How The NYSE Became The Biggest Stage For Financial News

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street may date back to the Buttonwood Agreement signed in Manhattan in 1792, but there is nothing dated about its state of the art broadcast operation.

Home to over 30 daily broadcasters, NYSE Euronext has become one of the largest and most sophisticated television studios in the world.

The first live video report from the NYSE was in 1987, when CNN sent Jan Hopkins to report live during the stock market crash of that year. The next year the NYSE established its broadcast and multimedia center, which still coordinates all the newscasts from the Exchange.

But reporters were still not able to report live from the floor.

Then in 1995 Maria Bartiromo from CNBC became the first reporter to go live to TV from the floor of the NYSE, marking the beginning of a new era as reporters and traders began to interact regularly during the day and on the news.

In the past couple years electronic trading has reduced the need for physical traders on the floor, and newscasters have taken over the floor of the Exchange.

CNBC has its own elaborate set in the place where one of the trading posts stood, and over 30 broadcasters report live from the floor every day, not to mention the many smaller outlets that also cover the Exchange and utilize its multimedia center.

The evolution of media and technology has transformed the NYSE into the biggest stage for business news. We spoke with journalists on the floor and the people behind the NYSE Multimedia Center about how media reporting from the floor has changed over time and what lies ahead:

Produced by Daniel Goodman and Kamelia Angelova