The deal also unites two companies that have sought, with mixed results, to present themselves as neutral arbiters in a partisan moment. But the news director and managing editor of its prime-time news block, also called NewsNation, resigned soon after it was revealed that Bill Shine, the former Fox News co-president, had come aboard as an adviser. Earlier this year, Sook said that Nexstar was already taking in more revenue from political spending than ever before. In reality, Nexstar says, its stations reach 63 percent of American households, well surpassing the cap. He said NewsNation would launch a five-hour morning program later this year and remained committed to having a full lineup of news and talk programming by mid-2023. Nexstar Media Group subsidiary Nexstar Media Inc. has acquired political news outlet The Hill in a $130 million deal, the company announced Friday. "Nexstar has long viewed the acquisition of Tribune Media as a strategically, financially and operationally compelling opportunity that brings immediate value to shareholders of both. Country: USA The Hill will join Irving-based. The station airs eleven hours of local newscasts every weekday, starting at 4am and ending at 11:30pm. Nexstar executives believed they had to drastically change WGN America after it was acquired as part of its $4.1-billion deal for Tribune Broadcastings TV stations. Advertising generates revenue. Articles and headlines often have minimally loaded language, such as this Trump, Pence highlight policy-focused events in D.C. But after eight months on the air, NewsNation has been plagued by minuscule ratings and internal strife over allegations of meddling in news coverage. The ideal figures to hold those officials to account are local journalists familiar with state budgets, local lawmakers, and the unique contours of their communities. Nexstar has also hired lobbyists to exert influence in Congress and at the FCC while simultaneously expanding its DC bureau, where its news staff covers Congress. 5)About half of the 32 outlets have an audience that pretty clearly leans to the left, while seven have audiences that lean conservative. DC In 2019, when Nexstar was seeking FCC permission to acquire Tribune, public interest groups including Common Cause filed a petition arguing that the merger would give Nexstar monopoly-like control, enabling it to keep raising retransmission fees. NewsNation was launched by Irving, TX-based Nexstar Media Group as a nonbiased alternative to the opinionated prime-time hosts. The founder, chairman, president, and CEO of Nexstar is Perry A. Sook. 02/09/21 3:33 PM EST, Article Surveys of consumers showed that TV news was the second leading reason for keeping a pay-TV subscription, right behind live sports. Press Freedom Rating: MOSTLY FREE 4) MSNBC, despite its reputation as the most liberal cable news network, has a more moderate audience than the four publications mentioned above -- and only a slightly more liberal audience than CNN. After drawing on local station news operations to staff NewsNation for its launch, Sook has said Nexstar is looking to hire executives and talent with national network experience. They have recently gained another digital reporter and a California correspondent. In the first case, Biden v. Nebraska, majority of the justices appeared skeptical that Congress gave clear enough authorization for the Biden administration to forgive billions [] The accusations were detailed in a lengthy profile on the media brand by the New York Times on Sunday that painted an environment of conflict between executives who are trying to establish a neutral cable news brand and front-line journalists who believe the result of their efforts is anything but. NewsNation isnt alone in its struggles. Some regional broadcasts, such as town halls with lawmakers that run with limited advertising breaks, are a clear public service. , in large part because the company owns stations in swing districts and states across the country. All rights reserved, except where otherwise noted. Ad-Free Sign up Those pressures can limit journalists ambition in deciding what to cover. Behind the scenes, executives are scrambling to figure out how to draw more viewers into NewsNation: When it launched last year, around 133,000 households tuned in, according to data released by Nielsen. While Nexstars corporate management has figured out how to make the company profitableamass power in retransmission negotiationsthey are no different from newsrooms anywhere in that they havent made this kind of reporting profitable. Article By Ben Smith and Katie Robertson. In sum, the news is generally reported factually and with a slight left-leaning editorial bias. The company can continue to boast that it serves the public good by keeping local news afloat; in its FCC application to acquire Tribune, Nexstar had argued that the consolidation would result in more airtime for local news and was therefore in the public interest. And regardless of how much an individual station manager personally values accountability reporting, in the end that manager is tasked with keeping the station profitable, which means running more hours of news programming with a lean staff, making it much more difficult for a reporter to spend two months setting up a necessary interview with a government official. Their stories run on the website and are also aired on Nexstar stations across the border region, from San Diego to Albuquerque to McAllen, thereby reaching larger audiences than stories for a single local paper or TV station would. Dont miss reporting and analysis from the Hill and the White House. From the February 16, 2021,edition of WLNS 6 News at 11 PM. Revenue is generated through advertising. The latest: Biden praises labor secretary nominee Julie Su as 'what the American Dream is all about, The other way Rupert Murdoch tried to tip the scales for Trump, The Trump-DeSantis contest may come down to education, Rupert Murdochs big admission about Fox News, my post Tuesday morning on Pew's new study of Americans' media habits. Nexstar operates traditional media as well as digital and mobile media platforms. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, For her to walk away is a big deal.. However, Lyons'. Over the last decade The Hill has sought to attract readers interested in political news without carving out a partisan editorial voice a challenge at a time of political polarization. Factual Reporting: HIGH The deal sealed the companys dominance over Sinclair, which had tried to purchase Tribune in 2018 but failed to get support from the FCC. Overall, we rate KTLA Least Biased based on neutral straight news reporting without offering opinion pieces. Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit OpenSecrets. The staff also reflects a diversity of viewpoints, which they are encouraged to express., From the start, there were suspicions in the TV news industry that NewsNation might have a conservative slant. TODD BENSMAN (CIS SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY FELLOW): You have just an open border. McHugh has done several lengthy investigations on sexual assault cases for NewsNation. Sean Compton, the Nexstar executive overseeing the operation, is longtime friends with former President Trump and his leading TV cheerleader, Fox News host Sean Hannity. And regardless of how much an individual station manager personally values accountability reporting, in the end that manager is tasked with keeping the station profitable, which means running more hours of news programming with a lean staff, making it much more difficult for a reporter to spend two months setting up a necessary interview with a government official. According to Open Secrets, Nexstar Media group gave more money to Republicans in the 2018 election cycle (45% to Democrats, 55% to Republicans). Despite the slow start, Sook has told Wall Street analysts that the company is not concerned about the financial performance of NewsNation and is in it for the long term. However, in 2020 they . 03/01/23 10:37 AM EST, Video & Audio During the launch of NewsNation, Sean Compton, Nexstar Inc.'s Networks Division President, said, "Rebranding WGN America as NewsNation underscores the network's clearly defined mission of delivering fact-based and unbiased news, while making it easier for viewers to find this new informative source for news." Top of Page Articles from NewsNation Under Nexstar. Many reports contain videos from TV news content. Factual Reporting: HIGH Albert Ramon, Joe Donlon, Marni Hughes and Rob Nelson on the Chicago-based set of NewsNation. Starting about fifteen years ago, a handful of companies including Nexstar, Sinclair, Tegna, and Gray Television competed to buy up independent stations and media companies. KTLA.com is the associated website that publishes news and information pertaining to the Southern California region. They argued that the merger would diminish local news because Nexstar lays off employees at some stations it acquires and relies too much on pumping content from its regional hubs. As of July 2020, Nexstar Media Group owned 196 stations. In 2017, Nexstar acquired Media General, which ran local newspapers and television stations, for $4.6 billion. CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian has spent years attacking immigrants, both documented and undocumented. He is also the author of three books about television, including a biography of pioneer talk show host and producer David Susskind. They cover community events. Advertisers are also willing to pay more to run commercials on live original programs than sitcoms and drama repeats, the company has said. At the same time that Nexstar has promoted itself as working in the public interest, it has also advocated that the federal government further loosen restrictions for media conglomerates. Lyons did not respond to a request for comment. In the spring of 2019, Sook and Timothy Busch, Nexstars president, were visiting a Nexstar station in El Paso when they realized that Nexstars local focus, numerous stations, and nonpartisan lens meant it was uniquely positioned to produce and aggregate stories from the southern border. That, more than anything else, is a testament to Fox's domination on the political right and American conservatives' distrust of other mainstream media outlets. Sook seems to have anticipated this; in 2019 he requested, and was denied, a bonus of $41.4 million in future stock options. According to Open Secrets, Nexstar Media group gave more money to Republicans in the 2018 election cycle (45% to Democrats, 55% to Republicans). In 2017, Nexstar acquired Media General, which ran local newspapers and television stations, for $4.6 billion. Live programming is seen as the best route to making the channel more valuable to cable and satellite operators, and the company has said offering news and talk has helped it negotiate higher carriage fees and advertising rates. On July 26th, 2022, NewsNation announced that former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo would join the network with a new prime-time show. National news is covered through a combination of the Associated Press, CNN, Los Angeles Times, and other large media outlets. She is expected to be one of the anchors for a NewsNation morning program. In recent months, Nexstar has added 8.5 million subscribers for NewsNation on over-the-top TV services such as Hulu, and 200,000 subscribers on traditional cable and satellite providers, offsetting losses due to cord-cutting. Pew's findings aren't an outlier. NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which owns nearly 200 TV stations nationwide. The program pulled only 236,000 viewers in April, despite having a highly recognizable anchor. Donlon does not have an ideological bent on air and presents conservative and liberal guests. Now, without the usual in-person strategiesrallies, events, door-to-door canvassingand with reduced expenses, campaigns may allocate more funds to television. Editorially, NewsNation does not produce opinion pieces and generally reports on politics neutrally. Nexstar, he added, is very much interested in that fit theyre very balanced.. This story is well sourced to local sources of information as well as KTLA TV video. It is this experience, as much as geography, that varies across the Nexstar Nation. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. A former radio executive, Compton produced a syndicated Trump commentary program that aired during the height of Trumps reality-TV fame on The Apprentice.. The vast majority of local TV stations nationwide are now owned by one of those big broadcasters. Here you have more people consuming local news than at any time in recent history, says Steve Passwaiter, a vice president and general manager at Kantar, a consultancy firm. These are the most credible media sources. CIS was established by white nationalist and eugenicist John Tanton, who also founded multiple other extremist anti-immigrant organizations including the Federation for American Immigration Reform and NumbersUSA. The must-watch TV of the moment is local news. Much of the reason news companies seek to buy up stations is to increase revenue from retransmission fees: charges to cable and satellite companies for permission to air local content. He is based in Northern California. Former ABC News correspondent Adrienne Bankert is joining NewsNation as a morning show anchor. Shine did not respond to a request for comment. Except for the Revolving Door section, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License by OpenSecrets.org. Right Bias: How we rate the bias of media sources. At AllSides, we reduce the one-sided information flow by providing balanced news from both liberal and conservative news sources, and over 1,400 media bias ratings. Using the resources of its local TV news operations, the company launched a prime-time newscast, NewsNation Prime, in September on its cable outlet WGN America a nationally distributed network available in 75 million homes with plans to expand it to a full-time news service. The local television behemoth Nexstar Media Group announced Friday that it had acquired The Hill, a Beltway political news website, for $130 million. Nexstars enormous reach across the country makes it a unique bellwether of whether consolidation can be in the public interest. WGN America has set the anchor team for the nightly three-hour newscast that is coming to the primetime lineup of Nexstar Media Group's cable network as of Sept. 1. See all Least Biased Sources. And the station size, the market size, the geographic part of the nation, it is so diverse and varied that there is no one way fits all., Investigative journalism, Tully says, is important to viewers in some markets and less so in others, and it is up to station managers to gauge demand. Blake Russell, executive vice president of station operations and content development, says that Nexstar sometimes supplies local stations with more staff when they expand their news programming: It depends on the market.. Fair Use Policy MBFC Credibility Rating: HIGH CREDIBILITY. Media Type: TV Station The vast majority of local TV stations nationwide are now owned by one of those big broadcasters. The site also launched an online morning show, Rising, in 2018, which succeeded by featuring right-wing and left-wing populist hosts. Whats more, over the last three months, several of NewsNations top editorial executives including the newsrooms leader, Jennifer Lyons, a veteran news director from Nexstars Chicago station, WGN have exited. 8,730-Acre Maria Fire Burning on South Mountain Destroys 2 Structures, Threatens Homes in Santa Paula andSomis, The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). the Senate subcommittee tasked with overseeing the FCC. ), This year, Nexstar can also count on election ad spending, which is a key component of nearly every television companys revenue. After its merger with Tribune, Nexstar will be the largest owner of local broadcast stations in the U.S. Nexstar and the Illinois-based media company already have political activism in common. The criticisms have merit, but the picture is complicated: although Nexstars coverage is uneven, many of its stations nationwide do provide substantive local news. Open Secrets following the money in politics, OpenSecrets Following the money in politics, Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates (, Contributions to this PAC from individual donors of $200 or more (. Mixed results, to present themselves as neutral arbiters in a partisan moment 6 news at PM! And states across the country sitcoms and drama repeats, the news is covered through combination... Pieces and generally reports on politics neutrally run with limited advertising breaks, are a clear service! Of Media sources bias of Media sources are also willing to pay more to run commercials on live original than! Findings aren & # x27 ; t an outlier sitcoms and drama repeats, the news is generally reported and... Vast majority of local TV stations nationwide are now owned by one of those big.! 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