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Job Cuts At Cox

T

TheBigA

AllAccess is reporting wide ranging job cuts taking place today at Cox Media Group, although none so far in Atlanta:

www.allaccess.com

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Only the names who have gone public with their departures were reported. WSB may have been spared...or not.
 
TheBigA said:
AllAccess is reporting wide ranging job cuts taking place today at Cox Media Group, although none so far in Atlanta:

www.allaccess.com

Radio Industry News, New Music, Music Promotion, Radio Station Song Charts

All Access offers the latest radio industry news and music news, music promotions for record companies new music, radio station song charts, and much more. AllAccess.com has been serving the radio and music industry since 1995, always bringing you the highest quality content with...
www.allaccess.com www.allaccess.com
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Although note Atlanta is a target for Divestment along with Seattle where Cox and Tegna owns stations but that may have to wait if the SEC and FCC approves the proposed deal.

We have to wait and see who gets the divested stations in these two places.
 
RadioPatrol said:
Although note Atlanta is a target for Divestment along with Seattle where Cox and Tegna owns stations but that may have to wait if the SEC and FCC approves the proposed deal.

We have to wait and see who gets the divested stations in these two places.
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There hasn't yet been a deal for Tegna. It's also rumored that Byron Allen, owner of Entertainment Studios, will be bidding for the company.
 
RadioPatrol said:
True we have to wait for the other shoe to drop and find out who on Tegna's side is going to get cut as the talks are ongoing.
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TEGNA has been cutting for quite some time now. More would be possible, though. Meredith certainly seemed to be making cuts as it was getting ready to put the TV stations up for bid. FTV Live has been reporting on cuts at Cox TV properties since Apollo bought the operation. That's usually where I look for TV related news.

RadioPatrol said:
Although note Atlanta is a target for Divestment along with Seattle where Cox and Tegna owns stations but that may have to wait if the SEC and FCC approves the proposed deal.

We have to wait and see who gets the divested stations in these two places.
Click to expand...

Yes. We'll have to see what happens. As some of the others have noted, TEGNA has turned down offers before. I seem to remember it's already turned down a higher offer than Apollo and Standard General's roughly $8 billion it's reportedly currently offering.
 
Kent said:
TEGNA has been cutting for quite some time now. More would be possible, though. Meredith certainly seemed to be making cuts as it was getting ready to put the TV stations up for bid. FTV Live has been reporting on cuts at Cox TV properties since Apollo bought the operation. That's usually where I look for TV related news.



Yes. We'll have to see what happens. As some of the others have noted, TEGNA has turned down offers before. I seem to remember it's already turned down a higher offer than Apollo and Standard General's roughly $8 billion it's reportedly currently offering.
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Also Byron Allen is named as a candidate to get Tegna and we have to wait and see how many layoffs his crew will announce. Yes Byron Allen will have less divestments compared to COX though and the current layoffs.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
There hasn't yet been a deal for Tegna. It's also rumored that Byron Allen, owner of Entertainment Studios, will be bidding for the company.
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Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios also owns the Atlanta-based The Weather Channel. TWC has a solid radio presence as they provide weather forecasts for radio stations.
 
I've been wondering if they're getting ready to sell some of these markets. Maybe just keep Atlanta.

That way they can build the war chest for buying Tegna.
 
TheBigA said:
I've been wondering if they're getting ready to sell some of these markets. Maybe just keep Atlanta.

That way they can build the war chest for buying Tegna.
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I do not think that money is a problem for Apollo. They just seem to buy and buy and buy across many different industries.
 
TheBigA said:
If money's not a problem, why the job cuts at radio?
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Humans are always disposable (in anything, not just radio). I've not heard a thing in Dayton, so must be status quo for now. They'll have the same issue selling the radio clusters as Scripps did. Dayton, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tulsa don't make sense as a regional footprint.
 
BarryATL said:
I do not think that money is a problem for Apollo. They just seem to buy and buy and buy across many different industries.
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And their investors require a certain ROI and specific performance ratios. If not met, adjustments are made.

There was a feeling that Cox was one of the last groups to hold the traditional staffing and localism models as sacred. It appears that they are now under a new set of criteria that requires better margins.
 
DavidEduardo said:
And their investors require a certain ROI and specific performance ratios. If not met, adjustments are made.

There was a feeling that Cox was one of the last groups to hold the traditional staffing and localism models as sacred. It appears that they are now under a new set of criteria that requires better margins.
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That is definitely the case. Cox probably was the best broadcast company to work for. The WSB-TV people always walked on a cloud, working at the dominant #1 station, especially in the news areas. That all changed when Apollo took over. One early sign was terminating WSB-TV's Director of Sales, one of the best in the business, and replacing her with someone who costs a lot less. And there were cutbacks in the newsroom. This year for the first time in decades, the FOX O&O, WAGA-TV, started edging out WSB-TV in the 11 o'clock news.
 
I know in Dayton the original Cox bought back the Dayton Daily News, otherwise it would have had to only publish 3 days a week. I'm thinking the original Cox still owns the Atlanta paper?
 
DavidEduardo said:
There was a feeling that Cox was one of the last groups to hold the traditional staffing and localism models as sacred. It appears that they are now under a new set of criteria that requires better margins.
Click to expand...

That, to me, always seemed like an illusion. Cox may have been better than most, but it was every bit as lean as its competitors in most markets. From what I understand, its Tulsa cluster never had more than one person manning the radio stations after 6 or 7 PM unless severe weather hit. It also tried to implement Lia and the Dream Doctor company wide on its country and AC properties respectively before ultimately replacing them with voicetrackers. Those voicetrackers were usually local, but most of its stations haven’t had live talent after dark for 20 years.

BarryATL said:
I do not think that money is a problem for Apollo. They just seem to buy and buy and buy across many different industries.
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I can’t remember where I read it, but, should Apollo and Standard General get TEGNA, Standard General will be the dominant company. Cox will contribute one TV station plus some cash to become a minority holder in the company. The existing Standard General TV stations will be rolled into the new TEGNA. The report I read said lawyers for the three companies have been trying to figure out just how small of an interest Apollo can have and not trigger antitrust and multiple ownership issues. TEGNA was said to only be interested in the deal if Standard General and Apollo could do it in such a way that it could get through the DOJ with minimal delays. The article also reported Byron Allen's offer was not likely to be taken seriously unless he could get an additional private equity backer.
 
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