An article from Cameron Coats at Radio Ink:

Last week, Radio Ink scooped that Saga Communications is planning for two-thirds of its total revenue to come from digital by 2030. Now, Saga CEO Chris Forgy is giving new context on how his “blended advertising” model can redefine how radio competes.

In a new episode of Local Marketing Trends with Borrell Associates CEO Gordon Borrell, Forgy outlined how Saga’s cultural and operational overhaul is reshaping its revenue mix and redefining its mission, all while maintaining focus on its Over-the-Air properties.

Forgy stressed that radio remains the foundation of the model. “This doesn’t happen, in our opinion, without radio…But our digital strategy is really starting to take hold, both anecdotally and beginning to see some things on the balance sheet going forward.”

Even as Saga expands its digital operations, Forgy said radio’s localism remains central to its brand. “As long as I am president and CEO of this company, we will not use AI to replace our on-air personalities,” he said. “We are committed and hyper-local to the communities and in the communities that we live and operate in. Our people are asked to get involved in local government. One of our leaders was asked to run for mayor, one is on city council, and we raise money with locally based cause programs where the money stays in the market.”

After discussing Saga’s potential for station swaps coming with ownership cap deregulation being debated by the FCC, digital M&A appears to be off the table. Forgy made it clear that, “We are not in the business of acquiring a digital process or a digital company,” he said. “We’re in the process now of taking all of Saga’s procurement and deliverables in-house in order to expand the current 52% margins, not including sales commissions, that we currently enjoy in our digital offerings.”

Forgy said Saga’s goal is to “capture just 5% of the low-hanging fruit in search and display” within 16 of its 27 markets—a move he believes could double the company’s annual gross revenue. The target customers, he added, are “local direct advertisers,” not agencies. “Our total digital strategy, the blend, is driven by the need for local direct advertisers,” he said.

Saga’s digital products include streaming, search and display advertising, e-commerce services, and local online news sites such as the Clarksville Now model, which is now active in 18 of the company’s 27 markets. “Those are growing with really nice margins as well,” Forgy said. “We really look at those as being mini-Googles ultimately.”

Internally, the company has begun seeing measurable returns. “We found that local direct advertisers who are not pitched the blend, we lose 29% of the existing radio business we had,” Forgy said. “With local direct advertisers that bought a blended product, their radio spend increased by 9% and the radio and blended spend increased by 27%.”

Forgy said Saga’s commitment to the strategy is unwavering, even as competitors face steep revenue declines. “I think you’re going to hear double-digit declines in all of the broadcast companies,” he said. “Saga is not seeing that at all. We’re talking about very low single-digit and flat kind of operation in our broadcast property.”