I’m a firm believer in the importance of consistently researching your audience. During my radio programming days I was fortunate to have budget to utilize groups like Edison Research and Coleman Insights. They’d do deeper dives into the health of my brands, the strengths and weaknesses of local competition, and that information was always useful in supporting the programming decisions I made.
But not every brand has a budget for research. If you do, use it. It’s valuable. If not, what do you do? Do you just rely on your gut? Do you ignore your ratings, online traffic, streaming sessions and social media impressions?
Of course not.
Even when dollars weren’t available, I made time to learn what my audience valued. The data may be less scientific but real-time feedback from those who spend time with your brand shouldn’t be discounted. I’d arrange remote meetups with small groups, online surveys, social media chats with fans, and invite only meetings inside the radio station. My feeling was that there wasn’t a downside in connecting with people to hear what they like, dislike, and expect from the brand.
Having said that, I try to do it with Barrett News Media and Barrett Sports Media. We serve a professional audience and want to make sure we’re providing the right type of content. Unlike sports, news media professionals are less vocal on social and not as active pitching ideas to us for coverage. We’ve been building BNM for three and a half years, and I’m always interested in hearing what news/talk radio, digital and television professionals want more and less of from us when it comes to our coverage of their business. The more we know, the better we can be.
Given that many of our readers do different jobs on different mediums, individual tastes always vary. For instance, if you program or host a radio show, you probably care about ratings, other things being done in other markets by other shows and industry gossip that you can use as fodder on your program. If you’re a radio GM or sales professional, that may not be as vital as knowing what the political advertising climate is or what other business professionals are doing to grow revenue, ratings or relevance. If you’re in TV or working with a digital brand, none of that may matter.
To help us stay on track, I’ve put together a brief 12-question survey that I’d love to have you fill out. We’re trying to make sure we’re delivering stories you care enough to read. If there’s material being created that provides less benefit, we want to remove it and give you more of what you seek. The only way to do that is to ask for your input.
Please click the BNM Survey link below to help us out. It shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes. I appreciate you weighing in so we can continue to make the time you spend with us as valuable as possible.
2024 BSM Summit:
If you receive our BNM newsletters, you’ve likely received a few emails about our speaking opportunities at the 2024 BNM Summit in Washington D.C.. Interest in participating has been high, which is awesome. Each year we create an agenda focused on covering the most critical issues facing the business with the most pertinent speakers we can find to add insights on those issues. Given the size of the news/talk format, and the fact that we have attendees in the room with TV, Radio, Digital and Advertising backgrounds, it’s impossible to accommodate every request.
Having said that, we’re gathering entries to see who’d like to be involved. Once our sports conference is over in mid-March, I’ll reveal the first batch of speakers for the 2024 BNM Summit. We’ve got some good ones lined up.
This is going to be a tremendous event, and I do expect it to sell out. We only have 250 seats and ticket sales during the first month were higher than any other event we’ve run. If you want to make sure you’re in the room, I recommend purchasing your tickets early. Once we’re full, we can’t add chairs.
For tickets and additional details, visit BNMSummit.com. Future announcements regarding speakers and other items planned for the show will be made here on BNM.
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
