When I came to WAAY-TV, it was a station long in decline. It was buried deep in last place in ratings and revenue.
First we had to stop the bleeding, then we needed to build the revenue. We did exactly that, restaffing a depleted workforce, re-energizing employees, and rebuilding faith in systems and products. By staffing up the TV and digital sales teams, we were able to show significant growth in a relatively short period of time. And we had to do this in a declining revenue market.
In the most recent year, we grew revenue by nearly 19%, outperforming the market in every revenue category. In fact, the market as a whole was down 6%. We picked up a total of three share points against our competitors.
Our biggest growth came in digital as we launched a full-service digital agency, Audience Pop, and a full suite of digital products. For the first time since the station was purchased in 2007, there was a healthy cash flow, a reasonable profit margin, and a bright future.
We’ve made major progress despite financial hurdles to re-brand and re-build a once-proud station in one-of-America’s-best-kept-secret-communities.
The work is nowhere near done, but the station is on the right track and growing.
And since we never pass up an opportunity to expand the news brands and/or revenue, here’s something different. We’re channel 31… so we launched a 31-second Facebook news update, which we’ve got sponsored.
Paul Dughi.com 