RBR+TVBR has confirmed that three longtime audio division leaders at Nielsen are among the hundreds of individuals who are no longer at the audience measurement and consumer data analytics company that completed its privatization effort in October 2022.
According to a source close to the matter, Bill Rose, who joined Nielsen’s audio team as SVP of Client Solutions following a lengthy career at Arbitron following its September 2013 acquisition, is among the individuals who have received separation agreements from Nielsen.
Rose’s activity in the radio business dates to January 1988, when he became Eastern Division Manager for advertiser and agency services. He had been in his current role since transitioning from Arbitron.
Additionally, Bruce Supovitz, who is based in the Baltimore area and also transitioned to Nielsen from Arbitron, has departed. Supovitz has held the position of SVP/Sales Manager for National Audio Services since August 2016, rising from VP. He came aboard at Arbitron in September 1995 as a Senior Account Manager for radio station services after serving as General Sales Manager of WLIF-FM in Baltimore for Infinity Broadcasting.
Lastly, David Chipman, who held the role of SVP/Sales Director for the Western Region, leading a team of eight while being responsible for 40% of the revenue at Nielsen Audio, has been given a severance package by Nielsen. Chipman is an Arbitron veteran, too, and joined that company in 2001 as a Senior Account Manager. He resides in Salt Lake City.
Consistent with past initiatives conducted by Nielsen that have resulted in staff reductions, the company declined to comment on which individuals by team or department were impacted by the current reduction-in-force.
That said, the “RIF” will have a significant impact on Nielsen Audio and, in turn, the radio and audio business. “There is no more talent customer service group of people than these three people,” an individual close to the matter requesting anonymity told RBR+TVBR, noting how Chipman, Supovitz and Rose each thrived under the leadership of Arbitron’s 17-year leader Stephen Morris, who had arrived at the audience measurement and consumer research company headquartered in Columbia, Md., after a tenure at General Mills, where he led the Maxwell House brand.
With Catherine Herkovic selected to lead Nielsen’s North America Audio and Local TV business, reporting to Amilcar Perez, Chief Revenue Officer of the company’s Audience Measurement Business, Herkovic is absorbing duties that were held by the exiting Brad Kelly, the face of Nielsen Audio to the radio industry since the company acquired Arbitron.
Under Herkovic, remaining staff familiar with the industry through their regular attendance at events including Forecast and the Hispanic Radio Conference is Rich Tunkel, the SVP of Business Development who also came from Arbitron and in 1999 shifted to a role as VP of Radio Sales at Scarborough before becoming a Director of Sales at Nielsen at the end of 2007.
As the radio industry digests the news surrounding Rose, Supovitz and Chipman, the television industry has seen a significant shift in who it works with at Nielsen. Until early 2019, Jeff Wender was highly visible as the SVP and Managing Director of Local Television at Nielsen, a role he held for a decade. Since April 2019 he’s been Chief Revenue Officer of Rakuten Advertising. Then, there’s Kelly Abcarian, who spent 16 years at Nielsen until departing in April 2021 as GM/Head of Product Advanced Video Advertising. From January 2014 through December 2018, however, Abcarian was SVP/Product Audience Measurement and perhaps one of Nielsen’s most high-profile executives for broadcast television.
Famously, Abcarian has become one of the industry’s most outspoken advocates for new and improved measurement solutions in her role as EVP/Measurement and Impact at NBCUniversal, which she took immediately after her exit from Nielsen two years ago.
