Gannett to acquire Belo

[CircleSeven 1944]

Here's the map graph of both current Gannett & Belo stations.

 

[hathawaynson2 38]

 

Since Gannett will no doubt protect KSDK and keep it in Gannett Proper, I assume that KMOV would be assigned to the new shell side.

 

Now if you're talking about any other St. Louis station, you better hope Sinclair does not acquire KTVI.

 

I am going to assume that it's someone by the name of Jack Sander that is buying KMOV and then will run it under an Shared Services Agreement with Gannett. Sander, was an former Belo Executive before Gannett bought Belo.

[channel2 869]

Okay, to clarify that post about Scripps possibly selling off the group...it was merely another person's hunch. They said nothing about any bean counters, that was another person, and the size of the group was an observation I saw fit to add. My mistake.

[tyrannical bastard 3444]

Belo's decision to sell may have a lot to do with the breakup of their company. I've been told that when A.H. Belo formed Belo, that the debt from the newspaper division was transferred to the Belo company (TV owners).

 

This deal certainly threw me for a curve and could throw any perception on how future deals are made. It proves that nothing is sacred, even when it comes to overlapping in markets where the acquisition target will be competing with the acquirer, should they happen to be in the same market when the deal is made.

 

We could see even more of this when LocalTV and Allbritton unload their stations...the speculation on who could merge with who is simply too complicated to even forecast.

If the FCC greenlights this deal and lets Gannett use a sidecar for their Belo counterparts, provided that sharing services is minimal, all bets are off.

 

 

The problem with this deal is now, things are going well, everything is fine and dandy, and stations/companies are keeping things separate (well...except for the prime offenders). These prime offenders (we all know who they are) have been able to get away with things (so far) by purchasing MARGINAL stations in MARGINAL markets and combining their operations, while now purchasing better stations, in better markets, where consolidation would pose market share issues....they consolidate in lesser ways which have less effect on the on-air product.

 

The next time the economy tanks.....we could be seeing 2008 and 2009 on a much larger scale, tv-wise. If it was bad enough for COMPETING stations to share resources....that's when things will get ugly.

 

Gannett seems like the old Media General all over again....in addition to all of the TV stations they have (and soon will have), they have a full-fledged newspaper division as well. The same issues come into play, standardization, employee furloughs, layoffs, and micro-management. Sooner or later, they will have to cut and run, either by making massive cuts or selling off assets.

 

As for their newspaper division, could they potentially sell it to A.H. Belo? Warren Buffett? Or else, they better hope that it can sustain itself without bringing down the entire company eventually...

[Rusty Muck 4164]

Here's the map graph of both current Gannett & Belo stations.

Is it possible to add Gannett papers? That would be even more fascinating.

[CircleSeven 1944]

 

Is it possible to add Gannett papers? That would be even more fascinating.

 

Yeah that would no doubt fill the entire graph. I think they own 90 dailies?

[TVIntheDesert 183]

 

Okay, to clarify that post about Scripps possibly selling off the group...it was merely another person's hunch. They said nothing about any bean counters, that was another person, and the size of the group was an observation I saw fit to add. My mistake.

 

Scripps has been cutting programming budgets to the bone across the country with their "amateur hour." That was most likely a move to make their budget sheet look enticing for prospective suitors, not because "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel" were doing bad in the ratings. That's just my gut feeling. If Scripps ends up as the buyer, and that station has those expensive (or, in their words, "under-performing") shows, watch out!

 

As for Cox being a suitor for KTVK, I'd say no. They have no "pure" independent in their portfolio (I'm not counting the duopoly stations in Oakland/San Jose, Orlando, or Charlotte). Hearst would be a better fit for them (they have WMOR, but it's programmed like a typical CW/MNT station).

[Rusty Muck 4164]

Yeah that would no doubt fill the entire graph. I think they own 90 dailies?

Sounds about right. A lot of small town papers to boot.

[IndyNewsGuy 13]

 

So which station gets sold in St. Louis is the question? That will be interesting.

I know this has been discussed before, and I know that Disney NEVER buys TV stations*, but this is a no-brainer in my opinion. In fact, as many times as it has been shot down on TVNT in the past few years, the possibility of an ABC O&O in St. Louis became that much more possible with today's news.

 

*--Yes, I'm aware of Toledo and Flint, but that was in the "olden" days.

 

Despite the the notion that ABC/Disney does not buy stations, I can say that while they haven't made any purchases, they were interested in the McGraw-Hill Cluster (I believe they didn't want the whole package). They would buy a station if it the deal was right. With that said, WFAA or ALB's WJLA being bought by ABC is possible. Unprecedented, but not impossible. (Scripps and ABC are both highly likely to be intested in WJLA as Scripps has their investigative unit in DC and ABC for obvious reasons.)

 

With so many sales going on now, I would not be surprised to see Scripps trying to grab WFAA, KHOU, KVUE, KENS, KMOV and WJLA. Just a thought.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

Hello - I am new here, was previously lurking. It sure seems there has been a lot of merging and acquiring lately and no one has been spared. It makes me think, who could be buying and who is likely to be selling in the future? Surely this can't be the last deal.

 

I'm kinda torn on all this. After all, it is likely that stations would lose money and potentially go bankrupt without JSAs and SSAs. But it does take news options away. I just hate when companies (Sinclair, calling you out) use their leverage just for political reasons.

[sanewsguy 509]

I have been viewing this board for a while now but have just decided to join. Let me just go on a rant for a moment. Yes, Belo may be a good company overall but they strike me as the kind of company that lets local managment run the show for the most part. WFAA for example is a well-run station. But my local CBS affiliate, KENS 5, gives Belo a bad name. This station, from what I have observed, constantly fabricates information or lies about certain aspects of their stories.

 

For instance, they will have a reporter actually cover the story, then send somebody completely different to present it. KENS also tends to be the station that has live shots for the sake of going live. They often go live from their parking lot just to say they went live. KENS 5 consistently puts out a bad product which is embarassing for a city the size of San Antonio. Their audience is generally, but not always, over the age of 49 according to friends in the business and nobody I know personally watches this station. Belo may be a good company overall but stations like KENS-TV give Belo a bad rep and you actually have to try to suffer--I mean watch a KENS newscast to see what I mean. KENS isn't a bad station per se, but their news department is awful and extremely rude. There was an accident near my old school one time and the KENS reporter just barged right in with a camera ready to film, and no other station did this. Needless to say, the reporter was almost immediately escorted off the property as they did not go through PIO first. This is also the station that does a story on the Chupacabra (think Mexican Bigfoot) every year during May sweeps.

 

And if you log onto their website, which is actually run completly separate from the newsroom, you will see that their website is heavy on photo galleries. Very little actual news which is usally hard to find on kens5.com

 

Having said that, I am happy Gannett is buying out KENS 5. They will do a better job running the station in my opinion. Gannett seems to be a good owner in my opinion who actually cares about journalistic ethics and their communities. "KENS Cares" about the community only because the FCC forces them to. And it helps that this coincides with Kurt Davis leaving, who isn't exactly the best news director from what I've been told. Hopefully Gannett will do a far better job running KENS 5 and I'm excited they're coming to town, and Texas, for once. Can't wait for them to take over because Belo hasn't necessecarily been the best owner for KENS.

 

On that note,

 

What about San Antonio's KENS 5, that a well respected station too?

 

No, I live in San Antonio, KENS is not a well respected station in my opinion. Not a lot I know watch them, and their ethics are the lowest of the low, IMO. It's just that Joe Schmo at home doesn't notice. OK, off my soapbox. I just needed to sound off on this and again congrats to Gannett.

[TexasTVNews 1366]

WFAA alumni's like Tracy Rowlett, Troy Dungan, Quinn Mathews and others react about Belo's sell to Gannett, courtesy of Ed Bark of Unclebarky.com

http://unclebarky.com/dfw_files/582a0210ebab2aab830cd1485a44f03f-2807.html

[channel2 869]

I didn't think that J! and WOF had bad ratings. I always thought that Scripps's decision to drop the shows from its stations for their crap was idiotic.

 

Anyway, I was admittedly hoping ABC would get KMGH because I'd not heard much good about McGraw-Hill as a station owner (though I admittedly have never watched KMGH much). They'd been at it for 39 years but they sounded like they were slacking by the time they put the group on the block.

 

I do not think Gannett has any intention to sell WFAA or KHOU, unless the shit hits the fan and they decide to hand their spectrum over to the FCC.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

What high-ranking stations could Gannett reasonably trade for? One thought I can think of is KMOV to Cox for WFTV in Orlando (similar market size, both high ranking). That would clear out the overlap, and give Gannett high ratings in an additional market. Not sure what other reasonable options exist, since Gannett has stations in most of the DMA 11-30 range.

[Jess 1110]

My first reaction is mourning.

 

Though I never lived in one of their markets, Belo always seemed like one of the best stations owners out there. They invested in their news product and most of their stations are well-respected in their communities. The local TV business will be all the poorer for their absence.

 

That being said, Gannett also has quite a few well-run stations in its lineup (KARE, KUSA, KSDK...), and the combined division head, Dave Lougee, is a former Belo guy. So maybe those stations won't take quite a tumble quality-wise.

 

As far as graphics and music, well, I am a HUGE fan of G3 and the current Gannett look, so I wouldn't mind if that made its way to the Belo stations. I think the package is striking, elegant, and G3 not only keeps putting out nice segment opens, but clever animations to enhance stories. It's graphics not for the sake of looking good, but providing informative content and enhancing the newscast. You don't see a lot of that.

 

I hope that this deal sees some upgrading of the graphics infrastructure for all of the stations. The Gannett stations are running on Dekos I think (dunno if Chyron Axis is a part of this or not), while Belo made that deal with Miranda to install their Vertigo stuff. While it's probably better than the Dekos, I don't know if it's robust enough to deliver the type of graphical experience Gannett should have. Imagine those lower thirds with VizRT... mmm.

[ABC 7 Denver 1552]

 

My first reaction is mourning.

 

Though I never lived in one of their markets, Belo always seemed like one of the best stations owners out there. They invested in their news product and most of their stations are well-respected in their communities. The local TV business will be all the poorer for their absence.

 

That being said, Gannett also has quite a few well-run stations in its lineup (KARE, KUSA, KSDK...), and the combined division head, Dave Lougee, is a former Belo guy. So maybe those stations won't take quite a tumble quality-wise.

 

As far as graphics and music, well, I am a HUGE fan of G3 and the current Gannett look, so I wouldn't mind if that made its way to the Belo stations. I think the package is striking, elegant, and G3 not only keeps putting out nice segment opens, but clever animations to enhance stories. It's graphics not for the sake of looking good, but providing informative content and enhancing the newscast. You don't see a lot of that.

 

I hope that this deal sees some upgrading of the graphics infrastructure for all of the stations. The Gannett stations are running on Dekos I think (dunno if Chyron Axis is a part of this or not), while Belo made that deal with Miranda to install their Vertigo stuff. While it's probably better than the Dekos, I don't know if it's robust enough to deliver the type of graphical experience Gannett should have. Imagine those lower thirds with VizRT... mmm.

 

Gannett stations use Chyron (formerly Pypurn) Axis. It was part of the 2008 gfx/music deal.

[TVIntheDesert 183]

 

I have been viewing this board for a while now but have just decided to join. Let me just go on a rant for a moment. Yes, Belo may be a good company overall but they strike me as the kind of company that lets local managment run the show for the most part. WFAA for example is a well-run station. But my local CBS affiliate, KENS 5, gives Belo a bad name. This station, from what I have observed, constantly fabricates information or lies about certain aspects of their stories.

 

For instance, they will have a reporter actually cover the story, then send somebody completely different to present it. KENS also tends to be the station that has live shots for the sake of going live. They often go live from their parking lot just to say they went live. KENS 5 consistently puts out a bad product which is embarassing for a city the size of San Antonio. Their audience is generally, but not always, over the age of 49 according to friends in the business and nobody I know personally watches this station. Belo may be a good company overall but stations like KENS-TV give Belo a bad rep and you actually have to try to suffer--I mean watch a KENS newscast to see what I mean. KENS isn't a bad station per se, but their news department is awful and extremely rude. There was an accident near my old school one time and the KENS reporter just barged right in with a camera ready to film, and no other station did this. Needless to say, the reporter was almost immediately escorted off the property as they did not go through PIO first. This is also the station that does a story on the Chupacabra (think Mexican Bigfoot) every year during May sweeps.

 

And if you log onto their website, which is actually run completly separate from the newsroom, you will see that their website is heavy on photo galleries. Very little actual news which is usally hard to find on kens5.com

 

Having said that, I am happy Gannett is buying out KENS 5. They will do a better job running the station in my opinion. Gannett seems to be a good owner in my opinion who actually cares about journalistic ethics and their communities. "KENS Cares" about the community only because the FCC forces them to. And it helps that this coincides with Kurt Davis leaving, who isn't exactly the best news director from what I've been told. Hopefully Gannett will do a far better job running KENS 5 and I'm excited they're coming to town, and Texas, for once. Can't wait for them to take over because Belo hasn't necessecarily been the best owner for KENS.

 

On that note,

No, I live in San Antonio, KENS is not a well respected station in my opinion. Not a lot I know watch them, and their ethics are the lowest of the low, IMO. It's just that Joe Schmo at home doesn't notice. OK, off my soapbox. I just needed to sound off on this and again congrats to Gannett.

 

 

Calls of a Belo station not being ethical coming from someone who uses the logo of a station that is now in the hands of what might be the least ethical broadcaster in the country as an identifier?

[jero23 105]

 

Not to mention that I don't think Scripps would go as far to buy a station in a market as small as Birmingham.

 

You act as if Birmingham is a "small market". It's is a top 50 market whereas Tulsa is not. so think again, my friend. Birmingham isn't "small" at all...

[hathawaynson2 38]

 

That would be interesting to find out what would happen if another merger takes place. I thought of one:

 

Gray to Nexstar?

 

reverse it....Nexstar to Gray (minus the evansville stations) or even better, Meredith to LIN?

[TexasTVNews 1366]

OK, I'm now going to put it to a vote. How many of you in favor of the Belo/Gannett merger? Yes or No.

[swillh2k2 203]

 

My first reaction is mourning.

 

Though I never lived in one of their markets, Belo always seemed like one of the best stations owners out there..

 

Probably a matter of perspective. If not for their occasional endcaps, you wouldn't know that WCNC was owned by Belo if you put it alongside their properties in Texas, NOLA and the Northwest. This is a station that up until last year was broadcasting from a set that I literally thought was a temp one. Let's not forget that they still haven't upgraded to HD, six years since WSOC flipped and over five years since WBTV.

I guess it depends on who you ask, but in Charlotte, it looks like the investments have been minimal.

[mre29 1340]

I had a realization earlier today: If the FCC lets Sinclair buy Fisher but blocks Gannett's acquisition of Belo for some reason, it'll be a race to see who sues the FCC first -- Gannett/Belo or unhappy Fisher shareholders.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

 

I had a realization earlier today: If the FCC lets Sinclair buy Fisher but blocks Gannett's acquisition of Belo for some reason, it'll be a race to see who sues the FCC first -- Gannett/Belo or unhappy Fisher shareholders.

 

That would seem strange too, since Gannett would only own 43 stations after the Belo purchase, less than one-third the size of Sinclair's portfolio of 140.

[jjconnally 2]

 

Depends on who gets the Allibitron stations (sans WJLA) and the LocalTV stations.

 

And does this trend start to make groups like Scripps (who themselves swallowed up the McGraw-Hill group) buyers or takeover targets? Young was an obvious target even with KRON, but Belo selling is shocking as hell.

 

Exactly...and I think the latest Gannett standardization, albeit clean, it is too simple and cheap looking. I cant see them extending that look to their new high-end properties...

[jjconnally 2]

Its freeking ironic that just about a year or two ago, many of these station groups were bleeding cash and were subject to leaving the news biz. Entities like Sinclair, Gannett, Scripps and others were crying like mad they were bleeding cash and wouldn't make it thru the year...then they all turn around and buy out top notch station groups outright. What?!Now all of a sudden, I feel that either these station groups have found true cash savings from centralizing their graphics and newsgathering efforts or they are taking calculated risks buying other station groups with higher market, higher revenue stations?