Alan Mason: Put The Listener First (Shareholder Value Follows)

48° - clear at 9:45pm

Good Evening from Michigan.

Long day and I'm writing this as I'm about to call it a day.

Consultant Alan Mason posted this piece earlier today on his blog - "A Change Manifesto".

Among Alan's bullet points:

"Put the listeners first. I never did figure out how ignoring the primary consumer was going to create a stronger industry, and it hasn’t. Why is TSL down across the country and we see so many reports of dissatisfaction with radio? Because we’ve forgotten that in order to provide value to the share holder we first have to provide value to the listener. Once we’ve provided value to the listener we’ll be able to provide value to the client. Only after those two constituencies have been satisfied will we be able to provide value to the share holder."

I've written the same before on this blog. Longterm share holder value comes from investing in the product and growing listenership. Where is this thinking wrong?

And from Ken Calvert - afternoons at WCSX/Detroit came the following email today:

Have a good night.