Beasley Media Group’s second quarter had a little bit of everything: a massive shift to net income thanks to its debt restructuring, continued revenue losses, and the revelation that its digital listening now outpaces its over-the-air audience for the first time in its history.
Beasley CEO Caroline Beasley was joined by Chief Business Officer Kevin LeGrett and Director of Finance and Strategy Ilana Goldstein for the Wednesday evening earnings call.
Q2 net revenue swung to $84.3 million from a net loss of $200,000 a year earlier, as a result of the broadcaster’s second lien restructuring, repurchasing debt, and standing up a new asset-based lending facility. The transaction cut total outstanding debt by $95 million and generated a $91.8 million non-cash gain.
Revenue, however, fell 16.8% to $44.1 million from $53.0 million, which was attributed to continued weakness in national and local agency advertising. Digital revenue was $11.7 million, or 26% of net revenue, down 11.6% year-over-year.
Local revenue, including digital packages sold locally, grew 9% year-over-year to account for 74% of net revenue, and new business made up 13% of net revenue. The reported digital decline reflects the prior-year inclusion of Beasley’s now-divested digital direct business and Fort Myers cluster.
LeGrett described the quarter as a shift from building sales infrastructure to executing on it. “We run this business with brutal objectivity, which is the easiest thing to say and the hardest thing to do. We know exactly where we’re winning and where we’re falling short and where we have to change,” he said during the call.
But maybe most interesting was new information about audience trends, unpublished in the company’s SEC filing.
Total audience grew 1% year-over-year in the second quarter, driven entirely by digital platforms. Over the trailing 12 months, digital audience, which includes web traffic and podcast consumption, grew 7% while over-the-air audience declined 5%, pushing digital past 50% of Beasley’s total audience footprint for the first time in company history. It is important to note that this is a total-audience measure, not a ratings figure; Beasley’s combined PPM market rating share actually declined 5% quarter-over-quarter, which was attributed to a deliberate pullback in ratings-supported investment.
LeGrett put it directly, “Digital transformation is no longer an aspiration at Beasley. It is simply who we are. Radio will be our core, and digital is the driver of our future.”
Looking to the third quarter, the company said it expects same-station revenue to decline in the mid-single digits year-over-year, with political advertising already tracking ahead of the 2024 cycle’s pace at this point in the midterm year.
