By JW August
Nexstar, the largest local television station owner in the United States, of Nexstar Media, just added more media outlets to their holdings, including two more television stations in San Diego.
As part of its acquisition of Rival Tegna for $6.2 billion, Nexstar will own the two Tegna stations in the San Diego market — longtime local CBS affiliate KFMB and the CW, which Tegna purchased in February of 2018. They are joining two other stations Nexstar already controls in San Diego — KUSI and Fox 5, making them the single most powerful media company in the region. They will also own the KFMB radio station.
With the Tegna acquisition, Nexstar will now have 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia. The combined company will have stations in 9 of the top 10 markets, and in 41 of the top 50 markets. That accounts for 80% of U.S. television-viewing households.
Nexstar Chairman and CEO Perry Sook says the company is “committed to delivering superior local news, sports and entertainment programming and content to local viewers.”
Nexstar, according to OpenSecrets.org, a research group that tracks money in U.S. politics, says Nexstar has a history of contributing to both Republican and Democratic candidates.
How the political coverage plays out at the local level is perhaps revealed in an internal memorandum sent to KUSI and Fox 5 employees last February. In it, Susan Tully, Senior Vice President, Local Content Development for Nexstar told employees “to follow the new language” as directed by President Donald Trump.
In her memo, she said she is providing“guidance for using the term “Gulf of Mexico.” She told employees,”We will be careful not to confuse our news consumers when it comes to important information from the federal government.” The memo says “NOAA is changing all weather information and maps to the name of Gulf of America.”
She added that the Interior Department and other agencies “we cover also use Gulf of America. That means we should follow the new language Gulf of America.”
She concluded, “You can always say or write ‘Gulf of America, formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico,’ through the adjustment period.”
I got concerned when the radio industry began consolidating. We saw locally produced formats and personalities replaced by packaged formats beamed from afar. Could the same happen with local television? When KFMB was sold to Tegna in 2017, and KUSI sold to Nexstar in 2023 no San Diego TV station was left under local ownership. But I have to say, purely as a viewer, Nexstar, NBC, and Scripps Howard have done a good job keeping their stations locally focused. All the stations seem to be producing more local news, and more local programming than before. They all seem to be very community oriented. I can’t speak for any changes in editorial policy, but at least with local issues they seem willing to take on controversial subjects. FYI, the CW station is not a separate TV station but a digital sub channel and under the same license as Channel 8. It’s over the air on 8.2. When TV broadcasting converted to digital transmission in 2015, more signals could fit on the same space as one could prior. All the local stations have digital subchannels.
you nailed it, the radio station consolidation (that’s a mouth full) was the forerunner of the television side. Driven by the F C C opening the gates and the internet.
Meanwhile, Frank Gormlie holds a fierce grip on the ownership of The OB Rag, refusing to sell to Nexstar for millions of dollars because Frank believes in independent journalism. (just a little hyperbole there)
Who could have predicted that four of our local TV stations would fold under one owner? If you think the local news is all the same, you are correct! Can you trust them do deliver honest local content? Absolutely not.
So Frank, as one of your right-leaning loyal readers who really enjoys and trusts your content, keep it up. You are now one of the very few, and maybe the only bright lights in local journalism.
This is why we love KUSI! It’s independent and not biased in favor of the mainstream agenda
In fact, KUSI is one of the most biased stations in town; so much so they’re embarrassing. Yet they do have one of the best TV reporters, Dan Plante – who still lives in OB, I believe. There were earlier reports (rumors) that he had moved to Utah.
The problem Bill is about the monopolization of the local news media by one corporate owner. Now one corporation owns 4 local TV stations, which means they’ll all have the same bias — conservative, as in reporting on “The Gulf of America.”
Whats more biased is CBS, MSDNC (NBC), ABC, CNN.
The hard part about being a republican in san diego is its hard to find pro GOP views and KUSI is one of the few mom and pop stations left. Whats worse is we don’t have a non biased news site for info about san diego over-development.
I appreciate the great reporting of this site, but I have to see a lot of things I don’t agree with, and places I don’t know about as I’m not living in Ocean Beach. (Maybe I will start the La Jolla Rag, kidding!) I will continue to donate but theres a need for pro neighborhood, anti developer wall street, pro america news. For the time being I will continue to appreciate the reporting on this site (when i agree with it) and just scroll past the anti trump non sense. This site reminds me of my college “revolutionary” paper, the paper always had the best gossip and campus news, but filled with george mcgovern anti nixon rhetoric!
Hoping you live up to your pledge, “continue to donate.” Hey Bill, appreciate the good words – and come to think about it, your “college revolutionary paper” was definitely right about Nixon.
96% of the global media is controlled by just 5 corporations now. TV, Cable Networks, satellite, book publishers, magazines, newspapers, radio stations, cable companies and internet service providers.
Support the OB Rag.
I don’t doubt it. Where did this information come from? thank you
JW, Consolidation through mega-mergers became the detriment to a well informed public because of the passage of the Telecommunications bill in 1996.
Mega-merger, after mega-merger, after acquisition, after acquisition of vertical integration makes for an uphill effort to monitor the ever consolidating media landscape on order to create and present just one comprehensive conceptual map of corporate consolidating ownership. Also mega-media corporate board rooms don’t like these kinds of articles, so reporting has become more sparse. (go figure)
To answer your question, I started with “Megamedia” by Dan Alger in 1999 and have followed it from there.
Bill Moyers RIP, FAIR Fairness an Accuracy In Reporting, the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Columbia Journalism Review, the Nation and currently Matt Stoller investigates all anti-trust issues on SubStack.
In 2020: This is a decent article with a conceptual map of the day:
https://wfswhittier.net/3037/sci-tech/the-media-oligopoly-how-a-handful-of-companies-control-nearly-all-of-the-media-in-the-u-s/
The nation in 2023:
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/media-consolidation-monopoly-big-5/
There were 6 Mega Media Corporations, and then Paramount fired Steven Colbert to assuage the President to put his weight on the scales to facilitate the Skydance takeover. So basically we have 5 mega media corporations vertically integrated that own, but more importantly control approximately 96% of all distributed media.
Consolidation through mega-mergers became the detriment to the well informed public that it is today because of the passage of the Telecommunications Act in 1996.
Seemingly weekly since the idiotic monopolization act was passed in ’96, we have gotten wind of mega-merger, after mega-merger, acquisition, after acquisition. That gluttonous aggregation and vertical integration makes for an uphill effort for anyone to effectively monitor the ever consolidating media landscape in order to create and present one conceptual map of ownership that isn’t made obsolete before the next acquisition merger is rubber stamped by the FTC and the FCC. And also in large part because the specious corporate board rooms don’t like these kinds of articles, so reporting on monopolization have become more and more sparse. (go figure)
So to answer your question JW, my research journey started with “Megamedia” by Dan Alger in 1999 and I have followed it from there. I am a big fan of John Maynard Keynes and Trust Busting that lead to the Sherman Act. History repeats itself when we doom it to through suppression and propaganda. And here we have a worsening of both.
I’ve gathered data from Bill Moyers over his years as a trusted journalist, God Bless his soul. FAIR- Fairness an Accuracy In Reporting, the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Columbia Journalism Review, and I regularly read Matt Stoller’s insightful investigative journalism on all anti-trust issues available thru SubStack and his newsetters.
Corporate media consolidation through 2020 includes this decent article with a conceptual map of consolidation through 2020:
https://wfswhittier.net/3037/sci-tech/the-media-oligopoly-how-a-handful-of-companies-control-nearly-all-of-the-media-in-the-u-s/
The nation through 2023:
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/media-consolidation-monopoly-big-5/
Conclusion is that there were 6 Mega Media Corporations, still consolidating, when Paramount fired Steven Colbert to assuage the President to put his enormous weight on the scales to facilitate the Skydance takeover which, no shock, was approved by the FTC and the FCC a couple of weeks ago.
So basically, we have 5 vertically integrated mega media corporations that own, but more importantly control approximately 96% of all distributed media, globally.
Thank you for publicizing this editorial change. This information needs to get out (I will pass it along) . I knew this second time around would be bad, I just didn’t imagine how fast the capitulations would happen.
People have the power of the channel changer. If they want to live in a MAGA fever dream, they can watch those channels.
I wonder if this new ownership change will result in them actually reporting the actual news. Imagine a news station in San Diego that actually informed San Diego of what’s going on. Like the actual news, about the actual reality, of what is going on in San Diego at the moment? Can they also acquire OB Rag and turn it into a news station so that anyone can have any idea at all as to what is actually going on?
As a retired journalist, this “corporate guidance” is really upsetting. It’s just a craven, profit-driven ethical collapse by monied interests who are ignoring their responsibilities to the First Amendment:
“Susan Tully, Senior Vice President, Local Content Development for Nexstar told employees “to follow the new language” as directed by President Donald Trump.
In her memo, she said she is providing“guidance for using the term “Gulf of Mexico.” She told employees,”We will be careful not to confuse our news consumers when it comes to important information from the federal government.” The memo says “NOAA is changing all weather information and maps to the name of Gulf of America.”
She added that the Interior Department and other agencies “we cover also use Gulf of America. That means we should follow the new language Gulf of America.”
Thx JW for your work on this.
On 8/19, JW August and The Rag broke this story of KFMB Channel 8, San Diego’s oldest television station, joining KSWB and KUSI in the Nexstar Nation. Other media outlets followed. Finally today, 8/21, our largest daily newspaper joined the party. With a syndicated article from the New York Times. Really?
The Rag rules!