FAQs - Standard General and TEGNA Facts

frequently asked questions

This transaction will create the largest minority-owned and female-led TV broadcasting company in U.S. history.

The transaction will increase minority ownership of commercial TV stations by almost 300%, from 24 to 85.

Half of the post-transaction TEGNA board members will be minority individuals and more than half will be women.

Standard General and new CEO Deb McDermott have a track record of operating and improving TV stations.

Deb McDermott has 40 years of broadcast experience, 20 years of which include leading broadcast groups, and 12 of which have been spent working with Standard General and its founder, Soo Kim.

Standard General pulled Young Broadcasting out of bankruptcy in 2010 and proceeded to invest tens of millions of dollars in its 14 television stations over a period of just 18 months. Young Broadcasting and subsequently Media General added thousands of hours of local news under the leadership of Mr. Kim and Ms. McDermott. When the Media General stations were sold to Nexstar in 2017, they were annually airing more than 11,500 hours of news above and beyond what they were airing prior to Mr. Kim’s and Ms. McDermott’s involvement.

No. Standard General has every intention of growing newsgathering operations at local stations and is backing this up with a voluntary commitment to the FCC to maintain current newsroom staffing for a minimum of two years.

Standard General’s track record is clear. Newsroom staffing reductions are not consistent with how it does business. It increased news staffing by 28% across its stations even during the pandemic when many broadcasters were cutting staff.

Standard General, Soo Kim, and Deb McDermott have been approved numerous times by the FCC as qualified to own and operate broadcast stations.

The transaction fully complies with all FCC rules and precedent. It does not require any ownership waivers or station divestitures, and doesn’t rely in any way on the UHF Discount to meet the national ownership cap.

This is not a consolidation transaction. Indeed, because Standard General will be selling its four existing stations and four of the TEGNA stations as part of this transaction, TEGNA will be smaller after the transaction than it currently is, with 61 full-power television stations and two radio stations across 50 markets.

Dozens of letters have been filed in the FCC docket in support of the transaction and the future of local broadcasting, coming from former employees, labor unions, Civil Rights groups that have personally observed Soo Kim’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, women in tech leadership, broadcasters, and other public interest groups seeking to advance diversity in broadcasting.

Examples of supporters that have filed in the docket include Rainbow PUSH Coalition; The Arc of Justice; Estrella Media, Inc.; The National Association of Hispanic Publications; Advocating for Women in Tech Leadership; The Legislative Black Caucuses of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina; The Atlanta NAACP; and The National Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce.

That’s a good question, and one worth asking regulators. Despite the transaction complying with all rules and precedent, the government’s review of has taken far longer than prior TV station transactions.

The applicants have cooperated fully with the FCC’s exhaustive review of the transaction – including multiple document productions covering thousands of pages of the applicants’ confidential information, responses to interrogatories, and extended pleading cycles.

The substantial delay is making the transaction more difficult, expensive and uncertain, diverting resources that could be better used for station operations.