Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). First question comes from the line of Marci Ryvicker with Wells Fargo Bank. You may proceed.
Marci Ryvicker - Wells Fargo Bank
First, there has been so much cost cutting in radio and traditional media. How much of these cost cuts do you think are sustainable not just for 2010, but just going forwards is the first question. And then the second question is, can you talk about how you did in the months of September and October specifically?
Lew Dickey
With respect to cost cuts, what we did at the end of last year, and it has really been borne out of this technology platform that we embarked on in development three years ago. But based on the market conditions, we really went back and reengineered the fixed cost component of our business in an effort to try to make our P&L more variable. So, it was not done with an eye towards a temporary or [femoral] cost cut that would survive through the down part of the cycle then we would have to add the cost back in. In essence as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, we have been very focused on resource allocation and trying to determine basically, this business has around a long time. And as a result, there are lot of legacy costs that are embedded in the business. And its amazing, based on the technology platform that we’ve developed, how we’ve been able to, again, reallocate various resources and create a great deal of efficiencies within our operation, that have enabled us to drive the margins that we have without sacrificing the overall quality, either one of our customers.
Its a different way of doing business today, and this is not just in the media business, particularly traditional media business, but even as you see in the large internet companies, Google has reduced hiring dramatically. Yahoo has been cutting staff. So, nobody is unaffected by this. But there is a greater push towards efficiency.
And we have an industry that has been run pretty much the same way for as long as I can remember not being doing this for 25 years and it did not really capitalize on technology, all of the existing technology platforms that are out there for the industry, via third party vendors on an essence, legacy systems that were developed back in the DOS days that are all client server based and don't take advantage of Cloud computing and all of the technological breakthroughs that are available today.
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