Tegna

Executives from Tegna, Gray Television and E.W. Scripps will look at how to convert their surging pandemic audiences into longer-term viewers on their digital and broadcast platforms at TVNewsCheck’s TV2025: Monetizing the Future virtual event later this month. Register here.

Brendan Keefe, chief investigative reporter at WXIA, Tegna’s NBC affiliate in Atlanta, has pretty much been a one-man-band since he was hired as a news photographer in 1991.  Today, Keefe is the leader of the investigative team at WXIA, and the corporate trainer for all 60 Tegna stations.

WUSA Washington GM Richard Dyer is promoted to senior vice president, adding WLTX Columbia and WFMY Greensboro to his oversight, while Kate Morris is named president and general manager of KPNX Phoenix.

He will oversee attracting, retaining and growing diverse talent, developing training programs to enhance awareness and accountability in diversity issues as well as facilitating the company’s racial diversity and inclusion employee working group.

Broadcasters, including CBS, E.W. Scripps, Hearst, Tegna and Graham Media, are bolstering their fact-checking operations as the 2020 election looms closer, partnering with outside groups like Politifact, FactCheck.org and First Draft to ensure their own trustworthiness with local viewers.

In its second quarter earnings call with analysts, CEO Dave Lougee said that looking forward, the company will “benefit from a large number of unusual events that we would not normally see in the back half of the year that are rescheduled from the second quarter.”

The increase to $578 million is driven by acquisitions, continued growth in subscription revenue and political revenue, partially offset by advertising declines as a result of COVID-19.

The epidemic of misinformation helps Tegna check the box with new audiences. “Our audiences are consuming news and local news in a way that they never have before, where their lives literally depend on it,” says Ellen Crooke, Tegna’s VP of news. “They are desperate to find somebody without an agenda, without spin to take some of the things that are out there and help them be smarter about what’s true and what’s not true.”

Ellen Crooke, Tegna’s VP of news, says the Black Lives Matter movement has promoted greater “intentionality” in the group’s efforts for diversity and inclusion in its news organizations and leadership. She adds that COVID-19 has also supercharged Tegna’s Verify fact-checking project and data visualization efforts.

Tegna Inc.’s board of directors on Wednesday declared a dividend of 7 cents per share, payable on Oct. 1, 2020, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on Sept. 4, 2020. “Due to our rigorous financial discipline during these challenging times and our continued focus on our five-pillar strategy, we remain well positioned to manage through current conditions and build on our long track record of shareholder value creation,” said Dave Lougee, Tegna president and CEO.

Tegna’s multicast network is rebranding on July 27 as a one-stop destination for true crime content that will also offer a free, on-demand streaming service and podcasts.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact people and newsrooms, Tegna has implemented corporate policies to keep reporters, producers and news executives safe.

The coronavirus pandemic forced television news operations to produce almost entirely from producers’ and anchors’ homes. During a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch Webinar, set for May 28 at 1 p.m. ET, leading television engineering and operations executives will talk about what they’ve learned while facilitating this massive shift in workflow and the long-term changes likely to flow from it. Above, l-r: Speakers Richard Friedel, Fox Television Stations; Clint Moore, Gray Television; and Robert Lydick, Tegna Media.

“We are seeing improvement week-to-week,” CEO Dave Lougee said of ad sales trends. He declined to give a number, but said it is not as bad as the 50% drop in local mentioned in the Fox Corp. conference call.

The increase to $684 million is driven by strength in subscription and political revenues. Net income increased 17% and adjusted EBITDA rose 39%, benefiting from high-margin political revenues and recent acquisitions.

Coronavirus-necessitated remote workflows have spun up quickly and reliably to allow TV stations to keep broadcasting during the pandemic. There’s reason to believe they’ll stick around after the crisis subsides. Above: Avid Edit On Demand provides a full virtual production environment in the cloud, including Media Composer software and Avid NEXIS storage. (Source: Avid)

The defeat of a proposal by Standard General’s Soo Kim is a victory for Tegna Chairman Howard Elias and CEO David Lougee and followed announcement of a 7 cents a share dividend to shareholders earlier this morning.

Tegna Inc.’s board of directors today declared a dividend of 7 cents per share, payable on July 1 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on June 5. “Tegna’s positive momentum continued in the first quarter of 2020 as we continue to execute on our five-pillar strategy during these unprecedented times,” said Dave Lougee, president-CEO. “With our prudent capital structure and focus on our strategic vision, we remain positioned to create value for our shareholders.”

Soo Kim’s ill-timed persistence for seats on Tegna’s board has been undermined by statements from three influential proxy advisers. And that’s a good thing.  Current management led by CEO David Lougee may have its faults, but it beats Kim, whose goal is to merge or sell the company out of existence.

All three proxy advisory firms recommend against the election of Soohyung Kim to the Tegna board.

Proxy adviser Glass Lewis & Co. says: “We believe Tegna shareholders would be best served at this time by voting to elect all of the company’s director nominees,” rejecting the move by Standard General to add four directors to the company’s 12-member board.

Tegna, in the midst of a proxy fight with investor Standard General, said it expects first quarter net income to be $86 million, up 17%, but suspended its guidance for the rest of 2020 and 2021 because of uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services said on Friday that Tegna shareholders should elect one of hedge fund Standard General’s director nominees to the broadcast company’s board. ISS backed Colleen Brown, saying that her “direct experience with local stations would appear to be additive to the board.” ISS recommended that shareholders not vote for three other dissident nominees, including Soohyung Kim, the hedge fund’s founder, who has been pushing the company to consider selling itself.

Ariel Investments LLC, the 11th-largest shareholder of Tegna Inc., said on Monday it was backing the company’s board in its proxy contest with hedge fund Standard General. “We have been very happy with [Tegna’s] performance. They have delivered solid results. They have made the right moves by making accretive acquisitions,” Ariel portfolio fund manager John Miller said.

The company seeks to correct “Standard General’s many errors and false and misleading statements” while detailing Tegna’s “strong performance, experienced board, and focus on shareholder value.”

The company urges shareholders to vote for all Tegna nominees and highlights its “successful transformation, track record of value creation and accomplished board of directors.”

Dave Lougee, Tegna CEO, sent an email to employees Monday announcing companywide weeklong furloughs to be taken in the second quarter of this year. The company is implementing a “one week furlough for most employees to be taken between the week of April 20 and the week of June 26. Lougee said he and the Tegna board will take a 25% pay cut during April, May and June.

Activist investor Standard General on Friday said it has increased its stake in Tegna to 12%, a 20% increase. Standard General, which is mounting a proxy fight to get a slate of four directors added to Tegna’s board, said that it believes that it is now the largest shareholder in the broadcaster.

Tegna branded the sale of 5 million shares in the broadcaster by activist investor Standard General as something that should be “troubling” to stockholders being asked to put Standard General nominees on the Tegna board.

The TV group says two of the four unsolicited acquisition proposals have been withdrawn in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the other two parties have not signed confidentiality agreements to enable due diligence and have not delivered any information on financing sources.

Former analyst John Janedis is returning to Wall Street as managing director and head of the media team at Wolfe Research after 15 months at Tegna. Janedis had been a top-ranked analyst at UBS and Wells Fargo before joining Tegna as senior VP, capital markets and investor relations at Tegna.

The Najafi Companies and Trinity Broadcasting Network have joined the other companies attempting to acquire Tegna Inc. The two companies’ joint offer is $20 per share for the U.S. broadcast, digital media and marketing services of Tegna. The Najafi Companies is a private global investment firm, while TBN is a faith-and-family broadcaster that says it reaches more than 175 nations.

Gray Television has withdrawn its offer to acquire larger peer Tegna because of concerns about the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on U.S. regional TV station operators, people familiar with the matter said. Gray had offered to buy Tegna for about $8.5 billion, including debt, Reuters reported earlier this month. After Gray’s stock tumbled on the news and concerns about the coronavirus pandemic’s financial impact became widespread, the Atlanta-based company decided this was not the time to pursue the transformative acquisition, one of the sources said.