Video business news done better

I recently wrote about the problem that most of CNBC's anchors have with understanding that businesses are collections of people making and selling things, not pieces of paper to be bought and sold on Wall Street. Like a lot of people, I get ideas at 2 a.m., and last night, I wrote one down. Here's the elevator pitch:

The idea is a video news service that focuses on the needs of businesspeople, not investors. There would be multiple channels, with each channel focused on a single industry. Some of the potential channels include:

• Automobile
• Health Care
• Retail (possibly multiple channels)
• Agriculture
• Banking
• Insurance

Editors in a central location would assign and screen stories produced by a combination of full-time field editors and stringers (part-time and contract reporters.) Trade publications and newspapers that already cover these industries could participate by contributing stories; in return, they would share in ad revenues and have the right to republish the stories on their websites. Whenever viewers tune in, they would see the latest news report (continuously refreshed) and have access to longer, in-depth reports on a variety of industry-related subjects.

There would be a dual revenue model: Subscription fees (the service would be business, not consumer, oriented) and advertising.

Most importantly, the service would be available exclusively by phone, not PC. That means that mobile service providers, such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile would share in the subscription revenues and participate in marketing.

So, who should do this? Possibly CNBC (NBC Universal has all of the pieces to make it happen,) but they probably won't. Fox or Bloomberg would be better candidates, but in both cases, it would require a radical rethinking of their businesses, shifting from investors to business operators. One or more of the major trade publishers, such as Crain, Reed Business, Nielsen or United Business Media, could make it happen. The New York Times or Dow Jones are also possibilities. The point is that there are no technical limitations making this idea impossible, or even terribly difficult to implement.