TEGNA To Acquire Dispatch Broadcast Group

[Weeters 1915]

1 hour ago, oknewsguy said:

Maybe Tegna is starting to realize that pushing the Social Media content was only working on their Fox afiliates not the Big 3 afilliated stations

 

Neither of these promotions involve positions that really deal with newscast content. The GM position maybe a little. "Media Operations" is a technical position.

 

This has nothing to do with the social media newscasts.

[dman748 1256]

6 hours ago, Weeters said:

 

Neither of these promotions involve positions that really deal with newscast content. The GM position maybe a little. "Media Operations" is a technical position.

 

This has nothing to do with the social media newscasts.

It does have to do with it because clearly the problems at WTSP, WFAA, WWL and WXIA clearly stem from the fact that they're pushing that Social Media narrative (also those positions names like "Content Director", etc.)

 

Tegna DOES deserve some constructive criticism but the aforementioned stations would've struggled under ANY ownership group so clearly in this case it's the management's fault at the individual stations

[Weeters 1915]

1 hour ago, oknewsguy said:

It does have to do with it because clearly the problems at WTSP, WFAA, WWL and WXIA clearly stem from the fact that they're pushing that Social Media narrative (also those positions names like "Content Director", etc.)

 

Tegna DOES deserve some constructive criticism but the aforementioned stations would've struggled under ANY ownership group so clearly in this case it's the management's fault at the individual stations

 

Tegna already has a "Executive Vice President and COO of Media Operations" and Delia's position is just "Senior Vice President of Media Operations". So there's nothing changing and nobody's getting fired. You're looking FAR too much into this.

 

This happens frequently with these mergers, where they make up positions for some of the executives of the company being consumed. 

 

Tegna is playing the long game with these social media-driven newscasts. In some cases, they are working (Wake Up DC for one). Remember, there is more to ratings than some overall score that gets printed in the local newspaper. Tegna is positioning their newscasts to appeal to younger viewers, which could draw in more money than a "traditional" newscast. If you're an advertiser selling cell phones, would you rather sell to 20,000 25-34 year olds or 30,000 55+? 

[dman748 1256]

48 minutes ago, Weeters said:

 

Tegna already has a "Executive Vice President and COO of Media Operations" and Delia's position is just "Senior Vice President of Media Operations". So there's nothing changing and nobody's getting fired. You're looking FAR too much into this.

 

This happens frequently with these mergers, where they make up positions for some of the executives of the company being consumed. 

 

Tegna is playing the long game with these social media-driven newscasts. In some cases, they are working (Wake Up DC for one). Remember, there is more to ratings than some overall score that gets printed in the local newspaper. Tegna is positioning their newscasts to appeal to younger viewers, which could draw in more money than a "traditional" newscast. If you're an advertiser selling cell phones, would you rather sell to 20,000 25-34 year olds or 30,000 55+? 

I'd rather sell to 30,000 55+ year olds for 2 reasons:

 

1. As seen with the numbers you've provided there are 10,000 more people over the age of 55 then there are Ages 25 to 34

 

2. Most people in that younger demographic aren't gonna justr flip over to say WXXX and catch the news on there, they want their content and they want it NOW they don't want to wait until 4 or 5pm to watch their news, so if you're going to try and sell your news product you're gonna have to sell it digitally because younger people are watching fewer and fewer hours on Traditional TV (studies prove that) they're instead watching TV (and Local/National News included) either on demand or through streamming. Also, people in that Age 25-34 demographic prefer to have their advertising of a local news product online. Whereas, people over 55 still prefer to have their local station advertised on TV

 

There's a reason why sites like CBSN, Fox Nation and NewsOn were created in the first place and why Tegna is positioning newscasts to be Social Media-driven whether the Baby Boomers like it or not.

[J1975am 208]

7 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

I'd rather sell to 30,000 55+ year olds for 2 reasons:

 

1. As seen with the numbers you've provided there are 10,000 more people over the age of 55 then there are Ages 25 to 34

 

2. Most people in that younger demographic aren't gonna justr flip over to say WXXX and catch the news on there, they want their content and they want it NOW they don't want to wait until 4 or 5pm to watch their news, so if you're going to try and sell your news product you're gonna have to sell it digitally because younger people are watching fewer and fewer hours on Traditional TV (studies prove that) they're instead watching TV (and Local/National News included) either on demand or through streamming. Also, people in that Age 25-34 demographic prefer to have their advertising of a local news product online. Whereas, people over 55 still prefer to have their local station advertised on TV

 

There's a reason why sites like CBSN, Fox Nation and NewsOn were created in the first place and why Tegna is positioning newscasts to be Social Media-driven whether the Baby Boomers like it or not.

 

This may be a bizarre question, but wouldn't 30,000 55+ year olds tend to have more money/financial security than those between 25 & 34 overall?

[channel2 978]

Advertisers prefer younger audiences because they consider us easier to sway. I'm one of those elusive millennials they're after.

[CircleSeven 1955]

On 8/4/2019 at 11:31 PM, Megatron81 said:

Yup clean deals get done fast as Sinclair & Freedom merger which was a clean deal got done pretty fast March of 2012 was when Sinclair took over WWMT from Freedom.

 

Or their deal before that in September of 2011, the Sinclair-Four Points deal. That was the one started this eight-year prolonged M&A craze.

 

Anywho, The Deal is DONE. Tegna announced the completion of the deal this morning.

[NEOMatrix 1299]

1 hour ago, CircleSeven said:

 

Or their deal before that in September of 2011, the Sinclair-Four Points deal. That was the one started this eight-year prolonged M&A craze.

 

Anywho, The Deal is DONE. Tegna announced the completion of the deal this morning.

Bye-bye, Dispatch Broadcast Group.

[DirtyHarry 727]

1 hour ago, J1975am said:

 

This may be a bizarre question, but wouldn't 30,000 55+ year olds tend to have more money/financial security than those between 25 & 34 overall?

 

Those 30,000 55+ year olds typically have everything they need. At that point in life, the last thing you need is more junk. 

10 minutes ago, NEOMatrix said:

Bye-bye, Dispatch Broadcast Group.

Technically they are still around. Tegna bought the stock in RadiOhio, Inc. (WBNS Radio), WBNS-TV, Inc. and VideoIndiana, Inc. (WTHR) and VideOhio, Inc. (WALV). So you will see the corporate names continue, like you see Multimedia and Citicasters still hanging around. I don't know why they do things this way, probably tax reasons.

[MikePulse 318]

1 hour ago, CircleSeven said:

Anywho, The Deal is DONE. Tegna announced the completion of the deal this morning.

Both “about us” pages have updated accordingly.

[DirtyHarry 727]

Just backing out some numbers, since Tegna bought the stations at 7.9 earnings, that means WBNS-TV made $31 million, WTHR made $32.3 million and WBNS Radio made $4.4 million (impressive!).

 

The Wolfes were never afraid of spending money to make money and this shows how successful they have been with this strategy. Will Tegna have the mindset to not fix what isn't broken or will they try to lowball everything and end up screwing things up?

8 minutes ago, MikePulse said:

Both “about us” pages have updated accordingly.

WBNS has a far better looking webpage than any of the Tegna stations and even WTHR. I hope they keep that look.

[okiechi 55]

19 minutes ago, DirtyHarry said:

WBNS has a far better looking webpage than any of the Tegna stations and even WTHR. I hope they keep that look.

 

Agreed, buuuut unlikely. I think Tegna's deal with Lakana (if they still host with them) is going to win out.

[DirtyHarry 727]

One change I've already noticed. I used to get non-stop breaking news texts from WBNS, along with their little jingle as a notification. For some reason, nothing today. Could that have changed on day one?

 

Edit: I did get a couple of "texts" later in the day, but I haven't heard anything since.

[dman748 1256]

6 hours ago, J1975am said:

 

This may be a bizarre question, but wouldn't 30,000 55+ year olds tend to have more money/financial security than those between 25 & 34 overall?

That would depend on who in that demographic you talk to. Not everybody 55 years old and older are financially secure (my parents unfortunately fall under that category) but, there are certaintly some in that demorgraphic that are financially secure and have the money to do whatever they want to do

[DirtyHarry 727]

WTOL NEWS 11 and WKYC Channel 3 - Cleveland have a very special message for their new Ohio neighbors. Welcome 10TV - WBNS and 97.1 The Fan to the TEGNA Inc. family!

 

https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1679548598856668&id=400297310149534&ref=bookmarks

 

Or

 

https://twitter.com/TEGNA/status/1159453072537587714

 

[GoldenShine9 1513]

Only thing is, getting deeper into Ohio will be very difficult and may require trades or secondary deals. There is no realistic path into Dayton, at a minimum.

[TennTV1983 804]

3 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

Only thing is, getting deeper into Ohio will be very difficult and may require trades or secondary deals. There is no realistic path into Dayton, at a minimum.

 

No realistic path to get into Cincinnati either with Hearst, Scripps, Gray, and Sinclair already in that market and unlikely to be sellers anytime soon.

[LOWERCASE GUY 261]

Do you think We'll have C Clarity @ WTHR & WBNS by the end of the year?

[TennTV1983 804]

11 minutes ago, WxNerd said:

Do you think We'll have C Clarity @ WTHR & WBNS by the end of the year?

 

Oh most definitely when you consider how fast WTOL got TEGNA'd in the graphics and music departments post-sale after Raycom and Gray merged.

[who?cares 254]

1 hour ago, TennTV1983 said:

 

Oh most definitely when you consider how fast WTOL got TEGNA'd in the graphics and music departments post-sale after Raycom and Gray merged.

Wasn’t it like 5 months from the acquisition date?

[CircleSeven 1955]

5 hours ago, WxNerd said:

Do you think We'll have C Clarity @ WTHR & WBNS by the end of the year?

 

4 hours ago, TennTV1983 said:

Oh most definitely when you consider how fast WTOL got TEGNA'd in the graphics and music departments post-sale after Raycom and Gray merged.

 

2 hours ago, who?cares said:

Wasn’t it like 5 months from the acquisition date?

 

Three months. The Gray-Raycom deal closed on January 2. Both WTOL & KWES implemented the graphics that April.

 

But to be fair, when Tegna closed the KFMB sale in February 2018, it wasn't until late September when implemented the graphics.

 

With this deal's completion (along with the pending Nexstar-Tribune spin-offs), it might be a slower roll-out (similar to the Gannett-Belo G3 rollout, which lasted all of summer of 2014).

 

[Breaking News 826]

8 hours ago, WxNerd said:

Do you think We'll have C Clarity @ WTHR & WBNS by the end of the year?

Definitely by yr end into first of the year.

[DirtyHarry 727]

Re: C Clarity

I could live without the oohs and aahs, otherwise it isn't bad.

 

https://youtu.be/nS8I1FHOCTk

 

 

 

[compubit 673]

I personally like the graphics. I think a more traditional music package would puts them on par with the O&Os (as for content...)

J

On 8/1/2019 at 11:29 PM, DirtyHarry said:

 

WBNS RADIO ($35,000,000)

 

The surprise being the value of WBNS Radio. Who else could afford to pay that kind of price for a single radio station (the AM on the graveyard frequency doesn't count anymore) in a city like Columbus? Good job on that one, Dispatch.

I suspect if TEGNA is planning on selling the radio stations, this is a paper value for the radio stations to sell at a loss - and offset profits for tax purposes...

 

J

[DirtyHarry 727]

2 hours ago, compubit said:

I personally like the graphics. I think a more traditional music package would puts them on par with the O&Os (as for content...)

I forgot to mention that. I like the graphics, too. Some of the station logos could use some work, though.

 

I like the music because it's different; It sounds new agey. Almost like something you would hear on a Starbucks CD. The oohs take some getting used to, though. All the other packages other stations use sound like some other package.

 

2 hours ago, compubit said:

I suspect if TEGNA is planning on selling the radio stations, this is a paper value for the radio stations to sell at a loss - and offset profits for tax purposes...

 

I dunno. With Wall Street pressures, I think they want to show profit wherever they can. So, if anything, you would think they'd lowball the value of the stations so they can report profit and excite Wall Street.

 

OSU Football is HUGE in Ohio and they've had a pretty good run for almost 25 years. Arguably, you could say that OSU Football is bigger than pro football in Ohio. OSU Football and bowl games also get pretty high ratings on Cleveland and Dayton TV stations, so it wouldn't surprise me if they were very successful stations.

 

Plus, the Wolfe family obviously knows how to run a broadcasting company. Too bad they didn't see enough of a future in the industry to keep their hands in it.