Industry News

WGAE Responds to Audacy’s Pineapple Street Layoffs

The union that represents writes at Audacy-owned podcast division Pineapple Street Studios is denouncing the company’s decision to eliminate a dozen positions. Writers Guild of America East says, “The Pineapple Street Union is devastated by yesterday’s layoffs, which impacted 12 talented colleagues — 11 of them within our union. This comes just six months after the company laid off threeim other members of our unit. First and foremost, we denounce layoffs in their entirety; we believe this form of ‘cost cutting’ is fundamentally avoidable, and we don’t think innocent, hardworking staff should ever lose their livelihoods over mismanagement at the highest levels of a company. As previously reported, our parent company, Audacy, filed for bankruptcy at the beginning of this year after racking up $1.9 billion in debt. This same company also gave out at least $3.2 million in executive bonuses just months prior… Today, our union began the bargaining process where we will be fighting for the severance that our colleagues deserve — compensation that honors the immense time, skill, and creativity that each of them dedicated to the company over the years.”

Industry News

Report: Budget Cuts at Disney Cancel ESPN Radio Morning Show

According to numerous reports, including from the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand, the financial scalpel being applied to Disney’s ESPN Radio has dropped the nationally syndicated morning show hosted by Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams and Max Kellerman. The story also says that this move is just part ofim more “significant on-air layoffs” affecting ESPN personalities that could come as early as next week. Johnson, Williams and Kellerman have other roles with ESPN and their individual status with the company is not certain, but Marchand speculates that contract buyouts by ESPN are a possibility. ESPN will put a morning show back on the network, but the talent will need to make significantly less than the “Keyshawn, JWill and Max” hosts were making. Read the Post story here.

Industry News

NPR Cancels Four Podcasts Amid Staff Cuts

As reported by NPR’s David Folkenflik and Mary Yang, the public media giant has dropped four podcasts as part of a companywide move to cut costs. The podcasts “Invisibilia,” “Louder Than a Riot” “Rough Translation” and “Everyone & Their Mom” are being dropped in order to close what’s being reported as a budget gap of $30 million. NPR CEO John Lansing says, “We literally are fighting to secure the future of NPR at this very moment by restructuring our cost structure. It’s that important. It’s existential.” The report notes that “NPR intends to cut back its workforce from approximately 1,200 to about 1,050 employees. The nonprofit network’s layoffs represent its largest reduction in staff since the 2008 recession.” In other moves, NPR is bringing its newsroom and programming divisions together as Lansing notes the “current separation artificially cleaved NPR’s journalism and editorial creations.” At this time, none of the NPR radio programs have been canceled. Read the full story here.

Industry Views

Pending Business: AI Meets Sales

By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President

Talk radio - PodcastHave you picked up the most recent buzz around Artificial Intelligence? It’s hard to miss it.

Seems like the AI buzz is getting louder as more companies face the pressure to improve efficiency and profitability during this roller coaster economy. From Silicon Valley’s tens of thousands of layoffs to Steak ‘n’ Shake closing 30 locations, the heat is on.

Companies vested in the terrestrial radio business have known this pressure for years as we function in a world of single-digit growth and AM radio stations going dark as the real estate is worth more than the FCC license. For the first time, some of the players on the podcast side are feeling the financial heat as the congested podcast world fights for highly competitive ad dollars.

How can AI be a resource in the broadcast radio and podcast ad sales world? Here are two examples of what could be around the corner on your next sales email, Zoom or from the office phone pitch.

— AI audio/phone recognition. Imagine software tracking your phone pitch or Zoom call collecting phrases that identify rate objections, efficiency objections, competitive objections, talent objections, even content objections. Management teams skilled in reviewing the “phrase data” analyze everything from the number of times the objection is raised to the category or tenure of advertiser raising the objection(s). Fast forward to solutions. If your team is made up of multiple sellers with various levels of experience and similar objection(s) appear frequently, management responses and adjustments happen faster, with less stress as the numbers tell the story, not the seller in a confessional. Those adjustments appear in coaching bubbles on your screen as you engage.

— AI shows us the phrase that pays. By now you should know many of the key words and phrases that are sales friendly, grab attention and move you to a close. As well as the opposite – those dreaded turn-off words that turn a warm conversation into stone-cold ghosting. What if the AI software interfaces with your emails? AI could be programmed to identify the key phrases that help close a deal as well as those that are deal busters. I once attended a sales seminar that coached away from using the word “contract.” Not a good takeaway for me. All I could imagine was the legal team slapping their foreheads.

Something tells me the AI software discussed already exists working in the field somewhere helping a sales team become more efficient and crushing the earnings barrier. It’s only a question of when our radio/audio world will be smart enough to adapt the tools for a smarter sales path.

Steve Lapa is the president of Lapcom Communications Corp. based in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Lapcom is a media sales, marketing, and development consultancy. Contact Steve Lapa via email at: Steve@Lapcomventures.com

Industry News

NPR Announces Workforce Cuts

As reported by NPR’s own David Folkenflik, the public radio corporation is announcing it will trim its workforce by about 10%. NPR CEO John Lansing revealed the plans to staffers in a memo. Folkenflik reports that the laying off of at least 100 staffers is due to “the erosion of advertising dollars, particularly for NPR podcasts, and the tough financial outlook for the media industry more generally.” Lansing writes, “When we say we areNational Public Radio - Logo eliminating filled positions, we are talking about our colleagues – people whose skills, spirit and talents help make NPR what it is today. This will be a major loss.” The story goes on to state, “On an annual budget of roughly $300 million, Lansing says, revenues are likely to fall short by close to $30 million, although that gap could reach $32 million.” Folkenflik notes, “The layoffs are in keeping with an increasingly grim landscape for media companies over recent months. Vox Media cut jobs by 7%; Gannett and Spotify by 6%. The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, eliminated its Sunday magazine and a handful of other jobs. After becoming part of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN cut hundreds of jobs and killed off its brand-new streaming service, CNN+.” Read Folkenflik’s piece here.