Glenn Beck Blogs: On Radio, Platforms, and the Value of Rush Limbaugh

Television host and conservative pundit Glenn Beck challenges everything from politics to political correctness on his hour-long CNN Headline News show. Beck, however, has become a business franchise of his own, with a radio show, website, speaking tours, bestselling books, and a comedy magazine, Fusion Magazine, that he publishes. Beck will spend Thursday blogging about his business and yours. One day. One place: Portfolio.com.

You might think of me as a conservative, but the truth is that I'm first and foremost a businessman. My politics only influence my business in the sense that I run it the way I expect conservative politicians to run our government: debt-free and with solid strategies for getting any new ideas to pay for themselves.

But before I get into how I've built my company, Mercury Radio Arts Inc., let me tell you a little bit about my brand. Some people hear that and think, "What brand? Doesn't this guy make a living hating immigrants and loving war?" Actually, no. My brand is "The Fusion of Entertainment and Enlightenment," and it's all based on trying to make the news interesting, relatable, and funny.

They say that "a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down," and I believe the same thing applies to the news cycle. Tell people constantly about Russia, Iran, Fannie Mae, and Social Security, and they're likely to just tune out. But mix in some humor and find some unconventional angles, and people suddenly become engaged again.

The foundation of my business is my radio program. I do a three-hour show each day from Manhattan that's broadcast on over 300 stations, making it the third-most-listened-to show in the country. I started in radio when I was 13 years old, and it still remains my favorite part of the business. But what I've learned is that business is really the key word. While I care deeply about the topics I cover, I'm keenly aware that my show is not on the air to propagate a particular agenda, but to make money. Taking care of my listeners, affiliates, and advertisers is my most important job.

I'm not smart enough to have come up with that revelation all by myself. Lost in the media coverage of Rush Limbaugh's mega-contract earlier this year was a simple truth: The big salaries earned by talk-radio stars aren't being paid by Halliburton or Exxon Mobil, they're being paid by advertisers looking to connect their product to an engaged audience. Rush Limbaugh and Paul Harvey are entrepreneurs who have created value for themselves and their business partners by connecting audiences with advertisers in a meaningful and authentic way. I'm simply following in their very large footsteps.

After my show was syndicated nationally in 2002, I made my first investment in myself by hiring a general manager (more on that later today) and by spending the first two years focused solely on building my core business. Patience is not my strong suit, and I was anxious to get started with several other projects, but building my radio presence and enhancing my relationship with listeners and affiliates was the right decision.

When the time was finally right, we began to expand by first building a first-class website. That, in turn, lead to the launch of a daily newsletter, which now has hundreds of thousands of subscribers and allows me to stay connected with my fans every day, even when I'm not on the air.

The next step was figuring out how we could expand the brand without diluting the existing businesses. We quickly settled on two new business: Live events and Fusion Magazine.

We made small investments in each of them at first, but as they began to prove themselves, we loosened the purse strings and devoted more time and resources into making them successful. I now perform about 20 stage shows around the country and publish 10 issues of Fusion each year. I believe that both businesses help to tighten my connection with my fans.

The next logical expansion was television, and, quite honestly, it's done more for our brand than we thought. For all of its faults, cable news, with its nightly frequency (my show is run three times each night) allows for unmatched visibility.

Now, with radio and television as pillars, our other platforms, which now also includes publishing (my third book, The Christmas Sweater, comes out this November) have all seen tremendous growth. And the best part is that they all play off each other. Someone might catch the television show one night, then sign up for my newsletter, see a stage show, subscribe to the magazine, and eventually buy a book.

I wish I could tell you that my business just hums along smoothly and that I just stay at home and cash the checks. Unfortunately, it's much more complicated than that. After all, I'm in the media business. Radio is clearly hurting, TV isn't much better, magazines have been struggling and publishing? Not exactly a growing business.

Like many of you, I'm confronted with daunting decisions about the future of the businesses that I'm in (satellite radio vs. terrestrial, subscription Web content vs. paid advertising, etc.). So far, we've been able to (mostly) make the right decisions, and in just six years we've grown from a little company with three employees to a little company with 40 (if you include the TV staff, who aren't directly employed by Mercury).

I'd like to say that I planned it all that way, but I didn't. In fact, as you'll see by the end of the day, the smartest decision I've ever made was to make sure that smart people are involved in my decisions.