Despite “overall headwinds” leading to a .5% fourth quarter revenue loss, Salem Media Group’s broadcast arm remains a company leader. Amid a consolidated 38% operating expense increase, total revenue decreased to $68.8 million from $69.1 million.
Radio was a strong suit – net broadcast revenue increased 4.5% from $51 million in 2021 to $53.3 million. Q4 brought the highest midterm political ad revenue in company history, but saw drops in real estate and government spending.
Salem suffered a digital decline after Facebook severely limited what political content their algorithms allowed pre-election. This directly cut into Salem’s conservative opinion sites and advertisers. The end of third party cookies also took a toll.
When asked about whether the company plans to take advantage of recent reductions in force by other broadcasters, CEO Dave Santrella expressed the most interest in aquiring account executives and sales leaders for their digital products.
Salem projects Q1 2023 will be flat compared to 2022, but revenue could continue to sink as much as two percent.
