Tegna centralizes station marketing operations, creates regional hubs

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Tegna centralizes station marketing operations, creates regional hubs

Tegna is restructuring its television station marketing operations, establishing seven regional marketing hubs while eliminating ... Read More

www.newscaststudio.com

Yes Tegna calls it restructuring for 2025 but in other links it lead to layoffs at their local stations like KXTV Sacramento, KENS San Antonio and others.

Tegna Lays Off Local Station Marketers In Favor Of Centralized Marketing - TV News Check

Anne Bentley, Tegna’s chief communications officer: "The [marketing] team will oversee key areas including the growth of our stations and audience, digital marketing, consumer insights, community engagement, commercial production and strategic initiatives like sponsorships and sports."

tvnewscheck.com

The TEGNA cuts of 2024

TEGNA's job cuts this week include centralizing its marketing team.

mikemcguff.blogspot.com

Tegna Cuts in Sacramento — FTVLive

The Pink Slip Express plowed through Tegna’s Sacramento station.

www.ftvlive.com

https://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/layoffs-kens5-tegna-19929524.php

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/khou-morning-newscast-19943617.php

Tegna cuts it's 4:30 am Newscast in Houston.

‘Good Company’ canceled at WKYC as part of corporate restructuring

The daily talk show with sponsored content is going off the air in mid-January.

www.cleveland.com

WKYC cancels one of their shows as part of the cuts.

 

[Mediafrog+]

There have been dozens of posts on other forums from TEGNA insiders regarding all the layoffs. They indicate that the plan is to completely gut the staffs at local stations, with only a skeleton news department remaining. Everything else is being centralized, hubbed, or replaced by AI.

Keep in mind that TEGNA wasn’t even supposed to exist today, and is only still around due to the failure of the sale to Standard General. TEGNA is likely preparing the group for a new sale in the future, once station caps are lifted and a wave of consolidation happens.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

Restructuring means layoffs in the vast majority of cases.

 

[secondchoice]

Sales folks work on commission most of the time. From what I gathered from the article they are doing away with "established" sales people. If a sales person doesn't produce he / she will leave on their own or starve.The salesman/ woman brings in a whole lot more money than they cost. Maybe in a large market it's all just ratings and agencies but in smaller markets there still is some human contact with the decision maker. I can just see it now, a client wants to talk to a salesperson at lunch.* The poor secretary has to tell him he has to go to a website instead.

*Back in the day, I bought a $40 lunch (which the station paid for) and got a $1500.00 a month contract for a year.

 

[radiofan2023]

I can just see it now, a client wants to talk to a salesperson at lunch.* The poor secretary has to tell him he has to go to a website instead.

*Back in the day, I bought a $40 lunch (which the station paid for) and got a $1500.00 a month contract for a year.

It's "administrative assistant", but the lunch price is probably still the same.

 

[secondchoice]

It's "administrative assistant", but the lunch price is probably still the same.

Sorry we were not PC

Or if they are really cheap: marketing intern

 

[Megatron]

There have been dozens of posts on other forums from TEGNA insiders regarding all the layoffs. They indicate that the plan is to completely gut the staffs at local stations, with only a skeleton news department remaining. Everything else is being centralized, hubbed, or replaced by AI.

Keep in mind that TEGNA wasn’t even supposed to exist today, and is only still around due to the failure of the sale to Standard General. TEGNA is likely preparing the group for a new sale in the future, once station caps are lifted and a wave of consolidation happens.

I agree TEGNA is putting the for sale sign up for someone to buy them with the new FCC I think it isn't going to be until sometime in 2026 when TEGNA gets sold in my. I don't see Standard General A.K.A. Media General from the dead buying TEGNA I think it would be Gray the most likely to buy TEGNA in my opinion. I Soo Kim still on the TEGNA board?

 

[Kent]

*Back in the day, I bought a $40 lunch (which the station paid for) and got a $1500.00 a month contract for a year.

In radio, the station didn't pay for those lunches with the clients; they were bought with trade. Having never worked in TV, I can't say how the system works in that universe, but I would figure TV stations have a fair amount of trade, too.

I agree TEGNA is putting the for sale sign up for someone to buy them with the new FCC I think it isn't going to be until sometime in 2026 when TEGNA gets sold in my. I don't see Standard General A.K.A. Media General from the dead buying TEGNA I think it would be Gray the most likely to buy TEGNA in my opinion.

Hard to say who will end up with what. Gray, though, isn't in a very good position to snap up more large groups. Its stock is down about 2/3 from its highest point in the last year, and it's about 1/6 the value of TEGNA stock. That's a problem a lot of groups are having right now. With advertising remaining at recession levels, buying up tons of TV stations doesn't make as much sense as it used to, though more stations might offer you more leverage with pay TV providers. The Altman Z-Score rates almost all broadcasting companies as highly distressed. About the only major TV broadcaster I've found that doesn't fall into the distressed range, ironically, is TEGNA.

I Soo Kim still on the TEGNA board?

The TEGNA website doesn't list him among the company's board of directors.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

I agree TEGNA is putting the for sale sign up for someone to buy them with the new FCC I think it isn't going to be until sometime in 2026 when TEGNA gets sold in my. I don't see Standard General A.K.A. Media General from the dead buying TEGNA I think it would be Gray the most likely to buy TEGNA in my opinion. I Soo Kim still on the TEGNA board?

if Gray and Tegna deal is really approved then Atlanta and New Haven-Hartford TV Market would have to be the places where some of the stations would have to go to an unrelated party but who?

 

[CurtisNEPA]

if Gray and Tegna deal is really approved then Atlanta and New Haven-Hartford TV Market would have to be the places where some of the stations would have to go to an unrelated party but who?

Maybe Byron Allen?

 

[Mediafrog+]

if Gray and Tegna deal is really approved then Atlanta and New Haven-Hartford TV Market would have to be the places where some of the stations would have to go to an unrelated party but who?

Ownership caps are about to be relaxed or eliminated completely. There may be no need for divestitures. 2025 will see rule changes, followed by a slew of deals and closings in 2026.

The broadcast industry will want change implemented quickly, so things can start moving before the 2026 midterm elections.

Maybe Byron Allen?

That would be a bigger nightmare for any stations involved, as Allen Media is in slash and burn mode right now. Of course TEGNA is on the same path, but in somewhat better financial condition.

 

[JeeperOne]

I agree TEGNA is putting the for sale sign up for someone to buy them with the new FCC I think it isn't going to be until sometime in 2026 when TEGNA gets sold in my. I don't see Standard General A.K.A. Media General from the dead buying TEGNA I think it would be Gray the most likely to buy TEGNA in my opinion. I Soo Kim still on the TEGNA board?

Gray is too big to buy TEGNA (To say NOTHING of the fact they would be saddled with a CBS/FOX/MyNetwork TV TRIPOLY in Tuscon, AZ (Something tells me EVEN Trump's owsn custom made FCC would let THAT fly)

 

[yeoldeschool]

There have been dozens of posts on other forums from TEGNA insiders regarding all the layoffs. They indicate that the plan is to completely gut the staffs at local stations, with only a skeleton news department remaining. Everything else is being centralized, hubbed, or replaced by AI.

I keep reading this. Which positions in television are being replaced by AI, exactly?

 

[Kent]

I keep reading this. Which positions in television are being replaced by AI, exactly?

It doesn't say these jobs specifically were replaced by AI, but here's some information about TEGNA's latest cuts.

The TEGNA cuts of 2024

TEGNA's job cuts this week include centralizing its marketing team.

mikemcguff.blogspot.com

And this article says basically the same thing with less detail but includes some quotes from the CEO of the company.

Broadcast Giant Laying Off Hundreds in Favor of ‘Centralization’ - FITSNews

“Building a sustainable future for local news is hard...”

www.fitsnews.com

 

[radiofan2023]

There have been robotic tv cameras for many years now, too. I talked to someone at WQAD (a TEGNA station) around 2014, and he told me they had just started using them.

 

[CurtisNEPA]

Looks like I believe that TEGNA cuts have finally hit our most watched station in my area.

WNEP-TV, a TEGNA owned ABC station has announced that its outdoor lifestyle show "Pennsylvania Outdoor Life" has been cancelled and will air its last show this Sunday. The show has been on for 43 years, even since they were owned by a local broadcasting group and its studios were located next to an airport off I-81. When they were under a previous owner, they were on at 6:30pm Sunday evenings, preempting ABC World News for many years before moving to Sunday mornings.

Its other lifestyle show "Home and Backyard" remains on their schedule.

 

[NYAZSporty]

Looks like I believe that TEGNA cuts have finally hit our most watched station in my area.

WNEP-TV, a TEGNA owned ABC station has announced that its outdoor lifestyle show "Pennsylvania Outdoor Life" has been cancelled and will air its last show this Sunday. The show has been on for 43 years, even since they were owned by a local broadcasting group and its studios were located next to an airport off I-81. When they were under a previous owner, they were on at 6:30pm Sunday evenings, preempting ABC World News for many years before moving to Sunday mornings.

Its other lifestyle show "Home and Backyard" remains on their schedule.

Have a feeling they'll be some folks speaking their mind about this to the point where it'll be featured on a Talkback 16 segment during one of the newscasts pretty soon.

 

[davideduardo]

In radio, the station didn't pay for those lunches with the clients; they were bought with trade.

Very seldom in larger markets would one take a client to a restaurant that did trade; as often as not we'd ask the client what their favorite place was.

At one point, I'd be doing three or four lunches a week with agency clients as that was a necessity to keep up personal relationships and trust (the market had over 120 local agencies).

That was radio in a top 15 market.