Standard General tells Tegna employees ‘no intention to reduce staff’

Conventional Media CEO Deb McDermott tried using to calm rumors and considerations that when and if her organization takes in excess of Tegna, the new organization may well lower staff members.

In a very abnormal transfer during a takeover, and with takeover approval nonetheless in the hands of the Federal Communications Fee, McDermott sent a memo to Tegna personnel that provided 1 paragraph in bold font for emphasis:

You could have go through feedback in the push from teams opposing the transaction speculating that Common Common will be chopping journalism and laying off journalists at the Company’s stations. These reviews are simply just untrue.

Common Basic and I have always placed a high benefit on community journalism and have no intention, and have hardly ever experienced the intention, of lessening information or information workers at TEGNA stations. In simple fact, and as we have represented to the FCC, we do not intend to cut down station-amount staffing subsequent the transaction.

To the opposite, we assume to compete vigorously in all markets, which will demand ongoing expenditure in neighborhood journalism and newsgathering functions.

Our commitment to journalism is backed by equally Regular General’s and my keep track of records of primary community broadcast groups in excess of the final 12 decades, which includes all those at Young Broadcasting, Media Common and most a short while ago, Common Media Group.

The CEO’s electronic mail follows what Typical General — the expense business that owns Regular Media — calls “bewildering” scrutiny from the FCC. The FCC questioned for detailed details about Common General’s designs for staffing and serving the public desire, and how it options to handle retransmission agreements with cable and satellite firms. The FCC issued a protecting order that would require the corporation to send private facts to the govt that would not have to be launched to the public.

Teams including Frequent Lead to, the NewsGuild-CWA, and General public Awareness have brazenly opposed the takeover and asked the FCC to delay the acceptance.

The speculation that Normal Basic might cut team may possibly be rooted in the sticky takeover war of terms. Standard Normal head Soo Kim has been critical of Tegna’s leadership, even although making an attempt to get the enterprise. In April 2020, Regular Typical issued a detailed assault on Tegna’s profitability that involved a reference that concerned Tegna staff members. It posted this graphic, in which it mentioned Tegna stations have “2x the variety of workers for each station when compared to peers” but lags guiding its friends in profitability.

(Common Basic SEC submitting, April 13, 2020)

Typical Common did not say that Tegna was overstaffed, but the comparison was unsettling to employees who glimpse at what has occurred in the newspaper marketplace when non-public fairness fund administrators acquire about media businesses and slash staff. Sector observers level out that Tegna stations are generally in larger marketplaces than field friends, whilst each Nexstar and Grey have additional large market place stations to their portfolios in new several years.

In her email, McDermott does not outright say there will be no layoffs or team cuts — nobody can make these types of predictions — but she did say that her have monitor history as a media executive exhibits her determination to journalism:

Possessing been a station normal supervisor and operating with newsrooms for extra than 30 a long time, I firmly believe that potent local journalism is an critical element to a prosperous community broadcast station.

Although I will have significantly a lot more to share with you in the foreseeable future about our article-closing strategies, I wished you to hear these details from me and reiterate our determination to creating on the quite a few successes you have presently accomplished. I seem forward to conference you in person in the foreseeable future and to working with you all to build new possibilities for the Company.