Q&A With Fox Network’s Dagen McDowell
June 15, 2009
By Nancy Menefee Jackson
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YahooMyWebDagen McDowell joined FOX Business Network (FBN) as an anchor in September 2007; she also hosts the weekly four-hour live call-in show “Your Questions, Your Money Live” on Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm.
McDowell has appeared regularly on “Your World with Neil Cavuto” since 2003, as
well as on “Cashin’ In,” which debuted in May 2001. She interviewed Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson just one day after FBN launched. She has also written a personal finance column for TheStreet.com called “Dear Dagen,” along with articles for SmartMoney magazine and SmartMoney.com.
McDowell began her career as a financial journalist at the Institutional Investor’s newsletter division. A native of Brookneal, Va., she is a graduate of Wake Forest University. Recently, Dagen shared her experiences and expertise with SmartWomanOnline.com
Q: How did you go from art history major to financial journalist?
McDowell: A lot of hard work — and luck — no fear and endless curiosity. I moved out to Colorado for two years after I graduated from college, largely because I didn’t want a management training job at some giant bank or consumer products company. When I finally knew it was time to leave, I packed my bags and moved to New York City.
I interviewed for a strange array of jobs, including one at the New York Public Library. But one job seemed to click. It was at Institutional Investor, which publishes a well-known magazine for financial and investment professionals. I interviewed in the newsletter division for an entry-level reporting job. Experience didn’t matter as much as being hard-charging and hard-working. I took a reporting test, passed it and got the job. I worked there for three and a half years covering everything from high-net-worth money management to Wall Street and the early days of financial services on the Internet. It was the best education I could’ve gotten in journalism because you have to make your own sources and break your own news. You learn to work the phones like you’re selling insurance.
Q: How did you educate yourself about the financial world?
McDowell: I started by reading as much as I could: newspapers, books, research.
But I learned the most from talking to the smartest (and most patient) people: the best money managers, analysts, salesmen, executives. My sources were educators, even if they didn’t know it.
One thing I learned very quickly: You can’t fake it if you don’t understand a subject you’re writing about. Acting like you already know it all will get you nowhere. You will sit down to write a story and won’t have the slightest idea what you’re saying.
I’d ask simple questions and always press people if I didn’t understand what they were talking about. To this day, I try to bring that to TV and let the guests talk. They’re the experts.
I tell everyone the same thing when I get asked questions about investing, finance, business and the economy: “There are no stupid questions.”
Q: What areas of finance most fascinate you?
McDowell: I like the subjects that impact people’s everyday lives: mutual fund
investing, home buying, taxes, retirement saving, Social Security. Lately, I am more and more excited about my focus on entrepreneurship. My Saturday show, “Your Questions Your Money,” [airs from 10 am to 2 pm (ET) on FOX Business Network] is largely about starting, running and growing your own business. Small businesses are the engine of our economy. I feel inspired hearing people’s stories and dreams and helping turn them into reality.
Q: Has the rapid demise of newspapers affected
your work or how you see your role?
McDowell: No one loves newspapers more than I do. I read a stack of them each and
every morning and love my ink-stained hands at the end of it all. While times are tough, the best will survive and flourish.
The rise of the Internet is how I look at the changing world of journalism. I worked as a writer for one of the first Internet-only financial publications,TheStreet.com. When I started there, a few firms, like the mutual fund company Janus, wouldn’t even talk to me because they didn’t see the site as a “real” publication.
That’s laughable today. But the Internet has changed how we not only get our news but how people communicate and interact with one another. I think Fox does an incredible job of figuring out how all media — TV, the Internet, newspapers and radio — can complement each other and work together as one giant form of communication.
In the news business speed is still critical along with accuracy. I still approach my job the same way: “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Q: Do you fear aging in a business that often puts
young, attractive women on the air?
McDowell: Fear? No. But you certainly have to take care of yourself working on TV. And men certainly seem to have a longer shelf life than women on television. Like it or not.
Q: Did you ever feel that people in the financial industry
didn’t take you seriously because you are a woman?
McDowell: Early on I got a great piece of advice from my editor at Institutional
Investor. Don’t refer to anyone as “Mr. So-and-so” when talking to them. Call them by their first names. Don’t subordinate yourself. That always seemed to work.
But I am very serious about what I do and have always worked hard to understand the subjects I am covering. People respect that.
Plus, I am tough and people aren’t likely to mess with me and talk down to me.
Q: Were there any women who served as either
mentors or role models to inspire you?
McDowell: My greatest mentors have been men. That’s just how my career worked out.
Q: The economy and the financial fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis have been the biggest stories of the year; what kind of hours and preparation are you putting in to cover the story?
McDowell: I say this frequently but most of the work is done OFF THE AIR. I get
up at 3 am every day and read and research for a couple of hours before I go to work. In the afternoon, I work the phones to talk to sources and contacts, go out to see people in person, read more on the way home and at night.
I’ve been a journalist for 15 years and frankly I’ve always put in long hours. But I try to work a little harder every day.
Q: Did you ever interview anyone and find yourself thinking,
‘Wow, I can’t believe I’m talking to … ?’
McDowell: There are too many to name. Charles Schwab for one. Here’s a man who
revolutionized low-cost individual investing both in stocks and mutual funds and made it accessible to everyone.
Another person: Eugene Kohn of the famed architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Here’s a person who helped change our landscape — literally, designing iconic buildings that now cover the world. (Look at these buildings at www.kpf.com).
Q: What is the biggest money mistake you see people making?
McDowell: They pay too much in expenses and fees for investments and don’t
realize how much that’s eating into their returns.
Q: Do you have a favorite tip for managing money?
McDowell: Be cheap. Invest in low-cost index funds. Low expenses mean more money in your pocket.
Q: When you have time to read, who is your favorite author?
McDowell: I have favorite books instead of favorite authors. The latest great book that I read: “The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals” by Frank Partnoy. A reminder that the financial excess and fraud that’s being uncovered today is nothing new.
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