Newspaper is not the only old-school media platform hemorrhaging advertisers and community impact.
Local radio is also in a free fall.
Press of Atlantic City only publishes a printed newspaper three days a week. Their once great AC Weekly entertainment guide was recently shuttered.
Audacy, the second-largest radio station owner in the country, based in Philadelphia, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Audacy owns 220 radio stations nationwide, six of those properties are in Philly.
- WIP Sports
- KYW News
- B-101
- 98.1 WOGL
- 1210 WPHT.
In terms of subscribers, influence and advertiser support: YouTube, podcasts, email newsletters and WordPress powered websites have surpassed traditional radio and newspaper.
Audacy stock price tanked. $17 a share when it bought CBS Radio in February 2017, just 19 cents a share as of Jan 3, 2024.
Marc Rayfield once ran CBS Radio’s Philadelphia and New York markets. Rayfield says: ‘Audacy took on too much debt in a changing environment. Invested in digital technology. Maybe a little too late.’
Rayfield said Audacy may sell some of its 220 radio stations across the country.
Industry analysts say Audacy placed too much focus and resources towards a variety of DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Audacy CEO David Field ignored economic law and business best practices. Instead, Field made ‘social justice’ a priority. Insiders say this is where Audacy lost it’s way.
- 2019 – Diversity a priority in nominating Audacy Board of Directors.
- 2020 – Audacy established DEI task force to develop company priorities.
- 2021 – Creation of Audacy HR Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Audacy’s top shareholder is CEO David Field who controls 33% of the company’s voting power. BlackRock, known for their controversial DEI mandates, controls almost 5% of Audacy.
https://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news/local/ny-urban-league-audacy-summit-focuses-on-racial-inequity
Audacy forced to dump top talent. What’s going on at SPORTS RADIO WIP?
More city hall coverage won’t be enough to revive local news
Really sad how the wokeness has taken over. Go woke go broke. Disney Target the newspapers etc. They need to get back to traditional family style products and they will succeed. The Atlantic city press is so over the top leftist nobody wants to read that crap. Mostly for local news and sports but its far and few between. Every story has an agenda thats why the majority of people ignore their crap. If your faith based person or have some moral views like scripture or the bible they want to shut you down. That’s why they will continue to fail.
Sir, what’s actually “sad”, is calling anything “woke” in a derogatory way as you did. It is an absurd concept. It reveals a brainwashed, distorted interpretation of reality. It is a characteristic of a weak mind, blinded by one-sided conservative propaganda. Let me remind you where the original use of “work” came from.
From Wikipedia: “Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination”.[1][2] Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States.[3][4][5]
The phrase stay woke has been present in AAVE since the 1930s. In some contexts, it referred to an awareness of social and political issues affecting African Americans. The phrase was uttered in recordings from the mid-20th century by Lead Belly and, post-millennium, by Erykah Badu.
The term woke gained further popularity in the 2010s. Over time, it became increasingly connected to matters beyond race such as gender and identities perceived as marginalized. During the 2014 Ferguson protests, the phrase was popularized by Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists seeking to raise awareness about police shootings of African Americans. After the term was used on Black Twitter, woke was increasingly used by white people, who often used it to signal their support for BLM; some commentators criticized this usage as cultural appropriation. ”
So, specifically concerning the decline of local newsprint, a myriad of factors are involved. The significant effects of the internet and the overwhelming number of choices of entertainment and sports content to watch and read have greatly and negatively impacted the traditional markets for news. In addition, the economies of large-scale production are overwhelming smaller companies in various business models, including local news organizations.
But calling Disney and Target (and others) “woke” and blaming them for the decline of society, is the height of absurdity.
Very well said Lou. Especially on this MLK Day, the extreme intolerance of others espoused by the Ed’s of the world, in the name of religion is truly sad.
Thank you. FYI – I actually replied yesterday with a “Thank you” and some additional thoughts, but my comment seems to have not been accepted. But conservatives believe they are the ones being canceled. Sheesh. :)
By the way, did you read this article? It decently describes the issues of the decline of local news at a high level.
https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/01/more-city-hall-coverage-wont-be-enough-to-revive-local-news/