As of June, amid major layoffs across the media industry, the two companies hadnt reported furloughing or laying off any employees. It now has 199 stations across the United States, including NewsNation, a cable outlet based in Chicago that the company envisions as a competitor to Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. Nexstar's NewsNation channel is in turmoil as it faces staff defections amid concerns that the outlet is being pushed by management to lean to the right in its news coverage. The vast majority of local TV stations nationwide are now owned by one of those big broadcasters. Nexstar executives cited consumer research showing viewers were looking for nonpartisan news coverage. The FCC agreed, and in their final decision allowing the merger they went a step further and enshrined a new policy that restricts public opposition to future mergers. Even Sinclair Broadcast Group, which had run into criticism for a conservative bent in local newscast commentary, is launching what it calls a fact-based morning headline news service early next year. Perry Sook, Nexstars CEO, isnt as worried as youd think, though. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, State and local officials will confront profound dilemmas as they attempt to manage rampant unemployment, food insecurity, and pending evictions, all while facing unprecedented budget cuts. The news came in early February one day after NewsNations news director, Sandy Pudar, resigned.Advertisementsif(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,600],'thedesk_net-box-4','ezslot_0',125,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-thedesk_net-box-4-0'); Nexstar staffers also felt NewsNation did not go far enough in challenging Trump during a one-on-one interview last September that was largely regarded as a softball Q&A and an embarrassment to television journalism. Producers and writers with experience at Fox News, CNN and MSNBC came on board earlier this year to work on Donlons new program. Low ratings are only part of NewsNations problem: The brand is also suffering from internal dissent from new and long-time Nexstar employees who believe NewsNation isnt living up to its promise to deliver straightforward news. What the FCC proceedings showed without a doubt, however, were the hard limits of a media conglomerates ability to truly serve the public interest. National news is covered through a combination of the Associated Press, CNN, Los Angeles Times, and other large media outlets. Their bread and butter is traffic and weather. The only thing there is space for is opinion-echo-chamber content, and there is more room for that on the right than there is on the left.. every weekday, starting at 4am and ending at 11:30pm. Is a national conglomerate the future of local news? To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. ), This year, Nexstar can also count on election ad spending, which is a key component of nearly every television companys revenue. Consistent with our commitment to deliver unbiased news to our viewers, NewsNation has hired a number of employees and consultants with diverse news production and reporting backgrounds from a variety of news organizations such as CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business, CBS, NBC and ABC. 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. 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. Nexstar is the latest in a long list of news outlets, including The Associated Press, that have used CIS as a source without acknowledging the groups white nationalist ties or its years of extremism. Under Tribunes management, the channel attempted an expensive foray into original series programming several years ago, which was a financial disaster for the company. Donlon, a well-liked local Chicago anchor at WGN before joining NewsNation, was assigned to The Donlon Report, an hourlong show that features talking heads debating hot button issues. According to Open Secrets , Nexstar Media group gave more money to Republicans in the 2018 election cycle (45% to Democrats, 55% to Republicans). https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/20/business/the-hill-sale-nexstar-media.html. Its channel position on cable and satellite systems is typically in the triple digits and not adjacent to other news networks, making it hard for viewers to find. , a half-hour roundtable conversation with Republican and Democratic public figures about hot topics being debated in Hartford. The associated website is NewsNationNow.com, which features news from the TV station and supplemental content. Eighty-three percent of liberal Democrats have at least some trust in the national media, while just 30 percent of conservative Republicans do. The station has covered such stories, like the FBIs 2019 investigation of corruption in the administration of New Haven mayor Toni Harp, when they first surfaced in other outlets. In January, before the pandemic hit, Nexstars stock price had nearly doubled from two years prior. In reality, Nexstar says, its stations reach 63 percent of American households, well surpassing the cap. The sale comes after the news that German media company Axel Springer has held talks with two other news organizations based in Washington, Politico and Axios. Dan Abrams and Chris Cuomo at the NewsNation studio in New York. The network also hired Ashleigh Banfield, a veteran of CNN and MSNBC, to host a nightly newsmaker interview program at 10 p.m. Eastern. Earlier this year, Sook said that Nexstar was already taking in more revenue from political spending than ever before. Nexstar Media Group's deal to buy Tribune Media Company for $4.1 billion is the latest merger to test Trump administration regulators tasked with overseeing a rapidly consolidating . But his employment, which began in June and was not revealed to staff for six months, was disturbing, especially to some of the female staffers. Conservative justices stress price tag of debt relief. The broadcast was intended to be a straightforward news reporting alternative to the opinion-based programming of CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Nexstar executives declined a request to discuss Shines role or the recent internal moves at NewsNation. 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. Funding. The company went public in 2003, after its first big acquisition. These are the most credible media sources. However, Lyons'. In review, NewsNation publishes news broken into categories such as U.S. (broken into subcategories), the Coronavirus, Weather, World, Shows, The Hill, NewsNation Live, and More. Surveys of consumers showed that TV news was the second leading reason for keeping a pay-TV subscription, right behind live sports. Nexstar Media Group has a responsibility to avoid spreading misinformation to potentially millions of Americans through this type of sloppy reporting. The site also launched an online morning show, Rising, in 2018, which succeeded by featuring right-wing and left-wing populist hosts. Lyons did not respond to a request for comment. The firms last media bias chart, issued in January, placed NewsNation squarely in the center of the political spectrum, while rating CNN as skewing left, Fox News as hyper-partisan right and MSNBC as hyper-partisan left.. Nexstar had a strong year financially, reporting free cash flow of $1.3 billion in 2020, a 100% increase over 2018; TV stations typically see a boon from political advertising in election years.. Sook has declared that Nexstar has the largest news gathering organization in the country, and staff at the corporate headquarters, in Irving, Texas, refer to their vast network as the Nexstar Nation.. The Supreme Court's conservative justices cast doubt on President Biden's student debt forgiveness plan during oral arguments on Tuesday in a pair of challenges to the administration's relief program. 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. Conservative political commentator George Will has been hired as a senior contributor to cable outlet NewsNation's nightly news program starting later this month . The local television behemoth Nexstar Media Group announced Friday that it had acquired The Hill, a Beltway political news website, for $130 . The guiding principle that Nexstar passes down to station managerscommitment to localismis amorphous and lackluster. One question that ended up on the editing room floor was what Trump planned to do if he lost the election, a legitimate query as he was behind in the polls and ultimately defeated by President Biden in November. On July 26th, 2022, NewsNation announced that former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo would join the network with a new prime-time show. It was a huge undertaking for her, said another former WGN colleague of Lyons who was not authorized to speak publicly. To journalists, this may not sound like a promising replacement for a robust economy of independently owned local stations. Local TV stations tend to have a glut of crime stories, ranging from the horrific to the mundane, because a steady stream of them are always arriving through the police blotter. 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 03/01/23 8:53 AM EST, Video & Audio Shine was never accused of sexual harassment but was named in some of the lawsuits filed by former employees against the network, alleging that he failed to act on complaints against Ailes. There's some evidence to suggest that The Hill's former owner Jeremey Finkelstein is friends with former President Trump and has interfered with the site's output. As of July 2020, Nexstar Media Group owned 196 stations. Based in Chicago, the program utilized the journalistic resources of the 110 television news operations throughout the United States under WGN Americas corporate parent Nexstar Media Group. It has Nexstar insiders fearing that NewsNation will chase after Fox News, which has more than 40% of the cable news audience on most nights, as the company feels more pressure to attract viewers. , which features local businesses that have paid the station to appear. Last week, when Nexstar relaunched WGN America under the NewsNation brand, the news block brought in just 37,000 viewers. Notably, he was a proponent of the family separation policy under the Trump administration. Nexstar, the largest operator of local TV stations in the country, said in a news release that the deal would expand its digital reach and coverage of political news. Despite its branding emphasis on local news, Nexstars banner projects are designed to share state and national stories with regional audiences. Sign up for our newsletter to track moneys influence on U.S. elections and public policy. The Hill is owned by Nexstar Media Group, the country's largest television station owner, which purchased the publication in 2021. One prominent TV news agent said his clients passed on pursuing jobs at NewsNation after Shines involvement became widely known. Despite strong-arming traditional pay TV companies and forging new agreements with streaming services, Nexstar has yet to see a return on that investment even after it reduced NewsNations news hours from three to two and launched two new current affairs programs in their place. In a dissenting opinion, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel called the new policy bureaucratic and cruel. She wrote, It perversely means that the public will have fewer opportunities to comment on the use of the public airwaves.. Nexstar operates traditional media as well as digital and mobile media platforms. Shine was ousted from Fox News in May 2017, a month after the firing of the networks most popular host, Bill O'Reilly. A bruising presidential campaign and a historic pandemic brought in a record number of viewers for CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. The guiding principle that Nexstar passes down to station managerscommitment to localismis amorphous and lackluster in contrast to the Border Report journalists clear mission. The simmering co The political news publication, which started as an insiders guide to Washington and greatly expanded its audience after it went digital, fetched a price of $130 million. Right Bias: How we rate the bias of media sources. This is probably because Fox's audience is just so large that it couldn't be relegated to an extreme end of the chart. The network is also hampered by WGN Americas long legacy as a general entertainment programmer. WIERNICKI: But the White House says that isnt part of the plan. 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