puzzles, coloring books, comic books, notepads, children's paper placemats, coupon books, backpacks and items like toy banks and toy cash registers. [3] [4] [5]

She has also made appearances on numerous non-financial television shows, including NBC Universal's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Caroline Rhea Show, and McEnroe, as well as guest-hosting on Live with Regis and Kelly.

Her first book was Use the News: How to Separate the Noise from the Investment Nuggets and Make Money in Any Economy.

Bartiromo currently (as of 2008) co-anchors with Dylan Ratigan the Closing Bell show on CNBC from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM ET. Her current contract with CNBC expires March 2009.[6] Joey Ramone released a tribute song to Bartiromo on his debut (and only) solo LP release.

[edit] 2004 Jeopardy! appearance

In May 2004, Bartiromo participated in a Power Players week on Celebrity Jeopardy!, featuring notable figures from the worlds of politics and journalism.[7] During her appearance, Bartiromo did not buzz for the majority of questions asked and played most of the game with a negative score. After the completion of the Double Jeopardy round Maria finished with $0. Unable to compete in the the Final Jeopardy round, host Alex Trebek gifted her $1,000 so as to be able to participate in Final Jeopardy. Maria failed to answer the Final Jeopardy question correctly and finished the game with $300 of the $1,000 she had been granted for the final round.[8]


[edit] Host shows

  • Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo (a CNBC show where she anchors and co-produces. She interviews prominent business people, entertainers, athletes, and politicians in this program.)
  • Closing Bell (2002-present)
  • Market Wrap (1998-2000)
  • Business Center (1997-1999)

[edit] Controversies

Maria Bartiromo at World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2008
Maria Bartiromo at World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2008
  • Nicholas Maier, a former employee of Jim Cramer, alleged in his book, Trading with the Enemy (Collins, 2002), that Cramer would feed rumors to Bartiromo intended to affect the value of his positions when Bartiromo repeated them on the air. Time characterizes this as Cramer "gaming" Bartiromo. Cramer denied the accusation.[9]
  • In 2003, Bartiromo interviewed Citigroup's CEO, Sanford I. Weill, and stated that she owned 1,000 shares of Citigroup stock. A number of journalism boards consider it unethical for reporters to own shares in the companies on which they report, and CNBC subsequently updated its disclosure policy.[10]
  • Media interest also surrounded Bartiromo when she broke live on CNBC that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had told her at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in May 2006 that his position on interest rates was "misunderstood". This appeared to indicate that Bernanke's interest rate stance was less dovish than had been interpreted by some market analysts. Other members of the press, along with Bernanke himself, felt that the comments had been made off the record, and that by using her seemingly random seating position at the dinner, Bartiromo got access to market-making news which other reporters had no way of attaining (interest rates, and speculation on them, being a crucial price-setting tool for many financial instruments). A CNBC spokesman responded that Bernanke had never told Bartiromo that his remarks were off the record.[11]
  • In 2007, controversy arose over the nature of Bartiromo's relationship with Todd Thomson, former chief of Citigroup's wealth management unit. Thomson at one point flew with a group of employees to China, then left the employees to make their own arrangements for the trip back while he took the corporate jet back to the U.S. with Bartiromo.[12] In another instance, Thomson spent $5 million for the sponsorship of programming on the Sundance Channel that Bartiromo was tapped to host.[13] Thomson was eventually ousted by Citigroup for reasons including his contact with Bartiromo.[12] CNBC has stood by Bartiromo, claiming that her relationship with Thomson was a case of "legitimate business assignments".[13]

[edit] Quotes

  • "I ask the tough questions in a civilized manner."[14]
  • [when asked about the Money Honey nickname] "Frankly, I'm flattered. I know what I do." [15]
  • "I am a big saver, much more than my husband. It concerns me that this country has a zero per cent savings rate." [16]
  • " It's four o'clock on Wall Street. Do you know where your money is?" [Daily, for the transition between co-hosting the CNBC program Closing Bell with Dylan Ratigan and the final hour of the show, which she hosts alone from 4-5 pm. ]

[edit] References

  1. ^ WEDDINGS; Jonathan Steinberg, Maria Bartiromo, <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE6D71638F930A25755C0A96F958260>. Retrieved on 29 September 2007 
  2. ^ Zaslow, Jeffrey, Maria Bartiromo, <http://www.usaweekend.com/98_issues/980125/980125talk_m_bartiromo.html>. Retrieved on 29 September 2007 
  3. ^ Jones, Del, “CNBC journalist lands in the news spotlight”, USA Today, <http://www.usatoday.com/money/2007-01-30-bartiromo-usat_x.htm>. Retrieved on 20 October 2007 
  4. ^ McLaughlin, Tim, “CNBC "Money Honey" looks to sweeten her pocketbook”, Reuters, <http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSN2939490420070129>. Retrieved on 20 October 2007 
  5. ^ United States Patent and Trademark Office Search System, <http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=khn9dh.1.1&p_search=searchss&p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA1%24LD&expr=PARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=Bartiromo&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA2%24ALL&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Query> 
  6. ^ Hempel, Jessi. "CNBC feels your pain...", Fortune, 31 March 2008. Retrieved on 2007-09-29. 
  7. ^ Frey, Jennifer. "Wonk Heaven: What Is Beltway 'Jeopardy!'?", The Washington Post, 10 May 2004. Retrieved on 2008-05-07. 
  8. ^ Anderson Cooper on Jeopardy Power Players Edition- Part 2. Youtube. Retrieved on 2008-05-07.
  9. ^ Kadlec, Dan. "A Bartiromo Bounce?", Time, 27 May 2002. Retrieved on 2008-05-07. 
  10. ^ Barnes, Brooks; Langley, Monica. "CNBC Defends Anchor Bartiromo", The Wall Street Journal, 26 January 2007. Retrieved on 2008-05-07. 
  11. ^ Robb, Greg. "Bernanke slips on Bartiromo peel", MarketWatch, 2 May 2006. Retrieved on 2008-05-07. 
  12. ^ a b Kennedy, Siobhan. "Ex-Citigroup boss tells of ‘smear campaign’", The Times, 8 November 2007. Retrieved on 2008-05-07. 
  13. ^ a b Moore, Frazier. "Bartiromo Did Nothing Wrong, Says CNBC", Associated Press, CBS News, 26 January 2007. Retrieved on 2008-05-07. 
  14. ^ Money & Business - NY Daily News
  15. ^ Money & Business - NY Daily News
  16. ^ Money & Business - NY Daily News

[edit] External links

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