Tegna

A year after its split from Gannett Co., Tegna’s 46 television stations are engaged in some heavy experimentation. Shan Wang highlights some of it, spotlighting multiplatform reporting at Atlanta’s WXIA and a general M.O. to kickstart a consumer’s news day with social, updating with digital, adding context with broadcast and then layering in with more digital and social. A highly useful look into the company’s tactical playbook. 

The cable net, with 80% U.S. coverage, will debut Tegna’s new talker a week after it makes its broadcast premiere.

While Tegna’s Seattle TV properties downsized with the move to a new operations center, they upsized in technology, collaboration and growth potential. The new digs turn out more than 18 hours of news a day with state-of-the-art equipment including Sony cameras, automation, production switchers and news automation that controls gear from Evertz, Logitek, Grass Valley, Abekas and Ross Video.

TV station groups are realizing that broadcasting is no longer enough — that, while it may be a solid business, it is no longer a great growth business. So they are looking to reinvent themselves by moving into new businesses like digital media and programming that can provide some upside.

In today’s earnings call, Tegna Media President Dave Lougee and Tegna CEO Gracia Matore were unconcerned about a shortfall in political in the second quarter, saying 3Q and 4Q would be significantly greater than in comparable years with Trump spending ramping up. In addition, core should rebound in the 3Q because of the Olympics airing on Tegna’s NBC affiliates next month. “Olympics are really strong,” Lougee said, noting that sales are up in “high single digits” percentage over the $48 million the group booked from the games in the 2012.

It looks to expand its online auto category position with the addition of the industry’s largest dealer review platform.

The increase is attributed to gains in retrans, online and political ad money, the last of which was up 273% to $10.2 million.

Through this investment, Tegna and the Kin Community social platform will work together to explore content sharing across Tegna Media’s digital and linear television properties, sponsored content and cross-promotion.

Jennifer Dulski, president of Change.org, has been elected to the board of directors of Tegna Inc., effective immediately, the company announced Thursday. “Jennifer is a highly accomplished executive with experience driving […]

Tegna Media President Dave Lougee: “Our market footprint is a healthy mutual fund of strong swing states like Ohio, Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia. Additionally and significantly, a Trump or Cruz nomination on the Republican side will very likely expand the number of U.S. Senate and House seats that will come into play in our markets, and spending for the control of Congress will almost certainly be unprecedented.”

The increase is due to gains in retrans, online and political ad money, the last of which was up 666.7% to $15.7 million.

Tegna stations have been offering buyouts for about the past month. Some reports say to get a one, you have to be over 55 and have worked at the station for more than 15 years. What the monetary deal is, we have no idea. From what we’ve seen each station was free to handle it the way they wanted.

Whistle Sports features a library of more than 230,000 videos and 1,720 channels that drive more than 600 million video views each month.

Tegna’s effort to overhaul local news is manifest in Inside the Triangle, a six-week investigation into heroin usage by the group’s Atlanta NBC affiliate. So far it’s been available only online, generating close to four million page views. “Everybody has talked for years about trying to change the formulaic product that we produce,” says Tegna’s Ellen Crooke, “and Tegna is devoted in 2016 that we’re going to do something about it.”

Tegna Inc.’s board of directors on Tuesday declared a dividend of $0.14 per share, payable on April 1 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 4.

Sources say Tegna is offering staffers a voluntary retirement program. Word is the plan is being offered to staffers 55 or older with 15 or more years in certain jobs.

“Between now and March 22, we have presidential primaries in 31 of our 38 markets. We know we will end up at record levels for the primary season,” said Tegna Media President Dave Lougee. “Between political, net retrans, the Olympics and digital sales growth, Tegna Media will have a record year.”

The drop is due to political advertising comparisons. Core was up 7% to almost $300 million and retrans climbed 27% to $120 million.

Launching a syndicated show is never easy, and it’s made even more difficult when there’s no established syndicator attached. That doesn’t seem to faze T.D. Jakes. “Everything I ever did started at ground level zero,” he says. “It is the fight that attracts me. If everything were nice and neat and all put together, I’m not sure I would be as energetic.”

Nicholas Lehman, former president of digital at NBCUniversal will work across Tegna’s companies to identify and develop new business opportunities.

Digital leaders at CNN, Tegna and the BBC said Tuesday at the NewsTECHForum that the shift was necessary, and pointed to their own incremental improvements toward story-centricity as evidence of its attainability.

Tegna announced Saturday that it has reached a multi-year agreement insuring continued carriage of its TV stations on DirecTV and AT&T U-verse with no interruption of service to viewers. Tegna Media comprises 46 television stations, reaching approximately one-third of all television households nationwide.

AT&T’s DirecTV and U-Verse units and station owner Tegna have agreed to delay a potential blackout for 24 hours in hopes they can resolve their retransmission dispute. The existing contract is now set to expire at midnight Friday. The agreement covers 47 stations.

Tegna has assembled a group of employees to make local broadcast television, including news, more interesting to a younger audience. It is also trying to create more original programming and discussing ways to better integrate its lineup with social media, CEO Gracia Martore says.

Labor unions are claiming KGW Portland owner Tegna is looking to bust up the NBC affiliate’s unions in order to replace union workers with cheaper help — and that they are currently fighting for their lives. In bargaining with the station’s four unions, Tegna is pushing to get rid of the clause on union jurisdiction.

Since Gracia Martore took the helm as CEO in December 2011 she has doubled the size of the TV station group, bolstered digital operations into an industry leader and jettisoned the newspapers that were dragging down profits. “She’s second to none in terms of staying on top of businesses and where they are heading,” says Dave Lougee, head of Tegna’s broadcasting division.

Tegna Inc.’s board of directors today declared a dividend of 14 cents per share, payable on Jan. 4, 2016, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on Dec. 4. “Tegna has top-performing assets and scale in both the broadcast and digital industries, consistently strong and dependable cash flows, high-growth, high-margin businesses and a shareholder-focused capital structure,” said Gracia Martore, Tegna president-CEO. “Our strong cash generation will enable us to invest for growth while simultaneously returning capital to shareholders.”

The decrease at the former Gannett station group to $416.5 million comes from lower political revenue that strong retrans and digital increases couldn’t quite offset.

Tegna had cut off Dish subscribers’ access to its local channels Friday evening in more than three dozen markets because of a contract dispute. The dispute affected 46 TV stations operated by Tegna in 38 markets across 33 states. On Sunday, the two sides said they reached a multi-year agreement, but did not provide further details.

The fight between Dish Network and Tegna heated up Friday evening as Tegna rejected Dish’s contract extension offer, and moved to black out Dish customers in 38 markets. The two have been fighting for weeks over the contract, with a temporary truce declared on Oct. 1 in light of hurricane Joaquin, agreeing to an eight-day extension which ended Friday night.

The CEO of the publicly traded media company rose to the top focusing on the job at hand. Right now, that means growing one of broadcasting’s best collections of TV stations and well-branded digital assets like Cars.com and CareerBuilder. This profile is the second in a series featuring individuals who will be honored by the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation as Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts  on Oct. 15 in New York. This year’s other honorees: Don Mischer, Herb Granath, Gene Jankowski, Mel Karmazin, Jarl Mohn, Bill Persky, the Carter family and Don West. Full Story | Add comment

Tegna Inc. said it has completed the sale of its corporate headquarters in the Washington suburb of McLean, Va., for $270 million to Tamares, a private investment group with holdings in the United States and Europe. As part of the completed deal, Tegna will continue to occupy a portion of the building for the next 18 months.

Tegna and Dish Network have agreed to an eight-day contract extension through Friday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. ET as talks continue on a new carriage agreement. With Hurricane Joaquin forecast to potentially impact several Tegna markets, “this extension ensures that critical programming remains available to all viewers,” the company said.

Negotiations to avoid blackouts of more than 100 TV stations carried by DirecTV and U-verse extended well into the night on Wednesday as both companies faced midnight ET deadlines on contracts with two large station groups. DirecTV and Media General late Wednesday agreed to push the deadline by three hours to midnight PT after a marathon negotiating session for retransmission consent rights to 62 stations. U-verse’s talks with Tribune Media for a new retrans pact covering 24 stations stretched late into the night on Wednesday.

The station group and satellite operator have agreed to a 24-hour extension of their retransmission consent deal as talks continue. The current agreement was scheduled to expire at 7 p.m. ET this evening.

More than 150 TV stations run by Tribune Media, Tegna and Media General could disappear late Wednesday/early Thursday from Dish, DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse if carriage deals between the stations and system operators lapse. Each case appears to come down to price.

10 million television households across 10 markets are covered in new deal, which also includes the launch of CBS All Access.

Shareholders of record as of Sept. 4 will receive 14 cents per share on Oct. 1.