KXNO/iHeart Layoffs

[mj4cy]

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.

I could definitely see that. You could tell anyone not laid off yesterday felt horrible and took no joy in it. Obviously there is some relief when you are safe, but there is no joy if you care about others.

I was laid off 10 years ago and at the time my world stopped and I feared the future. Looking back, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I have a job I love that pays twice that job did now.

 

[Farnsworth]

He may have gotten let go to...

Not sure why I didn't even think of that. Now I feel like a ****. Hopefully I find out soon because they just had their first kid, hoping the best for them.

 

[IcSyU]

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.

Often times you don't know what's happening until some bean counter in the back room makes up their mind and decides they need to make drastic decisions very quickly. They don't want you going out and stealing their advertisers from underneath them. They still want the advertisers after you're gone. They're trying to cut costs....not all their revenue too.

 

[woodm07]

Fales about to talk about the layoffs on the morning news next. Has to be awkward AF for him knowing he wasn't let go.

What did he say?

 

[Farnsworth]

What did he say?

He was real safe with it, just announced the on air talent that lost their jobs and that Murphy and Andy will still be on the radio without AD. No commentary.

 

[Cydkar]

Controversial question:
Do we know that these moves aren't good for the company? It's not a non-profit.

On the surface it looks like a bad move but maybe it isn't. A company in trouble can't stand pat.

 

[beentherebefore]

The company is in trouble. Cutting employees--and it always sucks--is often the easiest way to lower overall operational costs.

Plus, the stations iHeart (Clear Channel) bought up, are not worth much now, so the debt burden is huge for that company. It would not surprise me that the company may have to unload stations. The problem is that very few stations can turn a profit anymore.

 

[Farnsworth]

Controversial question:
Do we know that these moves aren't good for the company? It's not a non-profit.

On the surface it looks like a bad move but maybe it isn't. A company in trouble can't stand pat.

I don't think that's controversial. They just filed for bankruptcy and are shedding a ton of jobs nationwide. Financially it makes sense for them, even though the end result really sucks.

The only part I hate is how hard KXNO got hit compared to other stations.

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/183270/ongoing-list-of-those-affected-by-iheartmedia-cuts/

 

[dosry5]

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.

Not saying you’re wrong, but if friends of yours were fired unceremoniously and in then name of profit from your current job, would you quit in a show of solidarity?

I think it’s sucks, hate seeing people lose their jobs, been at several places where layoffs or bumping happened, but never saw anyone quit in support of a co-worker.

 

[lionnusmb]

I was listening to Ross, Chris, Jess and Jake last night on podcast last night and got to thinking about Anthony. What about Anthony?!! These are some of the unintended consequences of the fallout of something like this. I worry about him and his dad. Of course I didn't like who he rooted for but I thought he was genuine and appreciated his voice every week he called.

 

[im4cyclones]

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.

Actually, consolidation of media companies started after the Telecom Act of 1996 which dramatically reduced important Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations on cross ownership and allowed giant corporations to buy up thousands of media outlets across the country. This led to accruing massive debts which were supported by high ad and, more importantly, classified ad revenues. Those high ad revenues meant that cuts could be made to production (layoffs in the newsroom of small-time reporters, etc) without hurting revenue which thereby increased profits. I suspect you can find some graphs that depict the consolidation of media companies, which had happened prior to 1996, accelerated shortly thereafter.

Until they murdered it, the golden goose of the newspaper business was classified ads. This was essentially money for nothing. You didn't even need to pay sales people a commission for it. You just answered the phone and recorded what they want. WIth these massive debt loads and a demand for profits by shareholders, media execs could gauge consumers by raising classified rates to whatever they wanted. In some markets, ad rates wen from $2/line to as high as $7/line. And people had no choice but to pay it.

Along comes the Internet revolution of the early 2000s and entrepreneurs everywhere were looking for ways to cash in. Enter online classifieds like Craigslist, Cars.com, Autotrader, etc. I read somewhere that online classifieds saved consumers something like $4B between 2000-2005. That means it cost newspapers $4B in the same time. I suspect that is the initial drop in ad revenue in your graph before Google even gets into the marketplace.

As the golden goose laid fewer and fewer eggs, the high debt loads could not be sustained and shareholder profits dried up, the death spiral started. The small cuts to the product when times were good had already push some away. Now layoffs were inevitable because of lost profits. In addition, subscriptions rates were increased. Paying more for less/worse content drove even more readers away. This further decreased ad revenue, which meant even more layoffs and/or more consolidation. More consolidation without the highly profitable ad revenue that had propped it up prior was a recipe for bankruptcy.

It was not that consumers shifted away from newspapers to online news that led to a drop in ad revenue. It was corporate greed that created monopolistic conditions that were ripe for innovation like online classified services. Media execs were greedy and ignored the signs that revolution was afoot. Their entire business model was propped up by gauging consumers and when consumers shifted away, they had no plan B.

TL/DR: Newspapers killed themselves by being greedy.

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

Not saying you’re wrong, but if friends of yours were fired unceremoniously and in then name of profit from your current job, would you quit in a show of solidarity?

I think it’s sucks, hate seeing people lose their jobs, been at several places where layoffs or bumping happened, but never saw anyone quit in support of a co-worker.

They also have their TV jobs.

 

[dosry5]

They also have their TV jobs.

True, and maybe that makes this situation different

 

[CapnCy]

Not saying you’re wrong, but if friends of yours were fired unceremoniously and in then name of profit from your current job, would you quit in a show of solidarity?

I think it’s sucks, hate seeing people lose their jobs, been at several places where layoffs or bumping happened, but never saw anyone quit in support of a co-worker.

I thought the same thing......from what I can tell, Murph and Andy are stand up people overall and are the types that WOULD stand with coworkers vs their own interests....but it's true, ultimately people have to make decisions based on their own needs.

In this case, Murh and Andy could also leverage their popularity and capital to help others out, but even that's tough (meaning, what if they could help half of their laid off friends but not the other half, etc).

 

[CascadeClone]

TL/DR: Newspapers killed themselves by being greedy.

So if the papers would have charged less for classifieds, craigslist and cars.com would never have been invented? C'mon.

Being able to search online info is an enormous benefit, and by itself would have sunk print classifieds, even if they were free too. Search feature allows you to go through 1,000 newspapers worth of ads in 2 seconds. Huge value to the consumer in terms of both time-savings and consolidation of multiple sources of information.

 

[KnappShack]

Actually, consolidation of media companies started after the Telecom Act of 1996 which dramatically reduced important Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations on cross ownership and allowed giant corporations to buy up thousands of media outlets across the country. This led to accruing massive debts which were supported by high ad and, more importantly, classified ad revenues. Those high ad revenues meant that cuts could be made to production (layoffs in the newsroom of small-time reporters, etc) without hurting revenue which thereby increased profits. I suspect you can find some graphs that depict the consolidation of media companies, which had happened prior to 1996, accelerated shortly thereafter.

Until they murdered it, the golden goose of the newspaper business was classified ads. This was essentially money for nothing. You didn't even need to pay sales people a commission for it. You just answered the phone and recorded what they want. WIth these massive debt loads and a demand for profits by shareholders, media execs could gauge consumers by raising classified rates to whatever they wanted. In some markets, ad rates wen from $2/line to as high as $7/line. And people had no choice but to pay it.

Along comes the Internet revolution of the early 2000s and entrepreneurs everywhere were looking for ways to cash in. Enter online classifieds like Craigslist, Cars.com, Autotrader, etc. I read somewhere that online classifieds saved consumers something like $4B between 2000-2005. That means it cost newspapers $4B in the same time. I suspect that is the initial drop in ad revenue in your graph before Google even gets into the marketplace.

As the golden goose laid fewer and fewer eggs, the high debt loads could not be sustained and shareholder profits dried up, the death spiral started. The small cuts to the product when times were good had already push some away. Now layoffs were inevitable because of lost profits. In addition, subscriptions rates were increased. Paying more for less/worse content drove even more readers away. This further decreased ad revenue, which meant even more layoffs and/or more consolidation. More consolidation without the highly profitable ad revenue that had propped it up prior was a recipe for bankruptcy.

It was not that consumers shifted away from newspapers to online news that led to a drop in ad revenue. It was corporate greed that created monopolistic conditions that were ripe for innovation like online classified services. Media execs were greedy and ignored the signs that revolution was afoot. Their entire business model was propped up by gauging consumers and when consumers shifted away, they had no plan B.

TL/DR: Newspapers killed themselves by being greedy.

A newspaper could charge $0 a line for an ad and they would still not get people to read a newspaper.. The delivery method has changed

The medium has been disrupted and the public now thinks everything should be free. Music. TV. Radio. All media. Just look at CF during a game. Someone always asks how to pirate a game.

There's little compelling reason to pay for news now, but that also starts to take the professional newsperson out of the equation. We're left with hack bloggers or weird conspiracy backers

A quest for profit is part of business. Greed by charging $7 a line for an ad? Jeez. Not sure if that's greed when a market supports it. Either way it's a sad situation

 

[CascadeClone]

4) Figuring out how to build whatever the Register was to our state 30 years ago for the future.

Is "The Big Peach" copyrighted protected?

 

[KnappShack]

Is "The Big Peach" copyrighted protected?

Rock solid start right here

 

[Cycsk]

I don't think that's controversial. They just filed for bankruptcy and are shedding a ton of jobs nationwide. Financially it makes sense for them, even though the end result really sucks.

The only part I hate is how hard KXNO got hit compared to other stations.

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/183270/ongoing-list-of-those-affected-by-iheartmedia-cuts/

What a bloodbath! The bean-counter who made this decision probably doesn't even know or care about the uniqueness of the shows. KXNO was just letters and numbers for programming that isn't automated.

On to the next phase of the @ChrisMWilliams media empire!

 

[CascadeClone]

Plus, the stations iHeart (Clear Channel) bought up, are not worth much now, so the debt burden is huge for that company. It would not surprise me that the company may have to unload stations. The problem is that very few stations can turn a profit anymore.

I think the whole iHeart strategy was dumb in the first place.
1. Buy all the stations
2. Shift listeners over to internet to gain online ad revenue
3. ...
4. Profit

I have no idea why anyone thought this was an idea worth lending $20B for. I guess with too much capital floating around, and too many people lusting after the latest craze of "online ad revenue", they couldn't resist. A fool and his money are soon parted.

Unfortunately, a bunch of innocent people got caught up in this debacle.