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As we wrap up yet another week in our industry where less people had jobs than they did the week before, I have to wonder how many more cuts companies like iHeartMedia are going to go through before they address the real problems. High level executives, people who had worked their tails off to earn promotions to leadership roles, people who had been with the company for decades – all gone in an instant.
And iHeartMedia isn’t the only ones, other companies have laid off people recently as well as they look at their year and see the need to try and cut to prosperity. Unfortunately, that rarely works and as revenues continue to go down, the cutting will go up.
I have said this before, and I will say it again to be perfectly clear. If you work for a big media company and you are not trying to figure out what your next step is, it is your own fault when, not if, you get caught up in the next round of layoffs. How many more signs do you need?
If you are an air talent working for iHeartMedia you should be doing whatever you can to take your audience to your own platforms. Whatever your “contract” allows for, figure it out and do it while you still have a job. Both on air talent and those in sales need to tighten those relationships with clients.
Salespeople have a double-edge sword in the sense that not only can they lose their jobs, but what if key talent from the station(s) you sell get let go? What happens when more syndicated programming takes over for local programming and there’s less talent to sell for endorsements?
We have also hit another stage in the world of media layoffs. This is the stage where ‘We are having financial troubles, so we are letting a bunch of people go’ now becomes something any media company can say whenever they want, and nobody will question it. As always, actions speak louder than words, so when a company cries poor and says they have to have layoffs, then hires other people right away or makes investments in other things, you have to question what the real reasons for the layoffs really were.
It is very similar to what I have written in my sales columns before about ad agencies. If you are a salesperson and an ad agency tells you that your competitor ‘dropped its pants’ and lowered their rates, you wouldn’t think twice about it, because you’ve heard that so many times before…except maybe this time, you are getting played.
Regardless, when will this end with iHeartMedia? When will someone be smart enough to step in and say that this is only going to keep happening unless there is major, drastic change? What is the company doing to prevent the next round of layoffs?
And when will these companies stop trying to pass off things like this from iHeartMedia spokesperson Wendy Goldberg, who said about the recent cuts, “Although in a company of 10,000 people very few jobs have been affected, there have been some and we never take this step lightly no matter how few jobs it entails; every team member is important to us and has our respect and appreciation.”
So, ‘Sorry we let you go right before the holidays. Sorry we have so much debt we don’t know what to do with. But hey, it was only 500 jobs cut, so we still have 9,500 more to go!’
500 of our comrades went into work like they always have, loyal soldiers doing their best, only to find out that day was their last.
A lot of people in our industry like to turn to the government for help when radio can’t solve its own problems. I’d like to turn to the government and ask how many employees can a company lay off before someone steps in and says, “ENOUGH!”?
Sell some stations, give them away to churches or schools or anyone else that would take them. Shut them off. Start over. Do SOMETHING besides constantly making our industry look terrible. Bankruptcy obviously didn’t fix anything, so what is next? What is the plan to avoid this happening again next year?
This is a mess of epic proportions, and we just go on like nothing is happening. Are we just to expect more and more people will lose jobs and everyone should just wait out their time until the hammer comes down on them? Is that what this has all come down to?
Each of you can only control yourselves. But if you aren’t looking and figuring out what your future looks like and how you get away from working for a company that has more layoffs than Jos. A. Bank has sales, that’s now on you.
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The Best/Worst Thing I’ve Heard/Watched/Read Recently
I wanted to give a tip of the ol’ cap to a longtime friend in this space this week, ESPN College GameDay. If you haven’t tuned in this year, and the viewership numbers show many of you have, you need to see the show with the addition of Nick Saban. I have written this a few times, but I think Saban is great. Both he and Bill Belichick have brought something different to football coverage this year, but Saban is such a perfect fit on this show.
Saban, the addition of Pat McAfee’s often hilarious field goal challenge for charity, all of it, as good as ever. Sure, I could nitpick it and find some things to say I wished happened more or less on the show, but there is just something about having that show on during a Fall Saturday morning that gets you pumped up for the pageantry of college football.
Take a look at this clip of the show and tell me this doesn’t get those juices flowing:
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In Case You Missed It
Typically, I wouldn’t choose the same writer or feature in back-to-back weeks, but once again I want to highlight our latest Meet the Leaders feature presented by Point-to-Point Marketing from Demetri Ravanos. Demetri talked with Alpha Media Chief Revenue Officer Mike Hartel.
The entire interview is very informative and Hartel offers great perspective on the industry. One topic was talent and where the next wave comes from. Hartel asks, “…where are the new stars coming from? In morning drive and afternoon drive, especially with top 40 and rock, the stars are the same people that have been there 25 years. We’ve got to replenish.”
He went on to talk about the stars of the terrestrial radio industry who have left for television or satellite radio and said, “If we had those stars, as a medium, radio would be in a very different place than what it is today. That’s something that’s within our control, but we can’t let too much more time slip before we get back on track with that.”
If you missed this one, be sure to click here and take a look.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
