Greg Ashlock is stepping down from his role as CEO of iHeartMedia’s Multiplatform Group to spearhead the iHeart Influencer Network. In the interim, iHeartMedia President, CFO, and COO Richard Bressler will assume command of the Multiplatform Group while a search for Ashlock’s replacement is conducted.
iHeart’s Multiplatform Group accounts for nearly 75% of company revenue. It includes the Markets Group with more than 860 radio stations in 160 markets, the live and virtual events business, and the National Sales organization. This group also oversees Premiere Networks, the Total Traffic and Weather Network, and BIN: Black Information Network.
Radio Ink reached out to an iHeart spokesperson for comment on the transition and was provided this internal memo.
“Team,
As we look at the advertising marketplace, influencers are the highest growth new category for advertising spend, expected to grow to $26 billion next year in the U.S. As a talent-first company built around the most important influencers in the world, iHeart sits at the center of that universe – and this enables us to take full advantage of this opportunity.
Greg Ashlock, CEO of our Multi-Platform Group, has a strong passion for our influencer position and has approached us to lead our efforts in this space — focusing specifically on creating innovative cross-platform partnerships between our influencers, marketers and brands. As much as we hate to lose Greg as the CEO of the Multi-Platform Group, we are certain he is the best choice to lead this important new growth area for our company. Effective immediately, Greg will begin transitioning into this new fully-dedicated role as President, iHeart Influencer Network, reporting directly to us. Rich will become interim CEO of the Multi-Platform Group in addition to his other responsibilities as our President, COO and CFO, and Greg’s current reports will report directly to Rich.
Bob and Rich”
The “multi-platform” group – the core company products including the radio stations- produce 75% of the billing, and Ashlock is asking to not longer be CEO ??
This doesn’t pass the smell test. But Bob and iHeart were able to spin this nicely, lol.