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TEGNA Broadcasting and Digital General Discussion


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5 hours ago, scrabbleship said:

The real factor here would be the ex-Waypoint stations. Those are hot messes at best and lost causes at worst and would be a massive headache for anyone to deal with. The situation Cox management is facing with the ex-Northwest stations pales to this.

Many of these stations are low-powered upstarts built for the sole purpose of bringing affiliations to markets where they previously did not exist.  Hopefully bringing some scale to these stations could be a major plus for them to better compete in their markets. 

 

What you see is a lot of peeved viewers who lose an adjacent affiliate they've had for years replaced by a local one, that is grossly inferior.

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16 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Many of these stations are low-powered upstarts built for the sole purpose of bringing affiliations to markets where they previously did not exist.  Hopefully bringing some scale to these stations could be a major plus for them to better compete in their markets. 

 

What you see is a lot of peeved viewers who lose an adjacent affiliate they've had for years replaced by a local one, that is grossly inferior.

Under Standard, under Tegna, or either? Under the latter case I can Tegna being a great help in Jonesboro (Memphis/Little Rock), Jackson (Memphis, reestablishing WATN/WLMT's links to that market), and especially Lafayette (Indianapolis). 

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6 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Deb McDermott, the head of Standard Media worked alongside Kim in the latter years of Young and Media General, and was one of the board members Kim wanted to put on Tegna's board. 

 

If they buy their way into Tegna, Standard could be roped into it though a hostile takeover using Kim's money.

I think Tegna's board might have to think twice about this one because if they think that by telling Kim no will push him away, they are sorely mistaken.

 

The fact that Kim is responding back by bringing some of his people (all of which had YEARS of experience of being in the business) tells me that Soo Kim really wants Tegna and wants Tegna bad.

 

I'm starting to wonder if it was coincidental that Tegna bought stations like WTHR/WBNS, WNEP, WPMT and WOI/KCWI (all of which are in markets that both Kim and McDermott either tried to buy in 2018 or were in those markets when they were in charge of Media General)

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I can only imagine if Gannett remained the same company as it was before the split....

 

The current "Gannett" is like the rebirth of AT&T, after SBC renamed themselves when the old AT&T was sold off piece by piece.  It's technically GateHouse, but under the Gannett branding.  Same as Tegna being the old Gannett company and the split company keeping the Gannett name.

 

Usually, the print side is the one to go batty.  Gannett is the behemoth in this case and Tegna is treated like an upstart company.  One that has trashed many of their stations and the investors are finally clamoring for them to come to their senses.  Some stations are too far gone (WXIA, WTSP, WWL, WKYC), others have some hope to them (WBIR, WMAZ, WTOL), and there are the new ones that haven't had the chance to C-Clarity.....yet.

Edited by tyrannical bastard
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1 hour ago, TexasTVNews said:

What are the odds of Standard Media acquiring Tegna? And If by any chance they do... what changes you would see if Standard takes over the company?

I have no clue about the odds. [The company formerly known as Gannett] is too big for any of the other broadcasters to swallow whole, so it would have to be hedge fund or private equity or some other company with limited broadcasting interests. If Standard buys them, you're definitely going to see a "back-to-basics" approach system-wide, not unlike what we see at the former-MG and LIN stations. This will benefit the "how do you do, fellow kids" stations like WTSP and WKYC, which could use a quick culture change. For stations like KARE and WBIR, who haven't lost all of their former luster yet; it may prove to be a downgrade. More everyday stories about robberies and house fires, less of those "slice of life" features. 

Edited by TheOneManHerd
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On 1/15/2020 at 11:08 AM, tyrannical bastard said:

Here we go.....

 

https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/243396/tegna-to-fight-proposed-board-changes/

 

“The board is also concerned that his significant investments in and influence over other broadcasting companies would create a conflict of interest as a Tegna director.

“Accordingly, the board unanimously determined that adding him to the board is not in the best interests of Tegna and its shareholders. Mr. Kim was informed of the board’s decision on Jan. 10.”

 

I smell a Tegna-Standard Media merger in the works....and as for the the "best interest of Tegna and their shareholders"... we all know the garbage that Tegna has been putting out.  Time to overhaul the board and make something out of Tegna.

 

A follow-up on this:

 

Soo Kim has responded back to Tegna's baseless claims and I'll just let the quote's from Mr. Kim speak for itself on this one:

Quote

TEGNA asserts that Standard General has a track record of actions favoring its interests over those of other shareholders. This is nonsense. Like other active investment firms, Standard General often takes substantial equity positions, and our principals have served on the boards of a number of public companies in which we have invested. As a matter of firm policy, our principals take no fees or other compensation for their board service.  Standard General profits from stock price appreciation, in the same way as any other shareholder.

TEGNA has also sought to mislead our fellow shareholders by raising spurious claims regarding conflicts of interest with Standard General's other investments. First, Standard General's investment in a woman- and minority-owned broadcasting start-up with approximately $10 million of annual cash flow hardly represents a conflict with TEGNA's business. Second, in our discussions with TEGNA, we committed not to make any new investment in TV stations without first offering the opportunity to TEGNA. In short, there is no conflict.

TEGNA's press release also claims that the current board and management are "[open] to all paths to create value for all of TEGNA's shareholders." However, representatives of Standard General sat, with other investors, in an investor meeting with TEGNA management last August, in which TEGNA's CFO denied that TEGNA had received a business combination proposal from Apollo Management. The next day, TEGNA hastily retracted this falsehood, admitting that it had received two separate proposals from Apollo in 2019, but declining to provide any further details. As a result, we must question whether shareholders can rely on TEGNA's assurances that the current board and management are open-minded.

We believe Standard General's involvement is critical to ensure that TEGNA is on the right path to maximize shareholder value. While we are disappointed in TEGNA's shrill response, it has no impact on our plan to vigorously pursue representation on TEGNA's board and to drive value creation for all TEGNA shareholders.

All I'm gonna say is you might need 2 or 3 boxes of popcorn for this one.

Edited by oknewsguy
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2 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

It seems Soo Kim is being a bully here. 

I'd say both parties involved in this are being bullies (Tegna for essentially giving the finger to Kim just because of the fact they're afraid that Kim would come into the company and destroy everything Tegna has been doing to their stations in the last few years)

 

You could say Kim was being a bully in his response but Tegna started it here, not Soo Kim.

Edited by oknewsguy
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Standard Media has zero competition from any Tegna TV station, as each company has no stations in the same market, and even if they did, they're exempt in many places because they are low power (especially the Waypoint ones).  Digital is another story, as the lines are undefined, but there's nothing stopping that.

 

Regardless of our opinions regarding how Tegna operates it's stations, it's a company ripe for takeover, and if anyone is going to take station groups and make them bigger, or make something out of the leftovers, it's outside investors and private equity.

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1 minute ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Standard Media has zero competition from any Tegna TV station, as each company has no stations in the same market, and even if they did, they're exempt in many places because they are low power (especially the Waypoint ones).  Digital is another story, as the lines are undefined, but there's nothing stopping that.

 

Regardless of our opinions regarding how Tegna operates it's stations, it's a company ripe for takeover, and if anyone is going to take station groups and make them bigger, or make something out of the leftovers, it's outside investors and private equity.

Where is Tegna at in terms of the FCC ownership cap? I think they have to be at least 30% if not a little bit over that.

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1 minute ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Actual reach is 39 percent while the UHF discount brings it down to 32.

Ok. So assuming Kim get's his way at the end he would have a little wriggle room to make at least one big acquisition (maybe even 2 big acquisitions)

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2 hours ago, hankthetank23 said:

Still no update on the former Dispatch stations? Someone said that they’d be getting the graphics in March, but why wait so long?

Could it have something to do with computer systems & master control systems?

Look at what nexstar is dealing with in terms of former tribune stations..

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3 hours ago, hankthetank23 said:

Still no update on the former Dispatch stations? Someone said that they’d be getting the graphics in March, but why wait so long?

IIRC, at least a few years back, WTHR had a very different CG setup and graphics workflow than most stations. I don't think they're on Lyric. The same could be true for WBNS.

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So Standard General as part of their response to Tegna that I shared Yesterday this one here expands on what was originally reported that @tyrannical bastard shared last week.

 

They have filed with the SEC a Schedule 14A, as recently as Thursday and according to that report it mentions names like Stephen Usher, David Glazek, and Michael Perrone as names of those that are part of the proxy fight to take over Tegna

 

I think Soo brought more than just a crew he brought an ARMY of those that are willing to join Kim in the fight to takeover Tegna, this is getting more and more interesting as I'm reading these articles related to Standard/Tegna.

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Add another group who wants Tegna to sell or merge....

Enter HG Vora Capital Management, who last had a stake in Tribune, and cashed it out when Nexstar took over....

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tegna-hgvora-exclusive/exclusive-hedge-fund-hg-vora-wants-tegna-to-consider-a-sale-or-merger-sources-idUSKBN1ZK1WP

 

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