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Known as the furniture capital of the world, the Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem, NC, market has long relied on furniture and textile manufacturing jobs to support the local economy. Now, unemployment has ballooned beyond the national average to about 6% - its population is surging. So much so that in the beginning of 2002, the market jumped to No. 44 from No. 47, according to Nielsen Media Research. And while quality of life and a wide variety of outdoor activities are partly responsible for the population spike, area leaders hope new jobs will soon also be a draw. The economic blow dealt to area manufacturing has led to local advertising revenue declines taking place in concert with the national ad slowdown. Further exacerbating the difficult situation for local media is a wrangle over how legislative districts should be mapped after recent changes were found to be unconstitutional by the North Carolina Supreme Court.
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Market Profile
KNOWN AS THE FURNITURE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD, THE GREENSBORO/HIGH POINT/ Winston-Salem, N.C., market has long relied on furniture and textile manufacturing jobs to support the local economy. However, the national economic downturn in 2001 helped fuel a local recession that caused a number of textile companies to file for bankruptcy, slash staff or close up shop altogether. According to some estimates, more than 27,000 textile jobs in the state of North Carolina were lost in 2001, many of them in the tri-city area, known as the Piedmont Triad.
However, while the area fell into recession-unemployment has ballooned beyond the national average to about 6 percent-its population is surging. So much so that in the beginning of 2002, the market jumped to No. 44 from No. 47, according to Nielsen Media Research. And while quality of life and a wide variety of outdoor activities are partly responsible for the population spike, area leaders hope new jobs will soon also be a draw.
Local political and business leaders are working to attract new companies that could replace the thousands of jobs lost in the past year. One ray of hope is FedEx, which wants to open a regional hub in the market.
The planned $300 million facility, which would be located at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, has drawn strong opposition from some residents who fear increased noise pollution. But if FedEx follows through with its plans, the hub would open sometime in 2006 or 2007 and create several thousand jobs.
The economic blow dealt to area manufacturing has led to local advertising revenue declines taking place in concert with the national ad slowdown.
Further exacerbating the difficult situation for local media is a wrangle over how legislative districts should be mapped after recent changes were found to be unconstitutional by the North Carolina Supreme Court. The matter is still pending as they await the judge's latest ruling. However, the May 7 primary remains indefinitely suspended and politicians are keeping a tight lid on their campaign coffers until the matter, which has dragged on for months, is resolved.
Also, the state is supposed to get a new seat in the U.S. House, but the candidates' campaigning has been stalled. In 2001, North Carolina redrew its congressional map using the 2000 Census. Based its on population growth, N.C. would get the new House seat instead of Utah. But Utah brought a suit challenging the way the Census was conducted. The matter is pending.
One race expected to generate ad revenue for local media is the bid to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.). Republican Elizabeth Dole and Democrat Erskine Bowles are the two leading contenders in a packed field. Meanwhile, broadcast TV outlets in the market, which has 634,130 TV households, are trying to ride out the recession.
Sinclair Broadcasting's ABC affiliate WXLV-TV has been particularly hard hit by the tough economic conditions. The station, which had struggled for six years to become a viable contender in the already competitive news race, shuttered its entire news operation on Jan. 11 and fired about four-dozen staffers. Station executives say the news operation was suspended because it wasn't profitable.
Since WXLV had been a lagging player in the local news race-averaging 1 ratings in the key demos-its withdrawal from the news game had no real impact on the other three news outlets, who are in a very tight battle. However, its exit from the news business did cause some confusion for viewers, some of whom thought the station was going dark altogether and leaving the market without an ABC affiliate. WXLV replaced its 6 and 11 p.m. news with Access Hollywood and Spin City reruns, respectively.
One hurdle WXLV has struggled to clear is its 1995 affiliation swap. WXLV had been the market's Fox affiliate and WGHP its ABC affiliate. While WXLV had to build its news from scratch, WGHP was able to capitalize on viewer loyalty from its years with ABC.
WGHP, which Fox Television Stations purchased in 1996, produces 6 hours of local news a day, more than any other station in the market. The station is the only network-owned and-operated outlet in the market. Karen Adams, WGHP vp and general manager, says stability has helped her station hold its market-leading position in the key 18-49 and 2554 demos in nearly all the news time periods over the last half-dozen Nielsen books.
With Nascar's huge popularity in the area, WGHP has also benefited from Fox having the broadcast rights to those races. The station has a sizeable 16.1 average household rating for Winston Cup races so far this year, the highest of any Fox station in the country.
Gannett Broadcasting's CBS affiliate WFMY-TV is the oldest station in the market and was, at one time, the undisputed news leader. The station is now in a neck-and-neck ratings race each book. On the programming front, WFMY-TV, which carries Oprah and The Rosie O'Donnell Show, will replace the departing Rosie with The Dr. Phil Show at 11 a.m. The station has also produced a live, halfhour, local high school sports show called Friday Night Fever for the past dozen years.
Deborah Hooper, WFMY president and gm, believes that once the national economy recovers, it will take an additional year for the local economy to come back. "The market has been dramatically hurt by the recession," she says. "It's been a challenging vear."
WXII, Hearst-Argyle Television's NBC affiliate, had been in third place in news but has experienced notable ratings growth. Over the last 18 months, the station has grown its household numbers for its newscasts at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. For example, its news at 6 climbed to a 9.1 average household rating this past February from a 7.8 for the same time period the year before. "We really started seeing our most significant growth during the week of Sept. 11, during that horrible tragedy," says WXII president and gm Hank Price. That week, the station premiered its $1 million set and newsroom renovation and a new digital television station.
Price attributes WXII's ratings growth to more aggressive news and to a major push into Greensboro about a year and a half ago. Previously, WXII, which is based in Winston-Salem, did not cover Greensboro. "That's the largest city, and if you're going to win the whole market, you've got to have a piece of it," says Price.
Pappas Telecasting has also invested significant resources into its WB affiliate, WTWB-TV. The station, formerly WBFX, increased its signal strength by going from transmitting at 350,000 watts of power on an approximately 1,000-foot tower to transmitting at 5 million watts on a 2,000-foot tower. After remaking itself, the station relaunched with new call letters in September 2000. Station gin Kathi Lester arrived at the station in June 2000 after a 15-month stint as gm at WNOL-TV, the WB affiliate in New Orleans. Before that, Lester served as general sales manager of Sinclair's duopoly in the Piedmont Triad. Sinclair owns WXLV and UPN affiliate WUPN-TV.
WTWB, ranked fourth sign-on-to-sign-off, also picked up some key syndicated fare last fall in Everybody Loves Raymond and Just Shoot Me. It has also purchased syndie shows That '70s Show and Will & Grace for this fall for early fringe and access. "We position ourselves as the entertainment station in the market," says Lester. The station does not program news.
WUPN has made a number of program changes in the past year. Except for The Simpsons, which still airs at 6 p.m., the station completely revamped its lineup from 5 to 7:30 p.m. WUPN also now runs Star Trek Voyager at 10 p.m., filling its previous slot at 11 p.m. with paid programming. Paxson Communications' WGPX is working hard to find its footing in the market. The station's strongest programming is Diagnosis Murder reruns at 10 p.m., which earned a 2 household rating in February (see Nielsen chart on page 17).
According to Scarborough Research, cable penetration in the market is 66 percent, slightly below the national average of 69 percent for the top 50 markets. Sandwiched between several mountain ranges and the Carolina coastline, the Piedmont Triad has 24 percent of its households connected to satellite service, far exceeding the top-50 market average of 15 percent. Time Warner Cable is the dominant cable service provider in the area.
One medium with no shortage of competitors is local newspapers. The area supports a daily paper in each of the three cities and a number of community weeklies.
The largest daily is the News & Record in Greensboro. Owned by Landmark Communications, the paper's daily circulation for the six months ended March 31 was 93,436 (comparison figures for the same period in 2001 were not available because of a change in reporting). Its Sunday circ for the period was 112,056, flat year-over-year.
"We have really put a focus on circulation," says N&R editor John Robinson. The paper circulates in 10 area counties and has editions for High Point and Randolph County. And for the first time, the paper has recently stepped up its circulation efforts for Winston-Salem, says Robinson. In April 2001, the N&R converted to a narrower, 50-inch width.
Although located in Guilford County, the locally owned High Point Enterprise does not consider itself a direct competitor of the N&R. "We do circulate into the edges of Greensboro, but mostly in southwestern Guilford County, Davidson and Randolph Counties and a small portion of Forsyth County," says editor Tom Blount. Its daily circulation for the six months ended March 31 was 29,276, flat compared to the same period in 2001; its Sunday circ was 30,686, down 1.4 percent from a year ago.
Blount says the reason for not going after more Greensboro subs is a matter of minding the bottom line. "If we were to concentrate on Greensboro, we'd have to put an awful lot of resources to compete with the larger daily," he says. The Enterprise also publishes a number of other local papers, including Triad Business News, one of two weekly business papers in the market. American City Business Journals owns the 4-year-old The Business Journal.
Media General's Winston-Salem,7ournal had a daily circ of 86,544 and a Sunday circ of 97,811, both flat year-over-year. The journal publishes a state edition and a city edition and circulates in 11 counties, says Journal vp and gm Pat Taylor, who is holding off on any major new initiatives for now. "I think we've just been trying to get past the recession," he says.
Last year, Winston-Salem's local economy was hit by the merger of First Union and Wachovia banks and the relocation of the headquarters to Charlotte, N.C., from Winston-Salem. The move meant the loss of a number of high-paying executive positions and other jobs as the companies worked to streamline operations. Taylor says in the short term, the merger benefited local newspapers because the banks wanted to get the message out that they would retain the Wachovia name. That ad money has since dried up, he says. "Winston-Salem is pretty resilient," says Taylor. "I think we'll be OIC"
Arbitron defines the radio market as Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point and ranks it No. 43 in the country.
Entercom Communications and Clear Channel Communications are the area's top radio players. According to BIA Financial Network, each company controls about a third of the market's advertising revenue, pulling in about $15.2 million in ad dollars apiece (see Radio Ownerhip chart on page 16). Knoxville, Tenn.-based Dick Broadcasting, which owns two stations in the market, has a 14.7 percent slice of the advertising pie, generating about $6.6 million in ad revenue, according to BIA. Infinity Broadcasting also has a presence, carving out a 7.6 percent chunk of the ad market, or $3.4 million in billings.
Among recent changes, Entercom's Modem Adult Contemporary station changed its call letters to WOZN-FM from WKSI-FM. Entercom acquired WKSI and Gospel station WPET-AM from Bahakel Communications this past February.
About a year and a half ago, CC, which already had the dominant Country station in the market in WTQR-FM-it's also the top biller-launched a second Country outlet. The company flipped its Rock station WXRA-FM to Country and changed the call letters to WWCC-FM. The station has seen a ratings decline since the change.
Greensboro-based Fairway Outdoor Advertising is the largest outdoor advertising player in the market. The company controls about 450 14-foot-by-48-foot and 10-foot-by36-foot permanent and rotary bulletins, as well as about 900 30-sheet posters and some 8-sheet junior posters. Other smaller players in the market are Lamar Advertising, Infinity Outdoor and Greensboro-based Triad Investment.
Copyright VNU eMedia, Inc. May 27, 2002