Tegna Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: TGNA S&P 400 component
Predecessor	Broadcasting arm of the Gannett Company
Founded	June 29, 2015; 5 years ago (2015-06-29)
Headquarters	Tysons, Virginia
Key people	Howard D. Elias[1] (Chairman) Dave Lougee (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Products	Television Internet Media Digital Marketing Services
Revenue	$2.29 billion USD (2019)[2]
Operating income	$559 million USD (2019)[2]
Net income	$286.2 million USD (2019)[2]
Number of employees	6,883 (2019)[2]
Website	tegna.com

Tegna Inc. (stylized as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia.^[3][4] It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies. Tegna comprised the more profitable broadcast television and digital media divisions of the old Gannett, while Gannett's publishing interests were spun off as a "new" company that retained the Gannett name. Tegna owns or operates 66 television stations in 54 markets, and holds properties in digital media.

History

In June 2015, Gannett split into two independent publicly traded companies, one focusing on its newspapers and publishing, which would retain the Gannett name, and one on broadcasting. Robert Dickey - who led Gannett's newspaper group - would serve as CEO of the former company, leaving the remaining broadcasting and digital operations under the leadership of Gracia Martore. In a statement, she explained that the split plans were "significant next steps in our ongoing initiatives to increase shareholder value by building scale, increasing cash flow, sharpening management focus, and strengthening all of our businesses to compete effectively in today's increasingly digital landscape." Additionally, the company announced that it would buy out the remainder of Classified Ventures (a joint venture between Tegna and several other media companies) for $1.8 billion, giving it full ownership of properties such as Cars.com.^[5][6]

As part of the separation, the company announced that the broadcasting and digital company would be named Tegna--a partial anagram of "Gannett".^[7] The spin-out was structured so that "old" Gannett changed its name to Tegna, Inc., then spun off its newspaper holdings into a "new" Gannett. The split was completed on June 29, 2015. Tegna retained "old" Gannett's stock price history, though it trades under a new ticker symbol, TGNA. The "new" Gannett inherited old Gannett's longtime ticker symbol, GCI.^[8] The two companies, however, continued to share a headquarters complex.

Tegna also retained G/O Digital, a digital marketing services brand that it launched in August 2013, and the 20 broadcast stations it acquired from Belo Corporation in December 2013 and the six stations it acquired from London Broadcasting Company in July 2014.^[4][9][10]

In September 2016, Tegna announced plans to spin off Cars.com to create two independent publicly traded companies. Tegna shareholders approved an initial public offering of Cars.com as a publicly traded spin-off in May 2017.^[11][12] Shortly after, Tegna completed the spin-off of Cars.com, which now trades under a new ticker symbol, CARS.^[13] Upon the completion of the spin-off, Dave Lougee, president of Tegna Media, was named president and CEO of Tegna and joined the company's Board of Directors. Gracia Martore, president and CEO of Tegna, retired and stepped down from the Board.^[14]

Prior to the company's completion of the spin-off of Cars.com, it was reported by DealReporter that Nexstar Media Group may be considering a bid to acquire Tegna.^[15] In June 2017, Tegna announced it had entered into a definitive agreement, together with the other owners of CareerBuilder, to sell CareerBuilder to an investor group led by investments funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board.^[16]

Tegna and Cooper Media, parent corporation of the Justice Network, announced on November 7, 2017, a new multicast network, Quest.^[17] Tegna would be the charter station group as such would receive a minority stake in the network, which launched in January 2018.^[18] The range of programming on the network would be engineering and science, human achievements, military history and natural history.^[19]

On December 18, 2017, Tegna announced it would acquire KFMB-AM-FM-TV in San Diego from Midwest Television, Inc. for $325 million, pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission.^[20] The acquisition was completed on February 15, 2018.^[21]

On August 20, 2018, Tegna agreed to purchase two stations spun off from the Gray Television-Raycom Media merger, CBS affiliate WTOL-TV in Toledo (the sale likely includes rights to an existing shared services agreement with American Spirit Media-owned Fox affiliate WUPW) and NBC affiliate KWES-TV in Odessa in order to alleviate ownership conflicts involving Gray's ownership of ABC affiliate WTVG in the Toledo market and CBS affiliate KOSA-TV in the Odessa market.^[22][23]

In March 2019, Tegna announced its formation of VAULT Studios, its first, in-house digital content studio. The studio's first content would be true crime podcasts, drawing on its station news content.^[24]

On March 20, 2019, Tegna entered an agreement with Nexstar Media Group to acquire eleven stations for $740 million in order to reduce Nexstar's national ownership reach under the federally imposed 39% cap and alleviate ownership conflicts with existing Nexstar properties once it completes a merger with Tribune Media. Included are stations WOI-DT-KCWI-DT in Des Moines and WQAD-TV, based in Moline, Illinois but also serving neighboring Davenport and Pennsylvania (WPMT/Harrisburg and WNEP-TV/Scranton-Wilkes-Barre). Other Nexstar/Tribune stations going to Tegna are WZDX/Huntsville, KFSM-TV/Fort Smith-Fayetteville, WTIC-TV-WCCT-TV/Hartford, and WATN-TV-WLMT/Memphis.^[25][26] The FCC approved the sale on September 16.^[27]

On May 6, 2019, it was reported that Tegna was going to acquire the 85% of the Justice Network and Quest from Cooper Media that it did not own already for $77 Million to close by the end of the second quarter. Cooper Media's president and general manager Brian Weiss transferred to Tegna and continue managing the two networks.^[28]

On June 11, 2019, it was reported Tegna Inc. purchased the Dispatch Broadcast Group's television and radio assets, subject to regulatory approval, for $535 million. The purchase includes the WBNS television (CBS affiliate WBNS-TV) and radio (WBNS (AM) and WBNS-FM) stations in Columbus, the Ohio News Network, and NBC affiliate WTHR television in Indianapolis.^[29] The sale was approved by the FCC on July 29, 2019,^[30] and was completed on August 8.^[31]

In December 2019, Tegna agreed to sell KFMB-AM-FM to Local Media San Diego for $5 million;^[32] the sale was completed on March 17, 2020.^[33]

In March 2020, Tegna announced an overture by Gray Television to purchase them for $8.5 billion was terminated; Gray's stock price had halved in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.^[34][35]

A carriage dispute with DirecTV, beginning on December 2, 2020, resulted in the removal of at least 60 Tegna stations in 51 markets, covering about 39% of TV homes, from the DirecTV, AT&T U-verse and AT&T TV streaming platforms.^[36]

Properties

Tegna owns or operates 68 television stations located in 54 markets (including fourteen duopolies); it also owns two radio stations in Columbus, Ohio.^[37][21] Twenty-two of the company's stations are affiliated with NBC (including one digital subchannel of KBMT and two semi-satellites of KCEN-TV and WCSH), fifteen are affiliated with CBS, thirteen are affiliated with ABC, and six are affiliated with Fox. In addition, the company owns six CW affiliates (including two digital subchannels of KFMB-TV and WMAZ-TV), one Estrella TV affiliate, ten MyNetworkTV affiliates (including five digital subchannels of KFMB-TV, KIDY, KXVA, WQAD-TV, and WZDX), three independent stations (including two digital subchannels of KTVB and its satellite of KTFT-LD), a low-powered MeTV affiliate, and a Quest owned-and-operated station. It also provides operational services to another Fox affiliate, WUPW in Toledo, through a shared services agreement with that station's owner American Spirit Media.

Tegna's standardized news music is C Clarity from French sonic branding company Sixième Son.

Television stations

Stations are listed alphabetically by state and city of license.

Notes of prior ownership or current shared services agreement:

• (**) - Indicates a station owned by Combined Communications prior to its acquisition by Gannett in 1979.
• (~~) - Indicates a station owned by Multimedia, Inc. prior to its acquisition by Gannett in 1995.
• (##) - Indicates stations involved in the Gannett Company's station trade deal with Argyle Television Holdings II in 1997.
• (¤¤) - Indicates a station owned by Belo prior to its acquisition by Gannett in 2013.
• (++) - Indicates a station owned by the London Broadcasting Company prior to its acquisition by Gannett in 2014.^[38]
• (^^) - Indicates a station owned by Sander Media from 2013 to 2015 and operated by Gannett/Tegna prior to its acquisition by Tegna Inc. in 2015.
• () - Indicates stations that were acquired by Tegna as divestitures from Gray Television's acquisition of Raycom Media in 2019.
• (?) - Indicates a station owned by Dispatch Broadcast Group prior to its sale to Tegna in 2019.
• () - Indicates stations that were acquired by Tegna as divestitures from Nexstar Media Group's acquisition of Tribune Broadcasting in 2019.
• () - Owned by American Spirit Media, Tegna operates WUPW through a shared services agreement.
• (++) - KMSB and KTTU are owned by Tegna. Tegna and Gray-owned CBS affiliate KOLD-TV operate these stations through shared services agreements.
• (§§) - KVUE was previously owned by Gannett from 1986 to 1999, when it was traded to Belo in exchange for KXTV.

Channels

Radio stations

Television shows

In 2015, Tegna Media test-ran a limited-run informative talk show hosted by Dallas-based bishop T. D. Jakes on its owned stations in Dallas, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Cleveland. The show, titled T.D. Jakes, was co-produced by Debmar-Mercury, Tegna Media, 44 Blue Productions, Jakes' own production company, TDJ Enterprises and EnLight Productions and lasted from August 17 through September 11.^[39]

On December 9, Tegna greenlit the series for an entire run for the 2016-2017 broadcast season. The series debuted on September 12 on most, if not all Tegna-owned stations, as well as several large markets, including Baltimore (WMAR-TV), Detroit (WMYD), Orlando (WFTV/WRDQ), Chicago (WCIU-TV), San Antonio (KSAT-TV), and San Diego (KGTV). Debmar-Mercury, however is not participating in the production run, being replaced by independent company Flow Media Partners.^[40]

T.D. Jakes has ended in September 2017 and was replaced with news and entertainment show Daily Blast Live.^[41]

Other shows Tegna Media has on first-run syndication across most of its stations are Sister Circle (also shown on cable network TV One),^[42] and reality competition Sing Like A Star.^[43]

In January 2018, Tegna announced a partnership with Sony Pictures Television to handle syndication distribution and advertising sales for its original programs.^[44]

Digital sites

Gannett Company spun-off most of its internet media properties to Tegna.^[45] When the total internet media division was part of the Gannett Company, it managed the websites for USA Today, as well as Gannett's newspaper and broadcast properties throughout the United States. It owns:

• G/O Digital^[46]
• Premion^[47]

Former digital sites

• Cars.com - Tegna completed the spin-off of Cars.com on June 1, 2017.^[48]
• Cofactor Digital - On December 15, 2016, sold Cofactor to Liquidus, a digital marketing solutions company.^[49]
• CareerBuilder - Sold to Apollo Global Management.

Former broadcast assets

Television stations

Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license. The list includes stations owned by Tegna, Inc. during its former existence as the Gannett Company subsidiary Gannett Broadcasting, Inc.

Notes:

• (**) - Indicates a station that was built and/or signed-on by Gannett.
• (§§) - Indicates a station owned by Combined Communications, prior to its acquisition by Gannett in 1979.
• (¤¤) - Indicates a station owned by Multimedia, Inc., prior to its acquisition by Gannett in 1995.
• (##) - Indicates stations involved in the Argyle II swap in 1997.
• (++) - Indicates a station owned by Belo Corporation prior to its acquisition by Gannett in 2013.

Other Notes:

• ¹ KTVY, KOLD-TV and WALA-TV were acquired with Gannett's purchase of The Detroit News, but were subsequently spun off to Knight-Ridder a month later in order for Gannett to comply with the FCC's then-current limits on group ownership.
• ² Owned by Sander Media, LLC, Gannett operated these stations through a shared services agreement (SSA).
• ³ As part of the Gannett/Belo merger, KMOV, KTVK, and KASW were transferred to Sander Media, LLC; Gannett planned to operate the stations through shared service agreements. However, on December 16, 2013, the Department of Justice ordered that the parties (Gannett, Belo and Sander) had a period of 120 days to divest KMOV to a government-approved independent third-party that would be barred from entering into any agreements with Gannett, in order to fully preserve competition in advertising sales with KSDK. On December 23, shortly after the approval and completion of the Gannett/Belo deal, Meredith Corporation announced that it would purchase KMOV, KTVK and KASW in a $407.4 million deal.^[50] The KMOV sale was completed on February 28, 2014.^[51] The KTVK/KASW sale was completed on June 19.^[52]
• ⁴ KTTU is owned by Tucker Operating Co, LLC. Both KTTU and KMSB (owned by Sander Media, LLC) are operated through a SSA by Raycom Media CBS affiliate KOLD-TV.
• ⁵ WDAN-TV changed call letters to WICD following its sale, and in 1967 was merged with WCHU (channel 33) in Champaign into the present-day WICD on channel 15.
• ⁶ Gannett purchased the construction permit for WINR-TV and signed the station on in 1957. Because of this, WHEC-TV and WDAN-TV are the only television stations built from the ground-up by Gannett.
• ⁷ WHEC-TV's frequency was shared with WVET-TV, owned by Veterans Broadcasting, from its 1953 sign-on until 1961 when Gannett purchased full ownership of the frequency.

Cable networks

These cable networks were owned by Belo prior to acquisition by Gannett/Tegna.

Radio stations

(a partial listing)

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References

External links

• Official website
• Business data for Tegna Inc.:
  • Google Finance
  • Yahoo! Finance
  • SEC filings