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Nexstar to acquire Tribune


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6 minutes ago, oknewsguy said:

I think either way the Media General deal has changed Nexstar for the better, this isn't the Nexstar that we used to all hate (and I also expect the Tribune influence to make Nexstar even better too) it's a win-win for Nexstar no matter how you slice it. Translation: Stations like KFOR is about to start acting like say, for example, KXAN (or any Media General/LIN station you can throw at)

I'd give significant credit to the MG-LIN deal, too. Isn't some of LIN's management still at Nexstar?

Also, it's pretty clear that Perry Sook trusts his management team and is open to their input. That's a good thing.

 

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17 minutes ago, mre29 said:

I'd give significant credit to the MG-LIN deal, too. Isn't some of LIN's management still at Nexstar?

Also, it's pretty clear that Perry Sook trusts his management team and is open to their input. That's a good thing.

 

I think so because Media General's management team is also at Nexstar so yes

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4 hours ago, Weeters said:

Can we PLEASE stop this nonsense every time a merger gets announced? It's pointless. It will be YEARS before they get around to actually changing graphics. There are 10000 possibilities for how Nexstar will handle the graphics for the ex-Tribune stations, which could include absorbing Tribune Creative.

Hell, Nexstar has never fully integrated graphics packages on the legacy MG stations (and I’m not even counting the infamous MG crescent that some logos may never remove).

That being said, both Nexstar and Tribune have very good graphics departments, and it’s interesting to note that both companies have made their own take on the CBS O&O graphics pack. I fully expect both departments to join forces.

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11 minutes ago, channel2 said:

Did Nexstar give up on standardizing, if they ever did?

Much like Tribune, they have different packages based on the network affiliations, though Trib has been less consistent.

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38 minutes ago, channel2 said:

Did Nexstar give up on standardizing, if they ever did?

I actually want to apologize about that. i realized that was way too soon to talk about. i'm just going to wait and give Nexstar some time when it completes.

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I do have to say that Media General did have a positive influence on the Nexstar group, and vice versa where some TLC was long needed.  Case in point WKRG. Without angering the TVNewsTalk gods, they corrected a long-standing wrong that has graced the station since the great SESAC purge of 2006.  They also freshened up their set and made it more versatile.

Other factors were in the works before the sale closed.  The newscasts were expanded and extended over to their sister station WFNA.  The general manager and news director both left the station before the sale closed as well. One of the last major hires was a very experienced marketing director who is really ramped up their promotional presence.

However, since the sale has closed there's been a noticeable change in their content both on-air and online.  There's lots of crossover and recycling of stations from sister stations, and unfortunately their Facebook feed has become a repository of clickbait instead of local content.  There's also been quite a bit of turnover in the reporting ranks, including a meteorologist who lasted less than 6 months.  

In this day and age, a lot of the complaints levied against Nexstar can be said for many companies...low pay, slashing budgets and top-heavy management imposing their will. Obviously, a certain company from Hunt valley set the standard for this with their political content, while other companies do this in ways which are more related to the bottom line and their paying clients.

A future problem that could be brewing is the discontinuation of livestream as as a streaming provider.  Nexstar has replaced all the Media General stations that previously used livestream, with their own streaming.  This, coupled with the removal of their stations from NewsOn, makes a large number of their stations virtually invisible on Roku. Since Tribune is a major livestream client, this could eliminate another slew of stations unless Nexstar has something else in the cards... Tribune has been more instrumental in developing Roku apps but some stations don't have them while some that do don't have live streaming on them.

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10 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

That being said, both Nexstar and Tribune have very good graphics departments, and it’s interesting to note that both companies have made their own take on the CBS O&O graphics pack. I fully expect both departments to join forces.

Nexstar also has Lakana to provide digital solutions, including station websites that are surprisingly good compared to Nexstar's pre-MG sites.

 

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1 hour ago, mre29 said:

Nexstar also has Lakana to provide digital solutions, including station websites that are surprisingly good compared to Nexstar's pre-MG sites.

 

It may look good on the front end, but Lakana on the back end is a nightmare and I know from what I've been told and what I've seen. It's a shame the old MG/LIN WordPress sites never got integrated into Nexstar, WordPress is a lot more user-friendly and versatile.

Lakana has a lot of quirks and limitations that on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the absolute worst to 5 being the be all end all of best CMS platforms, I'd have to give it about a 3. One of the biggest limitations comes in the way it handles embed codes for Facebook and Twitter posts, and unless this has been modified or updated since I last saw it, you have to go deep into the physical code of the article to place the embed code which during breaking news can be difficult when time is of the essence. Fortunately on BLOX CMS that Meredith uses, there is a button where we paste the embed code into a blank box and it puts it into the article as a widget.

Another issue is the very unfriendly interface of creating an article and the number of steps you have to take in order to publish an article. It's sort of clunky.

Looks good, has some power under the hood, but has noticeable flaws and problems that are not quickly and easily corrected. It's basically the new Ford F-150 of content management systems.

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Lakana is essentially a merger of Internet Broadcasting Systems and Inergize.  So really it's just a bunch of old ideas merging into one company, while other more modern platforms like WordPress and Blox have taken over in recent years. inside of nexstar innovating with a content management provider they just happened to buy up a provider of their internet sites and another company that pioneered them about 20 years ago.

 It's like comparing the merger of Sears and Kmart to Amazon...

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10 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

I do have to say that Media General did have a positive influence on the Nexstar group, and vice versa where some TLC was long needed.  Case in point WKRG. Without angering the TVNewsTalk gods, they corrected a long-standing wrong that has graced the station since the great SESAC purge of 2006.  They also freshened up their set and made it more versatile.

Other factors were in the works before the sale closed.  The newscasts were expanded and extended over to their sister station WFNA.  The general manager and news director both left the station before the sale closed as well. One of the last major hires was a very experienced marketing director who is really ramped up their promotional presence.

However, since the sale has closed there's been a noticeable change in their content both on-air and online.  There's lots of crossover and recycling of stations from sister stations, and unfortunately their Facebook feed has become a repository of clickbait instead of local content.  There's also been quite a bit of turnover in the reporting ranks, including a meteorologist who lasted less than 6 months.  

In this day and age, a lot of the complaints levied against Nexstar can be said for many companies...low pay, slashing budgets and top-heavy management imposing their will. Obviously, a certain company from Hunt valley set the standard for this with their political content, while other companies do this in ways which are more related to the bottom line and their paying clients.

A future problem that could be brewing is the discontinuation of livestream as as a streaming provider.  Nexstar has replaced all the Media General stations that previously used livestream, with their own streaming.  This, coupled with the removal of their stations from NewsOn, makes a large number of their stations virtually invisible on Roku. Since Tribune is a major livestream client, this could eliminate another slew of stations unless Nexstar has something else in the cards... Tribune has been more instrumental in developing Roku apps but some stations don't have them while some that do don't have live streaming on them.

Certainly, you do have a good point, Nexstar STILL has its issues even with LIN/MG Management in charge and keeping Sook in check but is Nexstar better today than they were pre-MG? Absolutely. I expect WGNO to have a WATN-like reboot, I still expect KFOR to remain among the 2 best stations in OKC (with KAUT continuing to get better under Nexstar) and I still expect WGN to be... Chicago's Very Own. I could go on and on and on but, do I expect some weaknessess to show up among the Tribune stations under Nexstar? Absolutely but it won't nearly be as bad as what could have been from the folks in Hunt Valley. But there is no doubt that Nexstar post-MG is not the Nexstar that we all used to label as "Nexcheap" (although at times they do run on the cheap side).

 

The bottom line is that the Nexstar-Tribune deal is not as bad as some people want to label it as such

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9 hours ago, KentBrockman said:

It may look good on the front end, but Lakana on the back end is a nightmare and I know from what I've been told and what I've seen.

I'm a front-end developer, so I probably pay more attention to that stuff than other people here do. 😉

 

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You know how I felt about Sinclair and Tribune... But I don't hate this deal at all. Nexstar literally brought WCMH back from the dead to an actually watchable product that I don't hate at all.

I think Nexstar would be a responsible owner here and as Much I as hate them being THAT large. Outside of "Put Local on everything"- itis, They are hands off with their stations to the point where I can't tell you where Perry Sook stands on things but Sinclair will tell you every day without fail and twice on Sunday.

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23 minutes ago, ColumbusNewsFan said:

You know how I felt about Sinclair and Tribune... But I don't hate this deal at all. Nexstar literally brought WCMH back from the dead to an actually watchable product that I don't hate at all.

I think Nexstar would be a responsible owner here and as Much I as hate them being THAT large. Outside of "Put Local on everything"- itis, They are hands off with their stations to the point where I can't tell you where Perry Sook stands on things but Sinclair will tell you every day without fail and twice on Sunday.

The product still sucks ... maybe not as much as it did under Media General, but it definitely still sucks. I'd say letting Stan Sanders go was one of MG's dumbest decisions... he was an asshole, but he always hired quality reporters. and knew what it took to compete in a market such as Columbus. 

In case you don't remember who Stan Sanders was -- he came to Columbus in 1999, and was WCMH's VP of News from 1999-2009. Media General showed him the door in early 2009. He fired Jym Ganahl until the GM -- Craig Robinson -- forced the two to kiss and make up.

Station management is definitely much lazier and cheaper than they were 10, even 5 years ago when the station was at its absolute lowest (OK! TV, Byron Allen and EP Daily as your morning programming? Come on...)

I agree with you, they're getting somewhat better under Nexstar... but awfully astonishing how quickly they went from one of NBC's strongest O&Os which routinely gave 10TV a run for its money to 4th place in a 3 station market.

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12 minutes ago, ColDayNews said:

The product still sucks ... maybe not as much as it did under Media General, but it definitely still sucks. I'd say letting Stan Sanders go was one of MG's dumbest decisions... he was an asshole, but he always hired quality reporters. and knew what it took to compete in a market such as Columbus. 

In case you don't remember who Stan Sanders was -- he came to Columbus in 1999, and was WCMH's VP of News from 1999-2009. Media General showed him the door in early 2009. He fired Jym Ganahl until the GM -- Craig Robinson -- forced the two to kiss and make up.

Station management is definitely much lazier and cheaper than they were 10, even 5 years ago when the station was at its absolute lowest (OK! TV, Byron Allen and EP Daily as your morning programming? Come on...)

I agree with you, they're getting somewhat better under Nexstar... but awfully astonishing how quickly they went from one of NBC's strongest O&Os which routinely gave 10TV a run for its money to 4th place in a 3 station market.

That's the thing I've pointed out at least multiple times on this thread with regards to Nexstar, it's helped that Media General execs have kept Sook in check (which is why some ex-MG stations STILL has the MG-era graphics package). Having said that, I would much rather see a Nexstar-owned WGN than a Sinclair-owned WGN. At least Nexstar will allow "Chicago's Very Own" to remain well... "Chicago's Very Own".

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3 minutes ago, Georgie56 said:

I just remembered Nexstar will inherit CLTV, which will be Sook’s first experience with a cable news channel. I wonder what he will do with that. Will he shut it down, seeing how many hours of news WGN runs daily?

 

Just now, channel2 said:

I'm honestly not sure what CLTV even does at this point.

They're still a 24/7 news channel, if Sinclair didn't shut down then-News Channel 8 then I don't expect Nexstar to shut CLTV down. BUT stranger things has happened before so anything is possible

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2 minutes ago, oknewsguy said:

 

They're still a 24/7 news channel, if Sinclair didn't shut down then-News Channel 8 then I don't expect Nexstar to shut CLTV down. BUT stranger things has happened before so anything is possible

TEGNA did close down NWCN and TXCN, though.

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1 minute ago, Georgie56 said:

TEGNA did close down NWCN and TXCN, though.

True. All I can say is we'll see what Nexstar wants to do with CLTV, but with Nexstar being as "hands-off" as they are they might not do a whole lot to CLTV. 

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When Sinclair kicked the tires at Tribune they absolutely marveled at their technology. Tribune designed their own master control automation (Brutus) as well as their own newsroom workflow (Opus), and probably some other things. Perhaps in due time Nexstar will incorporate them within their existing networks of stations. I'm sure it's cheaper than licensing out to AP or Florical, and anything to help out the bottom line is a win in Nexstar's book.

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Another future implication is Nexstar's relationship with Nielsen... Or soon-to-be lack thereof...

The positive about this is the known issues with Nielsen's audience measurement as opposed to something that has a larger sample size like ComScore...

The only reason Nielsen decide to re-up with Sinclair and Tribune is when Nielsen made them an offer they couldn't refuse.... But if the measurement still has problems Nexstar may still drop them and a large number of their legacy stations haven't had Nielsen for a while...

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18 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

That's the thing I've pointed out at least multiple times on this thread with regards to Nexstar, it's helped that Media General execs have kept Sook in check (which is why some ex-MG stations STILL has the MG-era graphics package). Having said that, I would much rather see a Nexstar-owned WGN than a Sinclair-owned WGN. At least Nexstar will allow "Chicago's Very Own" to remain well... "Chicago's Very Own".

Tribune's "very own" branding actually meshes well with Nexstar's local branding. I wouldn't be surprised if Nexstar expanded that beyond the former Tribune stations.

 

I'm sure Nexstar will take some cues from former Tribune staff similar to how they've taken cues from former MG staff.

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5 hours ago, Mrtraveler01 said:

Tribune's "very own" branding actually meshes well with Nexstar's local branding. I wouldn't be surprised if Nexstar expanded that beyond the former Tribune stations.

 

I'm sure Nexstar will take some cues from former Tribune staff similar to how they've taken cues from former MG staff.

Especially the legacy Nexstar markets that are near the Tribune markets, don't be surprised if we start seeing stations like KOLR, KSN, KFDX, KAMR, and others all start taking cues from Tribune

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