Audacy Vice President of News Bill Smee has announced he is stepping away from his role with the radio giant.
Smee said he is moving back into the strategic consulting and project management roles that he enjoyed for a number of years, before taking his current role with Audacy in 2020.
Prior to joining the company in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Smee served as President and Founder of Bill Smee Video Strategies. He also previously worked at HuffPost, Mashable, NBC News, Slate, Discovery Communications, The New York Times, and CNN, among others.
“It has been incredibly rewarding to work these last four years with so many talented and passionate people within Audacy’s newsrooms and across the larger company. And I’m proud of our collective accomplishments: building out digital and podcasting capacity; integrating broadcast and digital teams within newsrooms; strengthening communication and collaboration across a network of brands; navigating the first wave of AI; and creating new revenue opportunities in partnership with sales teams,” Smee wrote in a social media post announcing the move.
“All of this was done while delivering over and over in high leverage, breaking news situations and racking up awards that validate Audacy’s local news brands as best in class.
“The challenges for media and journalism these days — and for local news in particular — are profound, and the stakes are high. But there are new frontiers on the horizon and we can deploy innovative ways of thinking about how we do what we do,” he continued. “As always, I’m excited to explore those frontiers and draw on my many years of strategic and operational experience to help media brands and other organizations find a way forward.”
Smee’s exit coincides with Audacy’s financial issues coming to a head. Earlier this year, the company filed for pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Audacy CEO David Field called the filing the “dawn of a new era” for the company. Several leadership changes have happened inside the offices at Audacy since the bankruptcy filing took place, with several local leaders shifting to other markets inside the company.
