‘Wall Street Week’ Will Be Without Rukeyser
Louis Rukeyser, host of TV’s “Wall Street Week With Louis Rukeyser,” said Thursday that he would leave the investment show after its producers asked him to take a smaller role on the program.
Rukeyser said Maryland Public Television executives didn’t want him to continue as host and had asked him to become a senior commentator. He said he intended to honor his contract, which ends in June.
Maryland Public Television wants to broaden the audience for “Wall Street Week,” which tends to have an older viewing base, said Jeff Hankin, the company’s vice president of marketing.
“After talking with stations in the PBS system and viewers and members, we were getting a clear message that the show needed to be reinvented,” Hankin said. He said the show’s underwriters, including brokerage A.G. Edwards Inc. and Oppenheimer Funds, had been told of the change and “reaction has been positive.”
Rukeyser “is obviously older, and most advertisers are looking for a younger demographic,” said Chris Geraci, director of national TV buying at ad firm Omnicom Group’s OMD unit.
Maryland Public Television plans a new program that it will co-produce with AOL Time Warner Inc.’s Fortune magazine.
“When you make this kind of change, you run the risk and high probability of losing millions of viewers,” said Frank Cappiello, president of McCullough, Andrews & Cappiello Inc. and a frequent panelist on Rukeyser’s show since its start in 1970. “I don’t think anyone combines his quick wit and devastating questions.”
Rukeyser, 69, has been host of the show since it began. He also publishes a monthly investment newsletter.
Rukeyser said his phone “has been ringing off the hook with attractive offers, and I will certainly consider all of them.”
Briefly
Travelers Property Casualty Corp.’s initial public offering raised $3.9 billion Thursday as the business insurance unit of Citigroup sold 210 million shares at $18.50 each. The price was at the high end of the range of $16 to $19 Travelers had projected.
The IPO amounts to a 21% stake in Hartford, Conn.-based Travelers and values the firm at $18.5 billion.
The deal was the fifth-biggest U.S. IPO, behind AT&T; Wireless Services Inc., Kraft Foods Inc., United Parcel Service Inc. and Conoco Inc.
Citigroup, which is jettisoning insurance to focus on banking and other financial services, plans to distribute the remaining shares of Travelers to Citigroup shareowners this year.
Travelers shares will begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TAP/A. Citigroup shares rose 35 cents to $49.60 on the NYSE.
Bloomberg News
