Leadership Q&A

What are the TV stations doing to remain industry leaders despite a challenging economy?

Our first focus in staying industry leaders is maintaining our relationship with our viewers and communities. We continue this successful priority with extensive research to stay in pace with changing viewer preferences and media habits. Our TV stations have multiple platforms directed to serving our consumers with a fantastic HD television viewing experience and Web sites that serve audiences' news and weather needs. The Web platforms also expand our relationship with directed Web channels. Additionally, our emerging mobile platform has doubled so that in 2008, we served almost 70 million page views. We are confident that by staying in touch with our consumers through research and community outreach, we have the resources to meet their needs and offer advertisers three platforms for their marketing message.

Bruce Baker — Executive Vice President, Cox Television

What did Cox Television do in 2008 to enhance customer experiences?

Cox Television is committed to providing consistently strong results for our advertisers and great experiences for consumers. We also have a culture that values new ideas. That's easy to see through our WHIO mobile site. Our viewers have the ability to order pizzas, check road conditions and flight delays and get the latest news, weather and sports updates — right from their PDA. We are continuously creating promotions for local advertisers, including local restaurants, golf courses and local resorts through "trips on a tank" and other creative ideas. By serving the needs of our viewers and communities in innovative ways, we ultimately help our advertisers reach a greater audience, so it's a winning approach for everyone.

James Cosby — General Sales Manager, WHIO-TV, Dayton, Ohio

With the formation of Cox Media Group, do you expect to realize new synergies among your newspaper, TV and radio businesses?

Even without the formal organization of the Cox Media Group, we successfully found synergies that both added content and saved on operating expense. Now with all the entities included in the same umbrella organization, I would expect to build on the $600,000 in operating expense already saved. With new media platforms like the Internet and mobile, we find our brand extension valuable, but the additional content available to us through shared endeavors enriches the experience for our customers and extends the utilization of the content being produced to more than one media entity. The use of WSB video on AJC.com and auto search from AutoTrader.com are just two examples that already exist and demonstrate this as a valid concept.

Bruce Baker — Executive Vice President, Cox Television

As the company changes, will there be room for employees to develop professionally?

Unequivocally, yes. The changes taking place only add to the value of talented employees like the ones to be found at Cox. In the past year alone, there were more than 30 significant promotions in the 11 Cox TV station cities where the individual being promoted either came from the TV stations or another Cox entity. Our commitment to executive learning and sharing among our stations is an even more important priority as we strive to support and drive our profit units to grow and remain the leaders they are today.

Bruce Baker — Executive Vice President, Cox Television