Gordon Borrell — Telling It Like It Is

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Gordon Borrell is on the cover of the current issue of Radio Ink. Borrell tells it like it is about radio, digital, and the future of local media. Borrell Associates is one of the most trusted sources of trends and forecasts for local media today. Borrell himself started out as a newspaper reporter, then programmed audio for an “audio text” service — and that’s when he became interested in radio. He went on to work as VP of New Media for Landmark Communications, helping that company’s media assets get a foothold in new media back in the early ’90s. He soon saw the potential of the Internet, and Landmark put up some of the earliest websites for TV, radio, and newspapers — they even got CBS onto the ’Net.

Borrell launched Borrell Associates in 2001, believing there would be a long-term demand for the kind of high-level media research and analysis he could provide. He was correct, and today he’s a sought-after speaker, quoted often in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, and Forbes.

And in our Radio Ink cover story Borrell provides some straight talk about the radio industry’s leadership, its future, and the realities of digital spending. Here’s a snippet of what you’ll read if you’re a subscriber to Radio Ink Magazine.

Radio Ink: In your opinion, what is disrupting radio these days?
Borrell: Streaming audio — that would be SiriusXM, Pandora, Spotify, etc. While they’re disrupting radio, the bigger problem is the industry’s response. It has always been a very defensive one, an “us versus them.” What concerns me is that, true to form, we are facing a disruption that’s creating an opportunity, yet the incumbent business, in this case radio, will flatline and possibly shrink as a result of its approach to that. We are all in this together, and we will win because we understand this as an opportunity instead of a threat. The TV industry has been, to me, really remarkable in its approach to its own disruptors from Sling, Hulu, etc. The way they view it is as an opportunity to distribute more of their valuable video content. They look at the future as a multi-platform future. They want to distribute their content in Las Vegas or Des Moines on any platform that comes into the market. It would be refreshing if audio or radio companies see it that way as well: How can we distribute our valuable programming and other platforms in the way people are listening over Alexa? All of this is easy for me to describe, but difficult to implement down at the market level. There is an expanding audio opportunity that the industry should not view as a threat.

Radio Ink: What is the future for radio?
Borrell: The economy is picking up, and that will mask some of what we continue to see as secular decline for all types of traditional media, both print and broadcast. The targetability of digital media and availability of immediate gratification in the form of data and statistics and the price of digital, which is cheap, will be competitive to radio. I have a lot of hope for radio because the industry does have a history of transforming itself and capitalizing on new opportunities. They have been through this before when TV stole their audience away, and when FM provided some challenging opportunities to the AM model. There is a history of being able to seize a new opportunity and understand it and move forward. Radio has not been under as much margin pressure as newspapers have, and in that there is an opportunity to invest a little more margin in these new digital opportunities out there. There is no other medium that drives Internet traffic and digital goals as well as radio. That is being proven out by some of these programs that will show what happens to Facebook likes, Twitter retweets, and page views on an advertiser’s website when a radio spot appears. If you believe an advertiser’s primary marketing goal starts in digital, which it does, then there is a great opportunity for radio to say, “We can help you fulfill those goals. We have the medium that applies a megaphone to whatever you want to do with your digital marketing assets.”

Radio Ink: Do you feel the leadership in the radio industry now will seize the opportunities?
Borrell: I think we need to see some turnover, and most of it at the highest levels. You could have turnover at the local market level, but if there is no buy-in at the corporate level and some significant investment — which I do see occurring. Townsquare for one is absolutely at the forefront in terms of money and effort they put into their digital ventures; it’s 10 times what any other radio company has done. That level of investment can only occur at the top executive level. There needs to be more improvement in hiring of key people. Entercom has done it, and Hubbard has a good bead and understanding of digital assets. Companies like Bonneville are understanding disruptive innovation extremely well. There are pockets of genius we can use as examples.

To read the entire interview with Gordon Borrell AND see who made Radio Ink’s Best Local Sports Talkers list Subscribe to Radio Ink HERE.

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