Industry News

Beasley Cuts Evening Local Shows at “97.5 The Fanatic”

Several reports indicate that Beasley Media Group has cut the local weekday evening show at WPEN-FM, Philadelphia “97.5 The Fanatic” in what is a budget-related move with Kevin Cooney exiting the station. imgKevin Kinkead at Crossing Broad reports, The station will be ending local weekday programming at 6:00 pm, airing a two-hour “best of” show from 6 to 8, and then shifting to national programming afterward. That’s according to super-secret sources. It means the Fanatic will broadcast its normal daypart lineup – Kincade and Salciunas in the morning, Marks and Brace middays, and then ‘Unfiltered’ with Bill Colarulo and Ricky Bo in the afternoon, but there will no longer be Fanatic hosts doing local shows after 6 p.m. For instance, no Kevin Cooney or Brendan Gunn on the evening shift, which had been generically branded as “Philly Sports Tonight.” Read the Crossing Broad story here.

Industry News

AP Reveals Staff Cuts Due to Customer Base Changes

The Associated Press is planning staff cuts to its U.S. workforce, according to a story from Axios. This is part of a broader restructuring “away from hyper-local print coverage and toward video and national topics,” according to executive editor Julie Pace and global chief revenue officer Kristin Heitmann. It’s not surprising that the AP’s revenue fromimg U.S. newspapers has shrunk, but right now it accounts for less than 10% of total revenue. In fact, “Revenue from that cohort has declined 25% over the past few years, while revenue from tech companies has grown roughly 200%.” The story goes on to note, “Over the past few years, the AP’s business has evolved to become less reliant on local newspaper revenue and more reliant on a broader set of customers, including digital outlets, broadcasters and non-news companies.” See the Axios piece here.