Reichig Out As Part Of Year-End Shake-Up At Clear Channel, Impact On Outdoor Initiatives Unclear

Debbie Reichig, a highly regarded media marketing and sales strategist known for her innovative use of research, is out as part of a year-end shakeup of senior executives at Clear Channel Outdoor. The abrupt move surprised many in the out-of-home media industry, particular on Madison Avenue where Reichig was in the midst of several high-profile partnerships and research initiatives that were poised to go public.

Observers speculated that the shakeup was due to financial pressures related to the languishing media marketplace, and the bottom line demands of Clear Channel’s private equity owners, but the out-of-home media industry ironically just released figures on another quarter of healthy gains (see related story in today’s edition).

Reichig who joined Clear Channel Outdoor in 2009, and reported to Executive Vice President-Sales and Marketing Rocky Sisson, had been running her own New York-based media marketing strategy consulting firm In-Focus Media, and before that had been a top sales, marketing and research executive at Court TV, iVillage and Comedy Central.

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While at Clear Channel, Reichig initiated a variety of efforts to raise the awareness and efficacy of out-of-home media in general and Clear Channel in particular, including the first ever marketing mix modeling study demonstrating the incremental effect out-of-home media has on product sales.

More recently, she was engaged in some proprietary research projects with top out-of-home agencies, including Aegis Media’s Posterscope and trade group Outdoor Advertising Association of America, which included the use of new technologies and integrations for out-of-home media, such as mobile and GPS tracking.

“We were doing a lot of cool things with her using some location-based studies,” said one agency executive who had been working with Reichig, but asked not to be identified.

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