KXNO/iHeart Layoffs
- Thread starter cyowan
- Start date
Not entirely true. Corporate greed, deregulation, and low interest rates allowed for the creation of these mega media companies. As they gobbled up local stations, they also piled up debt. Then had to gut these stations as a way to turn a profit or increase profits for shareholders. This started a death spiral - gutting the local media sites which then reduced readers/listeners which reduced revenue which led to more cuts and on and on. That (plus Craigslist - classifieds where a HUGE profit center for newspapers) hurt way more than online content providers. Once quality of local media declined and the number of online offerings increased, audiences shifted. But that was a reaction to the decline of local media, not the cause of if.
Well that's pretty obvious. Somebody has to operate the equipment and newer equals cheaper.
I think the answer is pretty obvious. We just need to start a pirate radio station.
I hope Murph and Andy tell iheart to go to hell. If they stay it's a slap in the face to all their former colleagues especially AD.
He is poor man's Chris Hassel. I find him annoying as he barely takes a breath when he talks.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...book-didnt-kill-newspapers-internet-did.shtml
Sorry -- revenues crashed and then the industry consolidated. I know this is for newspapers, but I would imagine radio was a very similar trend.
Industries do not consolidate and then have their revenues crash. Revenues crash and then mergers and consolidation are the last measures to stay alive.
I do not disagree with you that that consolidation has been messy and rife with short-sighted decisions made by firms desperate to cut costs and stay afloat, but looking at the trend above, I am amazed any of them really survived. There were also plenty of owners smart enough to sell high or before the worst of the crash and plenty of large investors dumb enough to buy on the downturn, thinking it would rebound or they could manage it better. Well, oops. Those investors are currently losing their shirts.
And you are right that competition, like Craigslist for classifieds, has greatly hurt the industry as well. So even if that is not because of the media preferences of consumers, it is still the Internet smacking them where it hurts in the wallet.
The Google line there is informative -- it is a proxy measurement of how much the Internet started to dominate daily life and our need for data, information, and communications. It is not a coincidence that as Google goes up, newspaper revenues go down.
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I was able to find a national article on this layoff. It does not appear to be small at all with over 10% leaving.
https://variety.com/2020/music/news/iheartmedia-restructure-layoffs-1203466858/
https://variety.com/2020/music/news/iheartmedia-restructure-layoffs-1203466858/
Iheartradio went bankrupt in 2018. Not surprised they are looking to cut as many costs and switch to nation shows for all their stations.
I dont live in Iowa but always appreciate listening to their shows when I came to visit. It was nice to hear local college sports instead of pro sports 24/7.
I dont live in Iowa but always appreciate listening to their shows when I came to visit. It was nice to hear local college sports instead of pro sports 24/7.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...book-didnt-kill-newspapers-internet-did.shtml
Sorry -- revenues crashed and then the industry consolidated. I know this is for newspapers, but I would imagine radio was a very similar trend.
Industries do not consolidate and then have their revenues crash. Revenues crash and then mergers and consolidation are the last measures to stay alive.
I do not disagree with you that that consolidation has been messy and rife with short-sighted decisions made by firms desperate to cut costs and stay afloat, but looking at the trend above, I am amazed any of them really survived. There were also plenty of owners smart enough to sell high or before the worst of the crash and plenty of large investors dumb enough to buy on the downturn, thinking it would rebound or they could manage it better. Well, oops. Those investors are currently losing their shirts.
And you are right that competition, like Craigslist for classifieds, has greatly hurt the industry as well. So even if that is not because of the media preferences of consumers, it is still the Internet smacking them where it hurts in the wallet.
Revenues aren't the only issue. A lot of these deals are leveraged buyouts. Low interest rates or debt that is cheaper then it should be are real problems. Some company like Iheart can come along and buy up companies using a ton of debt. They never should have been able to leverage up to $20 Billion but hey, who's counting.
I do not entirely disagree with you, but all the stuff you are talking about is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic when an industry is collapsing like that. You are discussing the consequences of the collapse of a sector, not the root causes.
Local media basically has three potential sources of revenue --
(1.) Subscription sales. I do not have data in front of me, but I can only imagine that was in decline (if not equally catastrophic decline) with the rise of the Internet. Why pay for an (expensive) dead tree when you can just get it online for free?
That, of course, was the case with print media, but not with the radio. Radio still has more competition for audio media nowadays, too, with podcasts.
(2.) Advertising sales. You saw the chart. Ad revenues declined 75% or thereabouts, from almost $70 billion to under $20 billion. The industry went back to levels of ad revenues not seen since before 1950. You can talk about the corporate finance stuff all you want, but that is a response to this existential crisis, not the initial cause.
Yes, I know, my data is for newspapers, but local radio is part of the same milieu.
(3.) Internet ads. There is a saying in the media business, "What was dollars on the page is now cents on the Internet." Some of this came online to help, yes, but in piddly sums compared to what was lost. So here we are with local media dying.
I can't believe that show is still a thing
Wasn't it Van and Connie at one time? Props to Van for finding another host with a similar name, but just as dull.
I believe they went from $8 billion to $20 billion in debt, with $10 billion leveraged, so hardly trivial.
Well something might be happening. I hope it does.
I promise that we will have information coming. I don’t have answers right now. Just a really sad day. BUT I’m going to take this as an opportunity to do the following things:
1) Spend lost time with my family
2) Re-connect with God
3) My passion: covering the Cyclones
4) Figuring out how to build whatever the Register was to our state 30 years ago for the future.
thank you so much to all of you in this thread for the support. It seriously means so much. This forum is like family to me
1) Spend lost time with my family
2) Re-connect with God
3) My passion: covering the Cyclones
4) Figuring out how to build whatever the Register was to our state 30 years ago for the future.
thank you so much to all of you in this thread for the support. It seriously means so much. This forum is like family to me
May the @ChrisMWilliams family and media brand become even stronger.
It sucks for you to be laid off like this. It shows disrespect for you and us. At least there is no doubt that you care for us (and we care for you).
Hope that you are able to double-down on aspects of your career that pay the bills and move the needle toward the media of the future.
Wish cooler heads would have prevailed here. Why couldn't iheart told the on air talent a couple months ago "look we aren't going to have the money to keep this up long term, but wanted to give you time to set up your own advertisements and essentially pay for yourself"....seems like it'd be a win win.
The first layoff I did as a manager I was assigned the group who survived the cuts
There is some guilt there. They took it worse than the group that wasn't terminated.
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