The local digital advertising boom is over, but the battle is just beginning, posits Borrell Associates in its 24th annual Local Digital Advertising report, as growth has fallen to single digits, with projections dipping to the slowest sustained pace since the Great Recession.
“We’re not big on doom and gloom around here, but after a few months of digging through the data, we started connecting some dots, and they don’t point in a great direction,” said Borrell Associates EVP of Local Market Research Corey Elliott, in an episode of the Local Marketing Trends podcast, accompanying the 65-page report drawing on proprietary data from more than 9,000 local media operations and advertising estimates across 513 US markets.
The deceleration has exposed a structural problem for legacy media. The long-held assumption that digital revenue growth would offset declines in core products depended on digital expanding at 20 to 25 percent annually. With growth now in low single digits and legacy revenue still falling, the math no longer works.
“This isn’t decline. It’s normalization,” said Borrell Associates Gordon Borrell CEO. “Digital has matured. The easy growth is over. From here on, success won’t be defined by participation, but by who can steal share from competitors.”
The report reviewed 2025 annual filings from 15 publicly held media companies. Only iHeartMedia and the New York Times showed total revenue growth. Cumulus Media and Urban One posted negative digital growth. Townsquare Media, the radio industry’s most-cited digital success model, saw less than 2% digital growth last year, per Borrell’s analysis.
“Some companies mistake being involved in digital for being successful at digital,” said Borrell Associates Founder Gordon Borrell. “The next phase will separate those who are able to measure success against their specific market opportunity and systematically capture share from those who are merely measuring year-over-year growth.”
Digital now accounts for 72% of local ad spending, yet no single format dominates. Display, social, and video are overtaking search, which the report describes as flatlining. Digital advertising sold by local media companies totaled $17.8 billion in 2025, the largest single segment of obtainable revenue, larger than local TV and radio advertising combined. A narrow group of operators is already capitalizing; the report finds they hold three to more than four times the market share of in-market competitors.
The information sector, which includes streaming, telecom, software, and data companies, as well as TV, radio, and newspapers, grew 49% nationally between 2020 and 2025.
The advertiser base is also shifting. The US added 1.7 million new business locations between 2020 and 2025, a 16.3% increase from roughly 10.5 million to 12.2 million. Non-metro markets grew 31%; metros grew 12.6%. Professional services, construction, and information businesses drove the bulk of formation activity, representing a changed local landscape that media sellers are still mapping.
Borrell Associates will host a webinar on May 19, 2026, at 2p ET to present highlights from the report. Registration is now open.
The takeaway here is simple: the low-hanging fruit is gone. Digital isn’t an automatic growth engine anymore; it’s a crowded competitive space. This is a good reminder that we need to refocus on what made us successful in the first place. Radio: strong local relationships, smart selling, and delivering real results for clients.