‘Disappointing’ Market Drives Tough Decisions at Emmis
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corp. (Nasdaq: EMMS) has announced cutbacks as it releases its fiscal third quarter earnings report. In a statement, the company says job and pay cuts aim to reduce expenses throughout the company’s radio, publishing and corporate divisions. Despite a dip in radio revenues, the company reports net income of more than $5.5 million in the third quarter, compared to nearly $2.8 million during the same period a year ago.
The company has a presence in the Indianapolis and Terre Haute radio markets.
In a statement, Chief Executive Officer Jeff Smulyan says "radio industry growth has been disappointing in 2015. Our markets are down 2.4% through the first eleven months of 2015. This general decline, coupled with the competitive situation in Los Angeles, led us to take a series of steps yesterday, including staff reductions and pay cuts for senior executives, to restructure our expenses to better align them with the current operating environment. We remain confident that we have the best team in media and the solution, in NextRadio, to return the radio industry to growth. Our ratings are quite strong in most of our markets, and our investments in content, sales hiring and training, and NextRadio and Digonex will begin to yield stronger results in 2016."
The work force cutbacks are mainly in the Emmis radio division. NextRadio is Emmis’s hybrid radio application that uses a built-in FM tuner and the internet to deliver local radio and other content to smartphones. The technology is a part of its Emmis-owned parent, TagStation LLC, which has offices in Indianapolis and Chicago.
You can connect to a financial summary of third quarter results by clicking here.
Editor’s Note: A previous version included results from the second fiscal quarter.