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TEGNA To Acquire Dispatch Broadcast Group


Kenneth Kissel

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16 minutes ago, ColumbusNewsFan said:

I'm thinking WCMH might be the biggest beneficiary of WBNS going Tegna here in Columbus. WSYX/WTTE has improved but Sinclair is gonna Sinclair.

 

If WBNS had to go to someone, who else would you have it go to that is going to be a survivor in the consolidation wars? Maybe Hearst is a better company, but it doesn't look like they're buying. Cox/Terrier - the jury is still out on that one. They could end up flipping everything in a couple of years.

The way I see it, Tegna is still the best option.

 

My only complaint about WSYX is that they have too many reporters who are wet behind the ears--They don't have enough of a polished look. But I have no problem with their anchor people, they are my favorite in town. And Sinclair always takes care of Channel 6. We are going to be one of the first 19 markets where ATSC 3.0 gets implemented. It's the next best thing to being locally owned.

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8 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

 

If WBNS had to go to someone, who else would you have it go to that is going to be a survivor in the consolidation wars? Maybe Hearst is a better company, but it doesn't look like they're buying. Cox/Terrier - the jury is still out on that one. They could end up flipping everything in a couple of years.

The way I see it, Tegna is still the best option.

 

My only complaint about WSYX is that they have too many reporters who are wet behind the ears--They don't have enough of a polished look. But I have no problem with their anchor people, they are my favorite in town. And Sinclair always takes care of Channel 6. We are going to be one of the first 19 markets where ATSC 3.0 gets implemented. It's the next best thing to being locally owned.

To be honest, it would of had to be Cox and even in its current form. WHIO is a strong station and WBNS would of been a great fit for them there. I think it fits more with WBNS and WTHR's culture and style more so than TEGNA's Social Media Focus. It's not the best fit in the world.

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On 7/14/2019 at 3:12 PM, DirtyHarry said:

 

If WBNS had to go to someone, who else would you have it go to that is going to be a survivor in the consolidation wars? Maybe Hearst is a better company, but it doesn't look like they're buying. Cox/Terrier - the jury is still out on that one. They could end up flipping everything in a couple of years.

The way I see it, Tegna is still the best option.

 

My only complaint about WSYX is that they have too many reporters who are wet behind the ears--They don't have enough of a polished look. But I have no problem with their anchor people, they are my favorite in town. And Sinclair always takes care of Channel 6. We are going to be one of the first 19 markets where ATSC 3.0 gets implemented. It's the next best thing to being locally owned.

 

Gray perhaps? Although they are new to big markets. Scripps couldn't buy since they are already in Indy.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I merely forgot to post the paperwork for this deal. It was posted on June 18 (one week after the announcement).

 

Purchase Prices:

In Total = $535M.

 

19 minutes ago, who?cares said:

Wow. That was like 45 days. Announced on June 11th.

 

If there isn't any objections, the process could take up to just six weeks (after the paperwork is filed) to get an approval.

 

But this is quick, given the deal's price tag of over a half a billion dollars.

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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.

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4 minutes ago, 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.

 

Even one that probably leads the market in ratings?

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2 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

Even one that probably leads the market in ratings?

 

I don't know. The former K95.5 (a 50kw station, although in Lancaster) sold for around $2 million and Q-FM-96 for $10 or $13 million, so, yeah, that's a lot of money for a single radio station in the Columbus market. 

 

But to be fair, nothing big has transferred recently except for the two stations I mentioned. But it's still kind of surprising.

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31 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

Let me clairy that WBNS radio are WBNS-AM & WBNS-FM. And despite being separate stations in their own right, both carry a Sports format.

 

I haven't followed the ratings, but I doubt anybody listens to WBNS-AM. They have a good signal during the day, but their night signal is garbage.

 

I felt found a good example to put the sale price into some perspective. EMF bought six of stations from Cumulus, most of them in larger markets than Columbus, for $103.5 million. They sold stations in New York, Washington, Atlanta, San Jose, Syracuse and Savannah. There was a time and day that the New York station alone would have gone for that much.

 

Here's an excerpt from a story I dug up:

The EMF deal totaled $103.5 million in cash, delivering the contemporary Christian music nonprofit EMF stations WYAY-FM in Atlanta, WPLJ-FM in New York City, KFFG-FM in San Jose, California, WZAT-FM in Savannah, Georgia, WXTL-FM in Syracuse, New York, and WRQX-FM in Washington, DC. In the agreement, EMF will acquire all transmission equipment and assume all tower leases associated with the stations. The six stations collectively contribute approximately $5 million to $7 million of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization to Cumulus, annually, the company reports.

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On 6/11/2019 at 8:08 PM, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

I'm not  a fan of WTHR being TEGNA-fied

 

Neither am I! First, the USA Today Network takes over the Indianapolis Star (with, IMO, one of the ugliest layouts that a paper has ever had; I thought it looked good when I saw it for the first time, until I realized that it was for all Gannett/UTN papers), then WTHR is going to Tegna! What is with Gannett and Tegna in Indy?!

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14 hours ago, bmasters1 said:

 

Neither am I! First, the USA Today Network takes over the Indianapolis Star (with, IMO, one of the ugliest layouts that a paper has ever had; I thought it looked good when I saw it for the first time, until I realized that it was for all Gannett/UTN papers), then WTHR is going to Tegna! What is with Gannett and Tegna in Indy?!

Coincidentally, The Indianapolis Star used to team up with WTHR until 2014. The paper now partners with WXIN/WTTV.

 

With GateHouse buying New Gannett (and changing its name to Gannett) what are the chances of the existing GateHouse papers adopting that USA Today Network layout? A little funny to see USA Today and all those local newspapers (like mine) owned by the old Gannett, and then the new Gannett, and now the new, new Gannett. Reminds me of Albertsons.

 

New Gannett ruined old Gannett's papers, but at least they and GateHouse (soon to be the new, new Gannett) are not as bad as TEGNA.

 

Maybe the next funny thing will be seeing GannettHouse buying A. H. Belo.

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12 hours ago, Conrad said:

With GateHouse buying New Gannett (and changing its name to Gannett) what are the chances of the existing GateHouse papers adopting that USA Today Network layout?

 

That's a good question-- I really don't know which way this is gonna go (and it could go either way).

 

Which way do you think it will go (GateHouse layout overwritten by USA Today, or USA Today being overwritten by GateHouse)?

 

I hope it's the latter, because in the few times I've seen GateHouse's layout, I've thought that it was much better than the Gannett/UTN.

 

Also, it would seem that some papers that had 1A-1B-1C paginations originally (The Oklahoman, the Savannah Morning News, etc.), which then became A1-B1-C1 with their purchase by Gatehouse, are going to go back to 1A-1B-1C.

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12 hours ago, bmasters1 said:

I hope it's the latter, because in the few times I've seen GateHouse's layout, I've thought that it was much better than the Gannett/UTN.

I also like the Gatehouse websites better. That said, I don't even know why they are doing websites the way they do them. They should be doing color Kindles (10 inch) and PDFs. No HTML.

 

Why? Newspaper advertising is only effective in traditional newspaper form. Online advertising is not only ineffective, it's annoying. Freeze every day's newspaper in a PDF that looks like a traditional newspaper. That also makes advertising effective, frozen in a page yet unobtrusive at the same time. no pop-ups, no annoying videos, no banners, yet at the same time full page ad for Macy's hits you like none of those do.

 

Here is a good example of a magazine that does it this way (except for the fact that it is front-loaded with ads): https://issuu.com/ensembleiq/docs/csns-0619?e=37211642/70388382

 

Do it this way and maybe it becomes worthwhile for advertisers again.

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On 8/2/2019 at 2:08 AM, CircleSeven said:

Let me clairy that WBNS radio are WBNS-AM & WBNS-FM. And despite being separate stations in their own right, both carry a Sports format.

 

 

I'm sure the fact it's the flagship of both the Blue Jackets and (more importantly) Ohio State athletics played into the overall value of these radio properties. 

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2 hours ago, Mrtraveler01 said:

 

I'm sure the fact it's the flagship of both the Blue Jackets and (more importantly) Ohio State athletics played into the overall value of these radio properties. 

 

I was thinking three things. 

 

1. iHeart has a full plate of stations and in their financial condition, I don't see them ponying up $35 million for the stations. Besides, they'd just hub everything from Cincinnati and screw them up.

 

2. Saga, Salem anf Radio One are the other major players in Columbus, but do they have the deep pockets to pay $35 million for the stations?

 

3. Maybe it's like a Cox Dayton thing where Radio and TV are fully integrated with each other because of Ohio State and it made sense to keep them together.

 

So,  maybe there was nobody else to sell the radio stations to and Tegna wanted the TV stations so bad they took the radio stations too?

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