iHeartMedia has promoted Lainie Fertick to Chief Insights Officer, creating the company’s first-ever position in the role. The announcement was made in a company memo by Bob Pittman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Rich Bressler, President and Chief Operating Officer. 

Fertick has been with iHeartMedia for more than 20 years, joining Critical Mass Media (CMM), the company’s media research firm specializing in audience insights, as an intern in 2004. She subsequently rose through the organization to become CMM President and General Manager.

In 2024, Fertick also became President of iHeartMedia Insights, expanding her work beyond internal research to include insights for key advertising and marketing partners.

In her new role, Fertick will oversee insights across iHeart’s operations, including radio, podcasting, talent and content, sales and attribution, music and perceptual research, user experience, corporate research and audience analytics.

In the memo, Pittman and Bressler said Fertick’s work has helped iHeart’s programming teams, talent and stations develop a deeper understanding of their consumers, while also giving advertising and marketing partners actionable insights into their audiences.

Fertick will also continue to play a key role in AudioGraph, iHeart’s data and programmatic platform, which the company describes as an important part of the future of broadcast radio advertising.

Her responsibilities also include iHeart’s annual white paper research, which has positioned the company as a thought leader on consumer behavior. Recent studies have included “The New American Consumer,” conducted with Malcolm Gladwell; “The Ignored Consumer,” which examined consumers’ perceptions of being unheard or misunderstood by marketers; “The Human Consumer,” which explored consumers’ relationships with technology and artificial intelligence and informed iHeart’s “Guaranteed Human” positioning; and “Unlocking the Community-Driven Gen Z Listener,” which examined how fear of judgment is affecting Gen Z behavior and radio’s role with the younger audience.

At CMM, Fertick was described internally as a key resource for iHeart’s programming organization, helping programmers and talent use research and consumer insights to inform their work.

Fertick will continue to report to iHeart President of Programming Tom Poleman and will join the company’s StratCom leadership team.