When Kudzu.com brought its advertising concept to San Diego in 2007, the people behind the website wanted a fresh approach to promote the site where consumers can search for a recommended business or service. So of course they turned to Radio.  Kudzu.com wanted to not only increase the number of businesses and service providers listed, but to get listeners to log onto the site and write reviews “positive or negative” about their favorite companies. The company also hoped to increase web traffic to the site and to have more consumers use the posted information.
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Posted under Creative, EAR Award Winners

From the San Diego Business Journal Online
By Connie Lewis
October 29, 2008

The Union-Tribune carriers have fewer papers to throw these days.

The San Diego Union-Tribune’s paid weekday circulation slipped 3 percent to 269,819 on Sept. 30, from 278,176 the same year-ago day, the Audit Bureau of Circulation reported on Oct. 27. Read More…

Posted under Newspaper, Research

From Media Life Magazine
By Toni Fitzgerald
October 28, 2008

The circulation declines seen by newspapers across the country the past few years got even steeper in the latest reporting period, nearly doubling the rate at this time last year.

Weekday circulation for the 507 daily papers tracked by the Audit Bureau of Circulations slipped 4.6 percent during the six-month period ending Sept. 30, 2008, compared with a 2.6 percent drop during the same period in 2007. Read More…

Posted under Newspaper, Research

From the Radio Business Report/Television Business Report – Voice of the Broadcasting Industry
October 28, 2008

Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Wienkes has once again cut his target price for Sirius XM, to 25 cents from the previous 50. The analyst sees “near-certain dilution” for shareholders as the satellite radio company refinances its capital structure. Wienkes is also worried about the satellite radio business itself, with receiver demand deteriorating and high costs to battle subscriber churn. Read More…

Posted under Satellite Radio

Listening Post from Wired.com
By Eliot Van Buskirk
October 27, 2008

Conventional wisdom holds that young people are turning away from traditional radio programming in favor of interactive webcasters and music they download and program for themselves. However, a Paragon Media Strategies study cited by the New York Times found that Americans aged 14 to 24 say they are listening to more radio now than they did a year or two ago.

“Radio stations may be doing a better job at connecting with those people,” the study’s author Larry Johnson told the paper. “The music may also simply be more interesting. There tends to be a cycle.”
However, the study doesn’t mean kids are abandoning their iPods in favor of transistor radios. The same author wrote in September, “There doesn’t appear to be a whole lot more damage iPods can do to radio TSL [Time Spent Listening] now that iPod use and ownership has permeated our culture.”
In other words, rather than making a comeback, radio may just have nothing more to lose as far as the youth market goes. Read More…

Posted under Radio, Research

From NYTimes.com
By Alex Mindlin
October 26, 2008

By most estimates, teenagers and young adults have abandoned radio listening in droves over the last decade. Teenagers on average spent three fewer hours listing to the radio in 2007 than they did in 1998, according to the radio ratings company Arbitron, and listening had declined more steeply among adults 18 to 24. Read More…

Posted under Online, Radio

From Media Life Magazine
By Kevin Downey
October 24, 2008

C3 ratings for the first week of the new season

The broadcast networks already have a big headache this season with tumbling program ratings.

Now more bad news is coming in, judging by this season’s first set of commercial ratings that media buyers and sellers use in negotiations. Read More…

Posted under Research, TV & Cable

From Media Life Magazine
By Diego Vasquez
October 23, 2008

Arbitron’s new tool for measuring radio listenership

There’s been lots of hand-wringing over the rollout of Arbitron’s portable people meter in New York City and seven other markets earlier this month, with many minority-focused stations claiming the new device undercounts its listeners and politicians pushing into the protests to win votes in an election year. The New York and New Jersey attorneys general went so far as to file lawsuits against Arbitron, which debuted the device a couple days earlier than expected in order to avoid outside interference. But in a few months, this may all simply be background noise. Buyers in the two markets that have already been using the PPM for more than a year, Houston and Philadelphia, say that despite some adjustments, the new data has been a big improvement over the old paper diary system. Ratings arrive in a more timely fashion, and while numbers have slipped, they’ve done so almost across the board, demonstrating the inaccuracies of the old system. Overall, media people believe the PPM allows for a much better way to buy and plan radio. Kelley Mohr Rodriguez, media director at Richards/Carlberg in Houston, and Bernie Shimkus, vice president and director of research at Harmelin Media in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., talk to Media Life about the PPM, which stations have seen the biggest declines, and whether Arbitron will have any more rollout problems. Read More…

Posted under PPM

From Media Buyer Planner
October 21, 2008

The 14-24 demo is increasing its time spent listening to radio and decreasing time spent listening to iPods, according to a new study from Paragon Research.

Time spent listening to radio among 14- to 24-year-olds has increased by 11% this year, while time spent listening to iPods has slipped by 13%, per the study (via AdAge). The article points out that the study corresponds with the RAB’s annual RADAR report, which shows that AM/FM listeners increased by 3 million, to a total of 235 million weekly listeners, in 2008. Read More…

Posted under Newspaper, Radio, Research, Revenue

From the Los Angeles Times
By Greg Braxton, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 13, 2008

Howard Stern, the self-proclaimed King of All Media, has lost his crown.

The shock jock’s syndicated morning radio show once drew a national audience of 12 million, but since jumping to satellite radio three years ago, his listeners have dwindled to a fraction of that. Where once Stern routinely commanded a parade of Hollywood’s hottest stars — George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Julia Roberts — today publicists are left to tout studio appearances by the likes of Chevy Chase, Joan Rivers or Hulk Hogan. Read More…

Posted under Radio, Satellite Radio