Marketing Association chair Lance Walker announced today via an email to members that Gill Stewart, the organisation’s chief executive, would be departing her role after 18 months at the helm.
Amid some major changes in the radio industry as NZME and MediaWorks embarked on their new multi-platform strategies, Gill Stewart stepped down as general manager of The Radio Bureau in February after around ten years in the role. And she’s now stepped up to the position of chief executive of the Marketing Association, replacing Michael Pryor.
The radio industry has been fizzing in recent months. MediaWorks claimed that it was leading the charge on a new research methodology, NZME then decided to independently finance an industry-wide T1 survey after it was scrapped earlier this year, and then Gill Stewart stepped down from her position as the general manager of The Radio Bureau (TRB). So is there still a place for TRB?
Industry happenings at TRB, MediaWorks, SenateSHJ, Pead PR and Frucor Beverages.
When in-car tape and CD players were first released, various analysts predicted the possible demise of the radio industry on account of the fact that people could customise their own playlists to personalise the listening experience. And while the industry managed to survive the tape deck and CD shuttle, the digital age is posing a new threat to radio’s continued dominance of in-car listening.
Although the release of last week’s ad spend figures by the ASA served to confirm trends that have been obvious for quite some time, a general consensus among those in the industry is that the figures don’t give an accurate reflection of changes that are occurring in the industry. Several senior industry figures share their thoughts on the structure of the annual ad spend report.
The T2 radio survey results are out. And they present a mostly positive picture for radio year-on-year.
Video hasn’t killed the radio star and, seemingly, neither will digital. In fact, not only has Kiwi radio maintained its share of all advertising, it now has more commercial listeners than at any time in the previous decade. But that doesn’t mean radio’s resting on its analogue laurels, as evidenced by the announcement from the Australian Radio Network (ARN) and subsidiary The Radio Network (TRN), a joint venture between APN News & Media and Clear Channel International, that popular all-in-one digital radio network iHeartRadio is coming down under.
Radio listeners across the country have once again taken pen to paper to log their listening patterns as part of Research International’s Radio Audience Measurement Survey. And the latest results show that audience levels have remained much the same when compared with the same period last year, with MediaWorks radio claiming its first ever most listened to network title.
The latest ASA figures showed the radio industry grew its ad revenue by 2.5 percent and maintained stable share of all advertising at 11 percent. And it’s good news on the audience front too, with the latest six-monthly audience research figures showing that commercial radio in New Zealand has more listeners now that at any time in the past decade.