Steve Sternberg

Executive Vice President, Director Audience Analysis
MAGNA Global

Steve Sternberg is Executive Vice President, Director of Audience Analysis for MAGNA Global, the media negotiating and programming arm of the Interpublic Group of Companies. Steve built MAGNA’s research operation when the company was formed in 2001.

• Steve does extensive writing on television programming, audience trends, and broadcast research issues. His ongoing array of media reports are widely sought after by the industry, and are often cited by broadcast and cable networks in their own presentations.

• His studies dig beneath the surface data to often provide new ways of evaluating the television industry. For example, Steve was the first to talk about median age as a means of evaluating the competitive landscape (the broadcast industry soon followed suit, as median age quickly became part of the television research lexicon), and he was instrumental in getting Nielsen to report this type of data. He was also the first to study the impact of mid-season repeats on rating performance and network audience erosion.

• Steve is one of the most quoted advertising executives in the industry, and has written articles for numerous industry publications. He is regularly quoted in both the consumer and trade press, discussing programming, audience trends, and research issues.

• Steve has more than 25 years of media research experience at major agencies. Before joining MAGNA Global in 2001, as one of its initial employees, he was SVP of Broadcast Research at TN Media. Prior to joining TN in 1986 as a Vice President, he was Manager of Broadcast Research at McCann-Erickson and Ted Bates (where he began his career as a media analyst, after graduating from Baruch College in 1979).

• Steve is a member of the AAAA Media Research Committee, Nielsen’s Customer/Expert Committee, the Council for Research Excellence, and the MRC Television Committee.

• Steve received Ad Age’s Media Maven award in 1996, and Media Week’s Media All Star award in 2003.

• Steve and his wife Susan, are avid collectors of pop culture, and their home in Hoboken, New Jersey, displays their numerous collections, from animation art, to comic books, to cookie jars, to post cards.