Fed's Warsh shakes up press conference format
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Four months into his tenure, Federal Reserve chairman Warsh is reshaping the Fed's post-decision press conference.
Why it matters: If he sticks to the changes, it implies a wider variety of news outlets will get opportunities to question America's top central banker — but also that it will be easier for the chairman to duck uncomfortable questions.
- Follow-up questions were newly prohibited, with microphones taken back after each reporter's initial question. Warsh's answers were shorter than in the past, and even the seating arrangement was scrambled.
- The entire briefing wrapped in about 30 minutes, versus 45 minutes in July and 40 minutes in June. Former chair Jerome Powell's final five press conferences averaged nearly 51 minutes.
By the numbers: In Wednesday's news conference, 16 outlets got a question, and Warsh's responses had a median word count of 135.
- Contrast that with the press conference in July, when only 10 outlets got questions — but follow-ups meant 20 questions were asked.
- His median response then was a comparatively verbose 226 words.
The intrigue: The Fed has traditionally had an unspoken tier system for assigning seats at the press conference, with major outlets like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times in the front row and smaller and overseas outlets in the back rows. (Axios has usually been in Row 2, if you're curious.)
- Wednesday, seating was alphabetical by the name of the news organization.
- That suited Axios (and we assume the folks from the Associated Press, ABC, and Al Jazeera) just fine. Perhaps less so for the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, who were way in the back.
- Warsh's staff also called on more outlets outside the traditional Fed press corps, including the likes of the Washington Examiner and Agence France-Presse.
