Local digital advertising is still growing, just not the way it used to. Borrell Associates laid out the new math with help from some radio executives in its annual benchmarking webinar: the rising tide is gone, and the companies that adapt are already pulling ahead.
Joined by Townsquare Media CEO Bill Wilson, Bonneville International EVP Scott Sutherland, and Newsday Director of Local Retail Advertising Jason Neknez, Borrell CEO Gordon Borrell, President Jim Brown, and EVP of Market Intelligence Corey Elliott presented findings from the 2026 Annual Benchmarking Report, which tracks advertising availability across 513 local markets and business growth across 347 metropolitan areas.
The firm’s data shows local digital advertising growth has decelerated sharply, following a pattern Borrell has tracked since the category crossed $1 billion in 2001. Two prior inflection points, Google’s first $10 billion in ad revenue by 2006 and Facebook’s equivalent milestone around 2013, produced outsized growth spikes that have since normalized. The current slowdown was attributed to a combination of market saturation, spending diversification, and the reclassification of services like SEO outside the advertising column entirely.
Among webinar registrants surveyed before the session, half said digital advertising sales had gotten harder in the previous six months. Only 17% believe conditions have improved.
The firm’s framing for what comes next centers on a metric most operators aren’t tracking. Borrell defines “obtainable digital advertising” as what remains in a local market after stripping out national search and social spending, money that flows to Google, Meta, and similar platforms regardless of local sales effort.
That figure currently sits at roughly $18 billion nationally, exceeding total local television and radio advertising combined. Elliott said only about 16% of all locally spent digital advertising stays within local media on average, a share that has grown from 13% in 2019 and appears to be plateauing.
Townsquare Media CEO Bill Wilson praised his company’s results as what a disciplined share strategy can produce. Digital advertising for Townsquare was up 7 percent in the first quarter, with programmatic up more than 20 percent. Digital now accounts for 59 percent of total revenue and 63 percent of total profit across Townsquare’s Interactive and Ignite divisions.
He spent most of his segment on Ignite’s third-party Media Partnerships division, which launched in early 2024 and signs local media companies, broadcast, print, and out-of-home, as partners, managing their digital campaign execution, inventory buying, creative, and sales training. Wilson projected the division will reach $50 million in annualized revenue within four years at a 20 percent profit margin, saying, “Our goal with this division is to become the chosen provider of digital programmatic advertisers for local media companies and digital agencies in local markets.”
Bonneville International EVP Scott Sutherland offered a more cautious account. Without national scale, Sutherland said digital services are essential to the company’s growth strategy, but the execution has required narrowing rather than expanding.
“We stumbled at Bonneville when we attempted to sell everything,” he remarked, describing how an expanding product menu across core broadcast, digital advertising, and digital services strained sellers and led to fulfillment problems and poor retention on lower-margin accounts. The company has since contracted its product offerings, moved toward middle- and top-of-funnel products, and concentrated on high-margin work aligned with its sports and news brands. “The sweet spot for us has been integrating with our core customers,” Sutherland stated.
Newsday Director of Local Retail Advertising Jason Neknez described a multi-channel bundling approach his team launched earlier this year, combining display advertising with targeted email campaigns running on four-week cycles. He cited transparent reporting, including heat maps showing which elements of creative drove engagement, in producing strong renewal rates even among clients who were initially skeptical of the campaign’s performance. The team has also leaned into AI tools for sales operations, completing Google’s AI Essentials certification through Coursera.
Borrell closed with a warning directed at operators still forecasting from prior-year baselines. Markets are diverging rapidly, the shift from retail-heavy advertising bases to service-oriented local economies is accelerating, and government advertising is in decline.
“If you’re still forecasting based on what you did last year, that’s sort of an indication of those who are really in decline,” Elliott said in closing. “Instead, if you take a real focused approach on what’s available in your market, that obtainable number, that makes all the difference in the world.”
