Ailes To Lead Fox Foray Into 24-Hour News

Roger Ailes, former CNBC president and Republican strategist, will launch the Fox 24-hour news channel, network chief Rupert Murdoch announced Tuesday.

“The appetite for news - particularly news that explains to people how it affects them - is expanding enormously,” he said.

Murdoch gave no start date for the network other than “within this year.” Last month, ABC announced plans for an all-news cable network in 1997, and an NBC-Microsoft partnership promised to go on the air and on-line this summer.