While traditional media currently dominates the local ad market, a steady shift to digital will continue over the next five years, BIA/Kelsey forecast at its Digital Strategies For Broadcasting conference today in Jersey City , NJ .   BIA says new businesses are already more oriented to online, devoting about one-third of ad budgets to digital media, versus the 13% allocated by companies that are three years or older.

“That makes a difference in how we use and motivate our sales staffs and how we approach clients,” BIA/Kelsey chief strategy officer Rick Ducey says. “A company that has been around for 30 years is going to be harder to convince to buy digital than a newer company. ”

For radio, the next five years will mean slow growth for broadcast assets and stronger growth for online, BIA/Kelsey projects. 

Fisher Communications CEO Colleen Brown also told the BIA/Kelsey conference today that radio and television stations need to do more to play to leverage their assets.  “Broadcasters have so many inherent strengths,” Brown said during her keynote address. “We need to embrace technology to make sure those opportunities come to full fruition, and to diversify revenue streams.”  Fisher has launched a series of hyper-local sites which the company has allowed them to sell to advertisers that typically cannot afford radio, TV or newspaper advertising.  In other cases, they’re sold as part of a multimedia package.  Brown says, “We need to be able to sell everything from a $60,000 television spot to a $35 directory listing. It’s OK to roll up nickels -- they’re adding up.”

More from the conference in tomorrow’s Inside Radio.