CBS plans to build deeper local online content by commissioning specific local topics for articles from thousands of writers at Examiner.com. Both parties were mum about whether revenue sharing is involved but did note that writers will receive a payment plan different from the one they get on Examiner.com.

Leonard Brody, president of Clarity Digital, which is Examiner’s parent company, told BIA/Kelsey the economics of the deal will make it profitable for both companies. Examiner has been approached by many media companies to lend its editorial resources. While such loaners of editorial resources aren’t likely to become a dominant revenue stream, “you may see us do a few more of these,” he says. CBS, for its part, is free to also work with other content aggregators and developers.

CBS brings to the table a network of 15+ city sites, such as CBS Denver, CBS Los Angeles, etc. Some sites have had customized Examiner.com content since Dec. 5. “It is a great showcase, and brings great reach for content. It also provides strong credibility via the CBS brand,” says Brody.

While Examiner’s content for CBS will have some branding elements on it, the intent is not to bring people to Examiner.com, Brody emphasizes. It is CBS’ audience. CBS Local Media President Ezra Kucharz adds that the deal with Examiner is “a great way to augment our great content in local markets.”

When Bob Pittman launched his career in radio decades ago, he touted the virtues of advertising’s “big three” — radio, TV and newspapers. All these years later, during his keynote address at ILM West 2011, Pittman was still bullish on radio’s position in the hierarchy.

“Radio is your companion,” he noted. TV operates as consumers’ “hobby,” while the Internet is a vital “research and communication tool.”

For marketers and media alike, the imperative is to build a synergistic “mix of media” that fosters awareness, kindles purchase intent, retains customers and motivates viral word-of-mouth recommendations. For brands, “that’s your best friend — someone whispering in your ear.”

Clear Channel continues its digital migration through the build-out of iHeartRadio, its Internet music platform. Of course, digital music solutions are plentiful, though Pittman is quick to distinguish iHeart from Pandora and its kind (Last.fm, Slacker, etc.).

“Pandora’s a nifty feature, whether it’s a business or not. Pandora’s not a radio station, but a playlist generator.” IHeart has followed Pandora’s lead in building custom listening features, but with a “familiar-to-discovery meter” and deep social embedding.

Even though he represents a traditional media player, Pittman is clear (so to speak) that his stations understand the digital ecosystem, where partnerships and collaboration must be the new norm. “We’re in the advertising business, and that means renting our customer relationships.”

A new partnership between Clear Channel and LivingSocial is seeking to leverage the power of on-air personalities on 500 Clear Channel radio stations. The personalities will rap about the deals in unscripted segments. It would be interesting to know what the split is for something like this. The arrangement is described as a “commission.”

We know that on-air mentions by radio personalities provide a lift for websites and e-commerce — especially for things that have urgency requirements, such as events. But there hasn’t really been much cross-over between the two channels.

Many station groups, however, are adding deals and other offers to their websites. BogoPod, for instance, leverages a local radio show for mentions. Similarly, Cumulus Media has developed its own daily deal site, Sweetjack. That service will be live in 18 markets by the end of 2012. On a much broader basis, CBS Local stations push out deals powered by BluLabel. But we aren’t sure they have been pushing them with on-air mentions.

ClearChannel CEO Bob Pittman is the opening keynoter at ILM West Dec. 12-14 in San Francisco.

Clear Channel, which has 850 stations in the U.S., was the first radio firm to “go really big” after the Telecom Act of 1996 deregulated the market. At one time, it had more than 1200 radio stations.  Clear Channel has had some measure of success but had a number of setbacks tied to various management problems (e.g., excessive expense cutting, endless reorgs, selling too much commercial time.)

After the exit of founder Mark Mays from the family business, Clear Channel has been in  pursuit of a permanent CEO that could lead a company with a lot of legacy media and propel it into its digital future.  Enter Bob Pittman, the co-founder of MTV who cut his teeth at Roberts Radio. After MTV, Pittman was CEO at Century 21, making it the first truly national real estate brokerage; CEO at Six Flags Entertainment; and President of AOL Time Warner, his highest profile position. Recently, he’s been a very active investor in both broadcasting and digital media. Some of his investments include Thrillist, Daily Candy, Group Commerce Inc. and others.

Since joining Clear Channel as an investor and chairman of its media and entertainment platforms, Pittman has focused on iHeartRadio, a Pandora rival.  Clear Channel used the incredible promotional power of its radio properties to bring to market a digital audio product that it believes will surpass Pandora.  The lead up to the event that launched the new service was all that radio has delivered for its clients for years but with a digital hook of their own at the end. 

With Pittman at the helm, Clear Channel now has a CEO that has the street credibility in the digital world that has to be taken seriously by all of Clear Channel’s competitors both locally and nationally.  That credibility should make it easier for Pittman to sell his vision to his internal team, too. 

“The problem is that advertising comes slowly to any new medium or product,” Pittman told The Los Angeles Times in May. “When I was at MTV, we projected $10 million in ad revenue for the first year. We did $500,000 and almost went out of business.”That’s how slow advertisers are to warm up to new media. But over time, it will grow.”

As we near the halfway point of the year, reports from the local radio industry reveal that growth has slowed more than expected. BIA/Kelsey now expects over-the-air local radio revenues to grow only 3.4 percent, down from 5.4 percent growth in 2010.

The good news is that online revenue growth is proving to be very strong for local radio stations. We now forecast that online revenue growth will be more than 15 percent for all of 2011 with double-digit increases for the following four years. These revised estimates are included in BIA/Kelsey’s 2nd edition of the 2011 Investing in Radio Market Report released today.

Several factors are causing the lower than expected revenue growth for local radio stations, with economic and new media having the biggest influence.

Clearly, the overall economy is not growing as fast as everyone had hoped and, in turn, advertisers are being cautious with their media buys. Plus, even with several months of overall employment gains, the overall unemployment rate is still over 9 percent and consumer confidence is still not overly strong. Now, where the local economy has proved to be more vibrant, radio has benefited from increased spending. Markets seeing growth of 6 percent in over-the-air-revenues this year include Houston-Galveston, TX, Pittsburgh, PA, Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL, and Austin, TX.

Beyond the economy, new media — especially social and mobile media — are becoming more prominent in national and local advertisers’ advertising plans, especially as the technology around these media explodes. The ability to target and segment audiences through these new options are very attractive and effective for advertisers looking to reach consumers in a local market.

All this works together to continue challenging local radio stations to work doubly hard to maintain their positions as a significant part of local advertisers’ media plans. The hope is that the economy will be robust enough to not make that task too difficult.

From BIA/Kelsey’s MEDIA Access Pro™ database, we can calculate the past 10 years of radio station sales. The figure below shows both the dollar value of those sales (black columns) and the actual number of stations that were sold (red line).

Outside of 2006, the year Clear Channel announced its privatization, the yearly values of radio station sales hovered around the $2 billion to $5 billion range. In 2008 we saw a noticeable drop in the value of these sales followed by the past two years of really disastrous levels. Clearly, the economic conditions in late 2008, when the financial community was melting down, followed by the deep economic recession through 2009 slowed up the activity of radio station sales.

The most recent year’s disappointing level of radio station sales, even in the face of a recovering national economy, can largely be explained by the lack of available financing. Banks and equity investors were still concerned about the future of the economy and radio stations’ ability to withstand their competition and prosper.

In the first quarter of 2011, the tide seemed to have turned. Economic activity in general has improved, especially with the monthly employment results. Also, recent announcements of radio station acquisitions by Hubbard Broadcasting (of 17 Bonneville stations) and Cumulus Broadcasting (of the entire radio operations of Citadel) has boosted the yearly total of announced radio station sales to 483 stations for $3.7 billion. To see the most recent information, BIA/Kelsey provides a monthly recap and year-to-date totals at http://www.bia.com/Research-and-Forecasts/Broadcast-Media-Resources/Media-Trends/.

Where do station sales go from here? While it is still very difficult to secure enough debt financing for many medium and small market radio deals, the attitude toward radio station acquisitions is slowly turning to the positive. Some of these large deals financing still have to be worked out, but there are encouraging signs they will be. The results from this activity should be some pickup in station sales with the 2011 totals within the range seen in earlier years. And groups that have wanted to reduce or increase their presence in the industry may soon get the chance.

To track the local media industry as a whole, refer to the BIA/Kelsey’s Local Media Index that offers a directional view of how the industry is performing relative to the overall economy. Updated weekly on Thursday mornings, you can view it here: http://www.biakelsey.com/Research-and-Forecasts/Local-Media-Index/

“A media powerhouse like CBS has deep relationships with small business advertisers,” said Neil Salvage, executive vice president of advertising at CityGrid Media.

The listings will appear across hundreds of websites and mobile apps through CityGrid, including search engines Google and Bing. The directory will include general business info, editorial and user reviews, insider tips, videos, photos and links to the businesses’ websites.

BIA/Kelsey’s Matt Booth first highlighted CityGrid in February 2010, stating that the company provides local content and local monetization in one package for large and small developers. CityGrid reaches more than 140 million unique users across 250 website and mobile sites. This step is one of many the network has made recently to expand its content offerings. Earlier this year, BIA/Kelsey reported on CityGrid’s move into the deals space.

CBS Local Media is CBS’ local broadcasting business segment. It aligns resources between more than two dozen CBS television stations and over three dozen CBS news, sports and talk stations with a focus on competing in the local marketplace. In August 2010, CBS Local Media launched CBS NewYork.com, the first website in the tri-state area to combine the best brands in local media and offer visitors a “local” New York experience. After debuting sites in 23 more markets, CBS Local is among the top 5 most visited local properties on the Web (comScore, February 2011).

Ezra Kucharz, president of CBS Local Digital Media, said, “By delivering to local advertisers cost-effective and efficient solutions for their marketing and sales needs, CBS is able to reach the active consumer interested in utilizing local search to make purchase decisions.”

Thus far, 2011 is revealing some notable announced transactions that could be signs of renewed interest in buying radio and television stations. The BIA/Kelsey monthly transactions report, which details the number of stations sold and their value, shows a marked increase in the month of January. Is it a sign that the station trading marketplace is about to bounce back?

One group transaction, the sale of 17 radio stations from Bonneville to Hubbard Broadcasting, makes up a large percentage of the total value of radio stations sold to date this year. Nevertheless, the fact that one company was willing to invest such a large sum of money in radio stations is a real sign of renewed confidence. The acquisition of Cumulus Media Partners by Cumulus Broadcasting, of the share it did not own already, is also another positive sign.

With this good start, will the rest of the year work out as well? As banks and other financial institutions “loosen” their purse strings, and the industries show continued strength, station transactions should continue to increase. Many station owners who have wanted to sell in recent years may now get the opportunity, although probably not at the prices they have dreamed about a few years ago. Of course, at BIA/Kelsey we will continue to monitor these transactions, reporting monthly and year-to-date totals — just click on http://www.bia.com/Research-and-Forecasts/Broadcast-Media-Resources/Media-Trends/ to see the latest information.

As Social Local Media — BIA/Kelsey’s newest advisory service — marches toward its Feb. 23 launch and Feb. 24 free webinar, we’re using social media channels to present data to our audience and learn more about your challenges, successes and needs in social strategy.

Now, we thought we’d change it up by breaking out the social local media ecosystem into some key segments and offering some tidbits on the penetration and struggles of each. Hence, “industry flash … by the numbers.”

Broadcast: Radio & TV

- Generally, local radio stations lag well behind TV in their use of social media. Only 27 percent operate a Twitter account, and startlingly, just 1 percent have their own Facebook page (source: RTNDA).

- Local TV has shown a greater propensity to adopt social tools, but the results are uneven. While 77 percent are incorporating Twitter into their newsrooms, only 20 percent are active on Facebook (source: RTNDA).

So, the question for both is: Where are radio and TV stations missing key opportunities to use social media to connect with their audiences, market their brands and enrich their content? What are next steps that each can take?

Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs) vs. Online Local Search

A “quick and dirty” content analysis of major domestic directory publishers (AT&T, Dex, Yellowbook, Superpages) uncovered some eyebrow-raising stats and practices:

- On Facebook, IYPs averaged 5,045 fans, or “likes.” Of the more than 20,000 “likes” discovered, more than 56 percent came from SuperPages (11,400+, which has elevated its fan total by more than 9,000 since November. By comparison, Yelp has more than 31,000 “likes” by itself. Of course, sites such as LivingSocial (3+ million active users) elevate “social buzz” to an entirely different level.

- On Twitter, IYPs aren’t nearly as “in the game.” Among the four brands sampled, the average follower count is about 1,500. Again, Superpages dominates, accounting for 71 percent (3,160 of nearly 4,500). Yelp’s Twitter count: 40,000 on the main site, with many of its 100+ city accounts attracting thousands, too. Citysearch also employs this local approach with similar results. Superpages is the only IYP trying this.

What opportunities in social are publishers missing? How can they get more active?

Let us know on our Twitter feed (@BIAKelsey), our Facebook page, or in our LinkedIn Group…or post a comment directly to the blog. You can also E-mail us (webinarsATbia.com). We’ll address your recommendations and questions on the free SLM webinar- Thursday, Feb. 24, at 1 p.m. ET.

The interrelationship of daily deals with TV and radio stations and newspapers intrigues us with potential. While not a big factor, traditional media companies can parlay their brand name, promotional power, sales forces and Web sites to reach new merchants that never would have otherwise advertised with them.

Second Street Media, Tippr, TownHog and a host of others are among daily deal white-label companies focusing on broadcasters. San Diego-based Deal Current has also been working with broadcasters such as the Journal Broadcast Group among the 66 markets that it is operating in. Now, via a partnership formed with Triton Digital Media’s Loyalty Division, it will be in position to power some of Triton’s 700+ radio clients.

Triton and Deal Current are pitching a package where broadcasters and marketers can keep most of the deal revenues between themselves, with just 5 percent of revenues assigned for sales, tech and administration (plus processing fees, which are roughly 3 percent). The daily deals package is an optional part of Triton’s “StickyFish” program, which includes loyalty features such as contests, surveys, games and other content.

Triton Loyalty President Chris Bell tells us that Triton and Deal Current can afford to take a smaller chunk from commissions because it already has the relationships in place with the stations. “There is going to be a lot of pressure on margins,” he says.

Bell says Triton and Deal Current’s role with the stations primarily taps their technology and expertise for selling deals and sending out e-mails. While the stations are not contractually obligated, it is certainly in their interest to also promote the deals on air, and extensions such as their Web site and social media, he adds.