TEGNA Broadcasting and Digital General Discussion

[GoldenShine9 1513]

13 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

That's one half of the sharing agreements in Tucson gone, I wouldn't be surprised if Tegna ultimately terminates the sharing agreements with Gray and acquire KMSB outright. One would think that KMSB would've had a news department by now under Tegna

 

Technically, Tegna owns KMSB outright now, but they are the junior partner in the LMA with Gray doing the heavy lifting. I wonder if they will break apart from Gray and form a news department (although Tucson is quite small for 4 news operations)? Or perhaps join up with another owner (probably Quincy who would be more likely to be friendly with them, since Scripps is literally their biggest rival) on that? Another question - is there a Spanish-language news operation in Tucson? If not, they would be smart to reposition KTTU for that.

 

I'm not sure what the relations between Tegna and Gray are like between the companies.

Edited August 5, 2019 by GoldenShine9

[detroiter313 180]

2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

 

It's official....GateHouse is buying Gannett and will assume the Gannett name and HQ in McLean, VA.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/08/05/gannett-gatehouse-media-new-media-investment-group/1902550001/

 

Looks like the future isn't looking bright for some papers either owned by Gannett or GateHouse.... 

[DirtyHarry 727]

3 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

 

It's official....GateHouse is buying Gannett and will assume the Gannett name and HQ in McLean, VA.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/08/05/gannett-gatehouse-media-new-media-investment-group/1902550001/

 

So Tegna lives on.  Yay.

 

That newsroom they have pictured in the article looks very similar to the setup WBNS and WTHR are using, with that round center pod. is that something that is an industry trend, or did they design their newsrooms that way in anticipation of selling out to Tegna?

[rkolsen 1684]

2 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

 

That newsroom they have pictured in the article looks very similar to the setup WBNS and WTHR are using, with that round center pod. is that something that is an industry trend, or did they design their newsrooms that way in anticipation of selling out to Tegna?

Yeah no way they designed in intention of TEGNA. It’s a general industry trend now to but the assignment/newsdesk at the center of the room. It’s either in the middle or against the wall in the middle.  It’s so Information can flow quickly.

[tyrannical bastard 3942]

The irony in a Gatehouse/Gannett merger along with a Dispatch-Tegna sale kinda-sorta re-aligns the WBNS stations with the Dispatch.

 

 

[dman748 1256]

8 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

Technically, Tegna owns KMSB outright now, but they are the junior partner in the LMA with Gray doing the heavy lifting. I wonder if they will break apart from Gray and form a news department (although Tucson is quite small for 4 news operations)? Or perhaps join up with another owner (probably Quincy who would be more likely to be friendly with them, since Scripps is literally their biggest rival) on that? Another question - is there a Spanish-language news operation in Tucson? If not, they would be smart to reposition KTTU for that.

 

I'm not sure what the relations between Tegna and Gray are like between the companies.

I would go out of the limb and say yes. And the thing is Tegna's philosophy would work on stations like KMSB, WPMT and WTIC but as we've seen with WFAA, WWL and especially WXIA it has proven to be costly

[T.L. Hughes 883]

13 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

The irony in a Gatehouse/Gannett merger along with a Dispatch-Tegna sale kinda-sorta re-aligns the WBNS stations with the Dispatch.

 

 

Here's another full circle situation I realized about this merger: the deal would mark Gannett's effective re-entry into Oklahoma City after 22 years, since GateHouse already owns The Oklahoman, therefore making it the fourth local media property with ties to the area that Gannett has owned since 1978:

* Through its purchase of Combined Communications, Gannett owned KOCO from 1979 to 1997;

* Gannett also was allowed to own KFOR (then KTVY) and KOCO for a few months in 1986, as a result of the company's purchase of the Evening News Association, before spinning KTVY to Knight Ridder;

* Finally, through its 1995 acquisition of Multimedia Inc., Gannett owned Multimedia Cablevision (which served as the cable provider for every Oklahoma City suburb, except for Forest Park, considering the town is closely aligned with Oklahoma City itself) from 1995 to 1999. (Since-repealed FCC rules barring the same company from owning a cable provider and a television station in the same market led to Gannett swapping KOCO and WLWT to Argyle Television, later merged into current owner Hearst, in exchange for WGRZ and WZZM.)

Edited August 6, 2019 by T.L. Hughes

[dman748 1256]

So Tegna today announced it's 2nd Quarter Earnings and there's some hinting that more M&A could be on the way for Tegna

 

 

Quote

Going forward, TEGNA will continue to evaluate and pursue organic and inorganic growth opportunities that fit the Company’s financial and strategic profile

 

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Tegna ended up as the next Sinclair (them and Scripps both) as I don't see any indications at all that neither Tegna or Scripps will slow down it's M&A craze anytime soon

[Samantha 2895]

On 8/5/2019 at 1:22 PM, GoldenShine9 said:

 

Technically, Tegna owns KMSB outright now, but they are the junior partner in the LMA with Gray doing the heavy lifting. I wonder if they will break apart from Gray and form a news department (although Tucson is quite small for 4 news operations)? Or perhaps join up with another owner (probably Quincy who would be more likely to be friendly with them, since Scripps is literally their biggest rival) on that? Another question - is there a Spanish-language news operation in Tucson? If not, they would be smart to reposition KTTU for that.

 

I'm not sure what the relations between Tegna and Gray are like between the companies.

 

There are no Spanish-language newscasts produced in Tucson. Both Univision and Telemundo have full-time reporters in Tucson that contribute to the newscasts produced in Phoenix. The newscasts also include extended forecasts for both Phoenix and Tucson.

 

Prior to the creation of Tucson News Now, KMSB did actually have a news department. Channel 11 has a longer history of local newscasts than you'd expect for a market of its size. It had a full news service between its late 1960s sign-on and 1981. (Unfortunately, it seems quality was lacking.) KMSB then had local news produced for it in Phoenix with reporters from KVOA, and then news production moved to Tucson before being subsumed.

[tyrannical bastard 3942]

8 hours ago, T.L. Hughes said:

Here's another full circle situation I realized about this merger: the deal would mark Gannett's effective re-entry into Oklahoma City after 22 years, since GateHouse already owns The Oklahoman, therefore making it the fourth local media property with ties to the area that Gannett has owned since 1978:

* Through its purchase of Combined Communications, Gannett owned KOCO from 1979 to 1997;

* Gannett also was allowed to own KFOR (then KTVY) and KOCO for a few months in 1986, as a result of the company's purchase of the Evening News Association, before spinning KTVY to Knight Ridder;

* Finally, through its 1995 acquisition of Multimedia Inc., Gannett owned Multimedia Cablevision (which served as the cable provider for every Oklahoma City suburb, except for Forest Park, considering the town is closely aligned with Oklahoma City itself) from 1995 to 1999. (Since-repealed FCC rules barring the same company from owning a cable provider and a television station in the same market led to Gannett swapping KOCO and WLWT to Argyle Television, later merged into current owner Hearst, in exchange for WGRZ and WZZM.)

 

Another irony in Central Ohio lies in the legacy Gannett papers in the cities around Columbus (Lancaster, Marion, Zanesville, Newark, Mansfield, Chillicothe, etc...)  At one time these papers (known collectively as the Newspaper Network of Central Ohio) had a content sharing deal with WCMH (when they were an O&O).  Now that the new "Gannett" will absorb these papers along with their sizeable Ohio holdings (including the Columbus Dispatch), is another full-circle move.

 

Now if Hearst is one of Tegna's targets, that brings WLWT and even WBIR and WYFF full circle.  And maybe hope for WWL.

But that's for another day.  Seeing what Tegna does to the Dispatch stations will be interesting enough.

Edited August 7, 2019 by tyrannical bastard

[DirtyHarry 727]

2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

 

Another irony in Central Ohio lies in the legacy Gannett papers in the cities around Columbus (Lancaster, Marion, Zanesville, Newark, Mansfield, Chillicothe, etc...)  At one time these papers (known collectively as the Newspaper Network of Central Ohio) had a content sharing deal with WCMH (when they were an O&O).  Now that the new "Gannett" will absorb these papers along with their sizeable Ohio holdings (including the Columbus Dispatch), is another full-circle move.

 

 

I think The Dispatch already does prints those Gannett papers along with The Cincinnati Enquirer and USA Today as well. I always thought they were setting things up for The Dispatch to go to Gannett, but GateHouse must have offered significantly more money.

 

What's interesting is that they print the Dayton paper in Indy. Makes more sense to flip things around and print The Dayton Daily News (and the Springfield paper) in Columbus and Cincinnati Enquirer in Indy. You save trucking cost to Dayton, but it's the same distance to Cincinnati from both Columbus and Indy. But then again, perhaps there are dropoffs somewhere north of Cincy which would be farther if you have to take I-74. (Not that they care about benefitting Cox, but it still might make more sense to keep the presses going.)

 

2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Now if Hearst is one of Tegna's targets, that brings WLWT and even WBIR and WYFF full circle.  And maybe hope for WWL.

But that's for another day.  Seeing what Tegna does to the Dispatch stations will be interesting enough.

 

WBIR was a Multimedia station so it is with Tegna. The fact that that Delia guy from WTHR has been promoted and gets to continue to oversee the stations means they are cognizant about not screwing things up.

Edited August 7, 2019 by DirtyHarry

[PTVNews 194]

On 8/5/2019 at 6:22 PM, rkolsen said:

Yeah no way they designed in intention of TEGNA. It’s a general industry trend now to but the assignment/newsdesk at the center of the room. It’s either in the middle or against the wall in the middle.  It’s so Information can flow quickly.

 

KGW renovated their newsroom a couple years ago and now has a circle "Content Discovery Center" (assignment desk) in the center of the newsroom. You can see a behind the scenes view in this video at 13:27.

 

 

But this is how it looks on-air at their newsroom cam (@ 5:10):

 

Edited August 7, 2019 by PTVNews

[MidwestTV 1232]

Apparently, Apollo approached Tegna about a sale of some sort (either buying or selling to Tegna) and Tegna has been shrugging them off. Apollo is being persistent.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apollo-approached-tegna-about-a-sale-earlier-this-year-11565985568

 

It's the WSJ so there may be a paywall. Tegna's stock surged 11% in the last 4 minutes of trading Friday after the news was made public.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

1 hour ago, MidwestTV said:

Apparently, Apollo approached Tegna about a sale of some sort (either buying or selling to Tegna) and Tegna has been shrugging them off. Apollo is being persistent.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apollo-approached-tegna-about-a-sale-earlier-this-year-11565985568

 

It's the WSJ so there may be a paywall. Tegna's stock surged 11% in the last 4 minutes of trading Friday after the news was made public.

 

That would be a MESS in a few markets though. I'd think it would more likely be a full merger with the Tegna name.

[dman748 1256]

5 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

That would be a MESS in a few markets though. I'd think it would more likely be a full merger with the Tegna name.

Unless you're living in the Jacksonville DMA which would be a good thing to be a mess since both companies have monopolized the market

[tyrannical bastard 3942]

On 8/17/2019 at 5:21 PM, oknewsguy said:

Unless you're living in the Jacksonville DMA which would be a good thing to be a mess since both companies have monopolized the market

And a savior for WXIA since there is no way Apollo would choose them over WSB....

 

Either way, if Apollo prevails in getting either or BOTH Meredith and Tegna, it's gonna be a mess, ESPECIALLY in Atlanta.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

And a savior for WXIA since there is no way Apollo would choose them over WSB....

 

Either way, if Apollo prevails in getting either or BOTH Meredith and Tegna, it's gonna be a mess, ESPECIALLY in Atlanta.

 

It's unlikely they would get both of them.

[dman748 1256]

On 8/19/2019 at 10:56 AM, tyrannical bastard said:

And a savior for WXIA since there is no way Apollo would choose them over WSB....

 

Either way, if Apollo prevails in getting either or BOTH Meredith and Tegna, it's gonna be a mess, ESPECIALLY in Atlanta.

With Meredith perhaps becoming a buyer, I think Tegna is more likely for Apollo

[CLETVFan 367]

(Cross posted from the Out and About forum) On September 23, WKYC is changing their 6pm newscast from "Channel 3 News at 6" to "What Matters Most."  Saw it in another promo.

 

There might be more changes on the air on that same day as the station is teasing in promos.

[DENDude 217]

28 minutes ago, CLETVFan said:

(Cross posted from the Out and About forum) On September 23, WKYC is changing their 6pm newscast from "Channel 3 News at 6" to "What Matters Most."  Saw it in another promo.

 

There might be more changes on the air on that same day as the station is teasing in promos.

So maybe another newscast like KUSA's 'NEXT'

[24994J 5569]

1 hour ago, DENDude said:

So maybe another newscast like KUSA's 'NEXT'

 

I'd say that's a best case scenario. I'm not holding my breath, though.

[PTVNews 194]

I know Tegna is sending staffers (talent/producers) from various stations to KUSA to "learn" from them.

[CLETVFan 367]

(Cross-posted from Out and About)

 

WKYC is going to change it's morning newscast's name to "Go!" on September 23rd.  Seems like all of their newscasts are getting new names.

[jbnews 344]

17 minutes ago, CLETVFan said:

(Cross-posted from Out and About)

 

WKYC is going to change it's morning newscast's name to "Go!" on September 23rd.  Seems like all of their newscasts are getting new names.

Huh. Interesting. I think this is the most ambitious Tegna relaunch ever. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Could you post the promos?

 

Edited September 6, 2019 by jbnews

[CLETVFan 367]

Also on that same day, they are launching a midday newscast called "Lunch Break."