TEGNA Broadcasting and Digital General Discussion

[Webovision 202]

so...

 

what is with your obsession with mr. Kim???

 

never see anyone saying "Leon Black is trying to take over Cox"... same for Dave Lougee... "Dave Lougee is buying up Raycom..."

 

mr. Kim is the only executive you all mention by name...

 

hope it's not race related...

 

just saying...

[dman748 1256]

1 hour ago, Webovision said:

so...

 

what is with your obsession with mr. Kim???

 

never see anyone saying "Leon Black is trying to take over Cox"... same for Dave Lougee... "Dave Lougee is buying up Raycom..."

 

mr. Kim is the only executive you all mention by name...

 

hope it's not race related...

 

just saying...

First off it's not an obsession it's a simple fact that Kim has taken on an investment into Tegna and he doesn't want to waste his 11.8% in Tegna, period.

 

And as typical you just had to bring up a topic that doesn't need to get brought up that will derail this thread so I suggest we stop that "race" thing now.

[TheRyan 560]

1 hour ago, Webovision said:

so...

 

what is with your obsession with mr. Kim???

 

never see anyone saying "Leon Black is trying to take over Cox"... same for Dave Lougee... "Dave Lougee is buying up Raycom..."

 

mr. Kim is the only executive you all mention by name...

 

hope it's not race related...

 

just saying...

 

There's no need to attempt at race-baiting.  Nobody mentioned race until you did.   People on this site are just having a healthy discussion as things continue to develop regarding Tegna.  Just because someone mentions a person by name has nothing to do with race.  You really need to lighten up a bit, with all due respect.

Edited April 5, 2020 by TheRyan

[Nelson R. 569]

2 hours ago, Webovision said:

so...

 

what is with your obsession with mr. Kim???

 

never see anyone saying "Leon Black is trying to take over Cox"... same for Dave Lougee... "Dave Lougee is buying up Raycom..."

 

mr. Kim is the only executive you all mention by name...

 

hope it's not race related...

 

just saying...

WOW!!! You think @oknewsguy actually wants Kim to take over the stations? 

Edited April 5, 2020 by Nelson R.

[Yankees4life 558]

5 hours ago, Webovision said:

so...

 

what is with your obsession with mr. Kim???

 

never see anyone saying "Leon Black is trying to take over Cox"... same for Dave Lougee... "Dave Lougee is buying up Raycom..."

 

mr. Kim is the only executive you all mention by name...

 

hope it's not race related...

 

just saying...

Ahh...look at you, dragging race into everything

Edited April 6, 2020 by Yankees4life

[MidwestTV 1232]

Furloughs are coming to Tegna. One week sometime in the next three months. Managerial positions are taking temporary pay cuts.

[tyrannical bastard 3942]

1 minute ago, MidwestTV said:

Furloughs are coming to Tegna. One week sometime in the next three months. Managerial positions are taking temporary pay cuts.

Sadly, this could be the case for many more companies across the media industry.  Especially those who are highly leveraged and count on live sports programming to make them lots of money...

Even worse are the retail workers who have been indefinitely sidelined by their own parent companies and government bodies shutting down "non-essential" business.

[MidwestTV 1232]

More specific details:

 

One week furlough for news departments sometime in the next three months

ND and technology heads taking 8% paycut for 3 months

GMs and senior VPs taking 20% paycut for 3 months

CEO and board taking 25% paycut for 3 months

NO layoffs

[DENDude 217]

On 3/30/2020 at 9:06 AM, RJP said:

Tegna-itis has well and truly reached WTHR:

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2020/3/26/getting-out-of-traffic

 

WTHR said it will no longer have a dedicated person covering traffic. “The traditional traffic reporter will not exist in this new model,” WTHR General Manager and President Michael Brouder said. “The role will be shared among weather, a social reporter and, if warranted, an anchor. [It] all depends on the story of traffic on the particular day.”

I don't think any station needs traffic reports anyway, traffic reports are only useful if your listening to the radio in your car.   The fact more stations haven't dumped them yet is odd to me, especially considering google maps & bing maps will alert you if there is a slowdown right on your cell phone.

[dman748 1256]

1 hour ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Sadly, this could be the case for many more companies across the media industry.  Especially those who are highly leveraged and count on live sports programming to make them lots of money...

Even worse are the retail workers who have been indefinitely sidelined by their own parent companies and government bodies shutting down "non-essential" business.

Gray Television respectfully disagrees, in fact they have come out and essentially said no they're not going to do layoffs

 

P.S. Link is behind the paywall

Edited April 6, 2020 by oknewsguy

[tyrannical bastard 3942]

4 minutes ago, oknewsguy said:

Gray Television respectfully disagrees, in fact they have come out and essentially said no they're not going to do layoffs

If anything, the news employees having to go to work in this situation should be exempted from these furloughs.  They are on the front lines and putting themselves on the line to inform the public.  Even those who are working from home are using personal resources that would normally be reimbursed under regular conditions.

Edited April 6, 2020 by tyrannical bastard

[dman748 1256]

5 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

If anything, the news employees having to go to work in this situation should be exempted from these furloughs.  They are on the front lines and putting themselves on the line to inform the public.  Even those who are working from home maybe using personal resources that would normally be reimbursed under regular conditions.

Exactly and I think Gray is doing it the right way by recognizing that their employees should be taken care of. Tegna on the other hand, is doing it the wrong way.

 

What Lougee needs and should worry about is making sure that his employees are taken care of and paid in full, they don't need their paychecks reduced under any circumstances

Edited April 6, 2020 by oknewsguy

[TSSZNews 1051]

2 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

Gray Television respectfully disagrees, in fact they have come out and essentially said no they're not going to do layoffs

 

I'm not entirely convinced the current ad market is going to back that promise up in a month. Political can only get you so far and that almost certainly won't ramp up again until late Summer - and that's assuming we're out of this by then.

 

"At the present time" is the key qualifier here.

[dman748 1256]

And now it looks like an investigation into the stock sell swapping involving Tegna and Standard General may be forthcoming and it's being looked into at this time.

 

30 minutes ago, TSSZNews said:

 

I'm not entirely convinced the current ad market is going to back that promise up in a month. Political can only get you so far and that almost certainly won't ramp up again until late Summer - and that's assuming we're out of this by then.

 

"At the present time" is the key qualifier here.

@Myron Falwell brought up a good point on Discord at how the media industry if this virus persists well into July and August and it never fully goes away enough to where its deemed safe to reopen everything may have to be bailled out by the government. I hope it doesn't come down to it, but it's certainly a possibility here that what Tegna did today may spread to other media companies down the road

[MidwestTV 1232]

3 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

Exactly and I think Gray is doing it the right way by recognizing that their employees should be taken care of. Tegna on the other hand, is doing it the wrong way.

 

What Lougee needs and should worry about is making sure that his employees are taken care of and paid in full, they don't need their paychecks reduced under any circumstances

 

Tegna has been ferocious in getting its employees to work from home. Anyone that doesn't have to absolutely be in the building is going home. Many stations have had to shell some serious cash to make sure that happens.

[Technically A Director 164]

Tegna's changes interest me, but the key is that there are no layoffs *yet.* They may very well be setting themselves up for the long haul. I'd assume most would be fine with one week furlough/pay cuts until this is all "officially" over than work like normal for the next 3 months and then get laid off. 

 

Otherwise, i'm sure accounting at the corporate level is assuming that /most/ of the canceled events will be made up, therefore they can still assume that income for this year (see: NASCAR, NBA, Golf, NFL, etc). Whether that will actually happen or not is yet to be determined, and is the very thought that keeps me up at night. 

 

 

[TheRyan 560]

Tegna desperately needs new corporate leadership.  If common sense prevailed, they shouldn't have spent whatever it costs to anchor "from home" only to then announce that workers are going to start getting furloughed.  Now is not the time to be betraying its own workforce (or even have the appearance thereof) when they are tasked with relaying important information to viewers under difficult circumstances. 

 

There was surely a way to achieving a reasonable budget for having remote broadcasting without it leading to a situation where furloughs come into play.   Or at least that's how I'm interpreting this discussion.

 

If anything, this only further makes me convinced that Tegna needs a completely new board to lead the company--now.

Edited April 7, 2020 by TheRyan

[GoldenShine9 1513]

9 hours ago, TheRyan said:

Tegna desperately needs new corporate leadership.  If common sense prevailed, they shouldn't have spent whatever it costs to anchor "from home" only to then announce that workers are going to start getting furloughed.  Now is not the time to be betraying its own workforce (or even have the appearance thereof) when they are tasked with relaying important information to viewers under difficult circumstances. 

 

There was surely a way to achieving a reasonable budget for having remote broadcasting without it leading to a situation where furloughs come into play.   Or at least that's how I'm interpreting this discussion.

 

If anything, this only further makes me convinced that Tegna needs a completely new board to lead the company--now.

 

I also got the impression that Hilton Howell's letter was a middle finger to the Tegna board.

[dman748 1256]

4 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

I also got the impression that Hilton Howell's letter was a middle finger to the Tegna board.

Exactly my thoughts, I think Gray pulled out of the bid for Tegna for reasons other than COVID-19 yes I know they said COVID was the reason but as the weeks gone on, the more I think about the reasons Gray pulled out of the running for Tegna, the more I think it wasn't neccessarily to do with COVID it had more to do with the Tegna board's arrogance and resistance for not selling, as Standard General pointed out in their presentation

Quote

TEGNA appears to have squandered the opportunity to maximize the value of shareholders' investment through a sale of the Company in a previously vibrant M&A market. Worse, TEGNA appears to have engaged in a series of defensive actions that impeded transformative M&A and destroyed shareholder value. Had TEGNA actively pursued a strategic transaction in early 2019, we believe it could have converted strong interest in a premium-priced acquisition from multiple credible parties into a deal that would have created significant value for shareholders. Instead, TEGNA made large, expensive, debt-fueled acquisitions and issued non-callable bonds with high breakage costs—driving up the cost to acquire the Company and potentially limiting its universe of possible buyers. Only after Standard General moved to replace a minority of TEGNA's underperforming directors did TEGNA begin to engage with interested parties. Even then, TEGNA appears to have acted hesitantly and imposed unreasonable conditions on potential bidders, including, according to media reports, demanding proof of financing amid an unprecedented health and capital markets crisis. Consequently, TEGNA was unable to capitalize on any of four expressions of interest at $20 per share: two potential suitors have reportedly dropped out of contention, while two others have not been permitted to conduct due diligence. As a result of the actions and omissions of the current TEGNA Board, the window to maximize the value of shareholders' investment in TEGNA may have closed.

 

[CBS11 Weatherboy 44]

17 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

Exactly my thoughts, I think Gray pulled out of the bid for Tegna for reasons other than COVID-19 yes I know they said COVID was the reason but as the weeks gone on, the more I think about the reasons Gray pulled out of the running for Tegna, the more I think it wasn't neccessarily to do with COVID it had more to do with the Tegna board's arrogance and resistance for not selling, as Standard General pointed out in their presentation

 

TEGNA doesn't have to sell it's their decision and it looks like Kim and Standard General was doing something they weren't suppose to do with the stock trades.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, CBS11 Weatherboy said:

TEGNA doesn't have to sell it's their decision and it looks like Kim and Standard General was doing something they weren't suppose to do with the stock trades.

 

This right here... smartest thing anyone has said on this site in a very long time. The ONLY reason you all are clamoring for a sale relates to graphics, music and set designs which is just idiotic.

 

There's a reason Gray isn't doing layoffs or furloughs and it isn't just "kindness". And if you think TEGNA is the only group that will be doing this you're absolutely wrong.

[channel2 978]

I'm not clamoring for a sale. I just worry about what it would mean for the likes of KUSA if TEGNA ended up being sold to private equity and, likely, sold for parts. I am worried about TEGNA's direction as a whole, given that they seem to have no broader strategy than "not being bought out." I don't like standardization either, and I love Troika but find their TEGNA look to be a little bland and inflexible. But I have no idea who might do a better job running the group than the current TEGNA management. Sure as hell not private equity firms or hedge fund guys.

[dman748 1256]

5 hours ago, CBS11 Weatherboy said:

TEGNA doesn't have to sell it's their decision and it looks like Kim and Standard General was doing something they weren't suppose to do with the stock trades.

Couple things.

 

First, we don't know if Kim had actually engaged in activities that were illegal, Tegna is just looking intro it is all they're doing right now.

 

Second, you do have a point about Tegna not having to sell if they don't want to but my issue is I haven't seen any legitimate reasons for why Tegna shouldn't sell other than the obvious ones. In fact looking at the PDF file, Apollo had actually approached Tegna as early as in early 2019 around the time Apollo had announced acquisition of Cox, somehow not only was it not reported on until last August. So for Tegna to go just over a year of reports and somehow for them to just brush it by is not very good business for anybody.

 

Any good business (Media and otherwise) would've gone to the table and talked about the bids and if things work out towards a deal can be made, great. If not, fine. But instead of coming to the table to talk to Apollo about the bids like what Tegna should have done, Tegna and their board decided to not only brush it off any of those talks but then acquired the rejects from Nexstar and Tribune that the combined company had to sell at a price that just isn't reasonable. That's like them paying a TV station company to acquire the WXXX stations for $300 million yet only sell for only say $85 million. Those are figures similar to that example that Tegna has came up with that (other than the WTOL/KWES acquisition and maybe the Dispatch acquisition) just doesn't add up.

 

Also whoever said I was "clamoring" for sale that is completely fabricated and music and the graphics should be left out of the conversation and besides I don't even think the problem is those things anymore I think the problem is the people running Tegna they have become nothing more but obstructionists to any and all deals that makes good sense and should be done with a fair and due process. Unfortunately we're not seeing that on the part of Tegna or its board and quite frankly I can't blame Gray and Apollo from walking away the way they did. No company should ever have to jump through hoops just to talk to them about a deal and that's what were seeing on the part of Tegna, especially at a time when were dealing with a challenging time that were in.

 

I think @channel2 was spot on when he asked about Tegna not wanting to sell and that I think was spot on. However, it wasn't COVID that doomed Tegna's sale talks it was Tegna itself that doomed the sale talks and they did it to themselves.

Edited April 8, 2020 by oknewsguy

[Al-SA-TX 54]

Spoiler alert: there isn't a single bank that is going to back/finance a transaction as big as what TEGNA is worth because of the current pandemic that has essentially caused our economy to collapse. Which is why Gray and Apollo dropped their bids. Nobody had to jump through hoops for anything.

 

And yes, it was COVID-19 that ended those talks.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Al-SA-TX

[dman748 1256]

1 hour ago, Al-SA-TX said:

Spoiler alert: there isn't a single bank that is going to back/finance a transaction as big as what TEGNA is worth because of the current pandemic that has essentially caused our economy to collapse. Which is why Gray and Apollo dropped their bids. Nobody had to jump through hoops for anything.

 

And yes, it was COVID-19 that ended those talks.

It was part of it but not the entire reason why Gray and Apollo walked out. They could've provided the financing for themselves but there were so many hoops to jump through just to reach Tegna itself it just wasn't worth their time.

 

I'm sure both are waiting on Kim to takeover or at least get a more friendlier board that would allow them to make a deal even under COVID conditions but, most of all under better conditions within Tegna's board.

 

Tegna gave us an example of how deals do not materialize.

 

And besides even without COVID, I think any deal involving Tegna wouldn't have happened until the proxy fight with Standard was resolved and quite frankly Kim further cemented it by this proxy war. In other words there would've been no sale for Tegna at least for awhile anyway (not until the proxy war gets resolved)

Edited April 8, 2020 by oknewsguy