• by Joe Mandese , March 13, 2009

The sagging advertising economy has taken the toll of another industry leader. Tony Jarvis is out as executive vice president-global research at Clear Channel Outdoor, a division of Clear Channel Communications, which has been especially battered by the downturn, and is said to be teetering on the brink of insolvency and yet another corporate restructuring. Jarvis, a well-known and influential media research executive, previously was head of research at CBS Radio and WPP's MediaCom Worldwide unit, before joining Clear Channel in 2006.

The move comes days after another former Madison Avenue heavyweight was bumped out of a top strategic position in a major media sales organization, Turner Broadcasting's Barry Fischer (MediaDailyNews March 9th), and reflects the toll economy is having on some of the industry's best thinkers as their organizations are being restructured around them.

Jarvis' departure comes as parent Clear Channel Outdoor reported a net loss of more than $3 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008, due to the global economic downturn, and as parent Clear Channel Communications runs the risk of violating debt covenants related to a $17.9 billion leveraged buyout deal that took it private last year. On Monday, Moody's downgraded Clear Channel's credit rating further into "junk" territory, and the New York Times put the buyout deal on a "death watch."

Clear Channel is the nation's largest radio broadcaster, and Clear Channel Outdoor is one of the world's largest outdoor media companies, two media that have been especially hard hit by the rapid downturn in the economy.

On Thursday, industry trade group the Outdoor Advertising Association of America reported that the medium's advertising revenues fell 15% during the fourth quarter and 4% for calendar 2008, its worst performance in recent memory, and a notable decline for a medium that until recently had been ascending relative to the rest of the media economy (see related story in today's edition).

Jarvis, ironically, was a key influencer in the strengthening of the outdoor media industry's relative performance, helping to champion new, far more accountable methods of research for out-of-home media buys. The so-called "eyes-on" methods Jarvis helped architect, have been incorporated as a key element of the Traffic Audit Bureau's new audience measurement methodology, which many believe make out-of-home the most accountable of any mass medium, shifting the criteria of media exposure from Madison Avenue's history "opportunity-to-see," to one of a "likelihood to see" advertising.