The Changing Ear of Radio

Most every traditional medium today faces challenges from new technologies. Yellow Pages and newspapers, the primary print directional media, are being affected mostly by the Internet. Radio faces the double whammy of iPod and other portable digital audio players and satellite radio. The former is a much more significant threat to radio, and Ad Age correlates digital audio players with the decrease in radio ratings.

In many respects the Yellow Pages and newspaper industries are in a much better position than radio. As an advertising medium, radio can't adopt audio players or satellite delivery and generate ad dollars.

Yellow Pages and newspapers have already begun to generate advertising revenue from the Internet. People need directional media; the question is will the current players be the ones who provide it in the future.