If it weren’t for the midterm elections last year, Beasley Media Group’s earnings report on Thursday might have looked a lot different.
On Thursday, executives at the radio broadcaster said Beasley’s fourth quarter earnings showed improvement compared to the same period in 2021, with the company posting $72 million in net revenue during the three-month period that ended last December. The figure represented a quarterly increase of 1.8 percent, or $1.3 million.
Political revenue helped offset a headwind in the national advertising market due to several macroeconomic factors, including consumer confidence. Other media companies have been impacted by the same pullback in ad spending over the last several months as companies adjust their budgets to account for a decrease in consumer purchases of goods and services.
The stronger demand for political ad spots across Beasley’s 61 local radio stations created a shortage of inventory at some stations, Beasley’s Chief Financial Officer Marie Tedesco said on a conference call with investors and reporters.
Still, the company is seeing lower ad buys among national advertisers, offset only slightly by an uptick in buying at the local level and on digital platforms.
“This reinforces what our goals are, and that is really focused on local direct business, generating new level of direct business and growing our digital side of the house because national continues to decline,” Caroline Beasley, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, said on Thursday, adding that digital revenue accounted for nearly 17 percent of the company’s overall revenue during its fourth quarter.
“[Digital] has consistently outpaced national spot advertising revenue over the past several quarters due to a combination of organic growth and contributions from the second quarter acquisition of our white label digital agency business, Guarantee Digital,” Beasley said.
Digital is eventually expected to account for 20 percent of the company’s overall revenue, Beasley said, noting that there was still strong demand for multi-platform marketing solutions.