Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Tegna, Inc.

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Type
  
Public company

Headquarters
  
Virginia, United States

Predecessor
  
Gannett Company

Website
  
tegna.com

Founded
  
29 June 2015


Traded as
  
NYSE: TGNA S&P 500 Component

Key people
  
Gracia Martore (President & CEO) Marjorie Magner (chairman) Dave Lougee (President, Tegna Media) John Williams (President, Tegna Digital)

Products
  
Television Internet Media

Stock price
  
TGNA (NYSE) US$ 25.42 -0.11 (-0.43%)27 Mar, 4:00 PM GMT-4 - Disclaimer

CEO
  
Gracia Martore (29 Jun 2015–)

Subsidiaries
  
WFAA, KING-TV, Clipper Magazine, Metromix

Profiles

LinkedIn
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube

Tegna, Inc. (stylized as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast and digital media company headquartered in McLean, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015 when Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies. Tegna comprises 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 46 television stations (which, alongside those historically owned by Gannett/Tegna, includes stations that had recently been acquired by Tegna from Belo Corporation and the London Broadcasting Company), and is the largest group owner of stations affiliated with NBC and CBS, and properties in digital media.

Contents

History

On August 5, 2014, Gannett announced that it plans to 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 currently leads 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.

On April 21, 2015, the company announced that the broadcasting and digital company would be named Tegna—a partial anagram of "Gannett". The spin-out was structured so that Tegna is the legal successor to the "old" Gannett, while the "new" Gannett is legally considered a new company. The split was completed on June 29, 2015. Tegna retains "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.

Tegna Media

As of June 2015, Tegna Media currently owns 46 television stations located in 38 markets (including seven duopolies). 18 of the company's stations are affiliated with NBC (including a semi-satellite of KCEN-TV and a digital subchannel of KBMT), ten are affiliated with CBS, nine are affiliated with ABC, and three are affiliated with Fox. In addition, the company owns two CW affiliates, three MyNetworkTV affiliates and one independent station.

It also provides operational services to KTTU in Tucson through shared services agreements with Tucker Operating Co.

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 1978.
  • (~~) – 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.
  • (^^) – Indicates a station owned by Sander Media from 2013 to 2015 and operated by Gannett/Tegna prior to its acquisiton by Tegna, Inc. in 2015.
  • (††) – KMSB is owned by Tegna; KTTU is owned by Tucker Operating Company. Tegna and Raycom Media affiliate KOLD-TV (CBS) 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.

    • Cable networks

    All of these are news networks owned by Belo prior to acquisition by Tegna.

    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.

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

    Tegna Digital

    Gannett Company spun-off most of its internet media properties to Tegna. 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:

    Television stations

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

    Notes:

  • (**) – Indicates a station that was built and/or signed-on by Gannett.
  • (§§) – Indicates a station owned by Combined Communications Corporation, 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 day 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. The KMOV sale was completed on February 28, 2014. The KTVK/KASW sale was completed on June 19.
  • 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.

    Radio stations

    (a partial listing)

    References

    Tegna, Inc. Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA