Broadcast Giant Laying Off Hundreds in Favor of ‘Centralization’

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Editor’s Note: This is a news analysis.

TEGNA Inc. — one of the largest broadcasting companies in the United States — has commenced a nationwide layoff on the heels of its third-quarter earnings call, in which leadership picketed for the integration of artificial intelligence (AI).

Headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, TEGNA either owns or operates 64 television stations in 51 of the hottest media markets in the country, including Dallas (WFAA), Houston (KHOU/KTBU), Atlanta (WXIA-TV/WATL), Washington, D.C. (WUSA) Phoenix (KPNX) and other localities.

As for the Palmetto State, TEGNA’s sole outpost is Columbia (WLTX), a CBS-affiliate and worthy competitor to Gray TV’s legacy “dumpster fire,” WIS — an NBC-affiliate still reeling from the belated termination of its longtime news director, Bradley Hyatt.

While Hyatt’s termination does not appear to have resulted from innumerable layoffs soft-launched by Gray TV earlier this month, he appears to have taken leadership advice from the same career manager as TEGNA’s newfound CEO, Mike Steib.

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? #BREAKING: @TEGNA, one of the largest broadcasting companies in the United States, has commenced the layoff of HUNDREDS. @MikeSteib, the company’s freshman CEO, said in a leaked email that his decision was made to build a “sustainable future for local news.”

Steib’s… pic.twitter.com/QnV8bPDkZF

— Andrew Fancher (@RealAndyFancher) November 20, 2024

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The former president of an online art gallery (Artsy) — among other leadership experiences dressed in overblown adjectives — Steib became TEGNA’s chieftain on August 12, 2024. According to Macrotrends, the conglomerate had about $446 million on hand… at that time. 

“I am excited about the many opportunities to leverage technology to enhance… and generate substantial value for shareholders,” wrote Steib in a press release last summer. “TEGNA is incredibly well positioned to seize this moment and build a bright future.”

Within weeks of commandeering the unsinkable ship, Steib had gallivanted his way through several of the company’s major media markets. He was noted issuing “empty compliments” to myriad newsrooms while “fangirling” with on-air talents over the untapped powers of AI.

Emphasis on the latter …

“Some of us are taking AI training at least twice a month now,” noted one journalist. “Under Steib, we’re being taught how to report with AI, how to produce with AI and how to run newscasts with AI… And we can tell that legacy producers, anchors and talents are not happy about it.”

Amid growing concerns over Steib’s infatuation with AI, he joined TEGNA’s Q3 2024 earnings call on November 7, 2024. The company had just announced a record-breaking quarter of political advertising revenue — bringing the total amount of cash on hand to $536 million. 

During his opening remarks, Steib emphasized that premium channel subscribers have declined 5% to 7% annually since 2021. He then noted that traditional cable and satellite viewers have been declining by the “teens,” with TV advertising declining from 3% to 7% concurrently. 

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“But history is not destiny here,” proclaimed Steib, a supporting actor in The Mad Ones (2017). “At a moment of technological shift… where AI is offering massive opportunities to improve products and productivity, now is the moment for a company like TEGNA to build.”

Analogous to the U.S. government’s carousel of generals tasked with “winning” unwinnable wars, TEGNA’s latest CEO sees victory on the horizon. And like his tenacious coevals, Steib’s strategies include leading his subordinates to the slaughter.

“We’re doing a nose-to-tail review of every process,” continued Steib. “I believe we are underutilizing automation and AI to drive efficiency and create a better product… AI is going to help us to create more and better content that… helps us to win on the revenue side.”

Within 24 hours of his first earnings call aboard the TEGNA Titanic, crewmembers as low as the boiler room were awarded a $1,000± “special bonus.” The bittersweet payout came amid an equally as valuable message from the company’s human resource (HR) department. 

“Going forward, we will transition to merit and performance-based recognition of employee contributions,” wrote the department in a leaked email sent November 4, 2024.

As for Steib’s plan to recognize nearly 6,200 employees moving forward? Purge the workforce — just as he did with 10% of Artsy’s staff after being named the chief executive in 2019, just as he did with 15% of its remaining staff before abandoning ship in 2023. 

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Demonstrating that his history is indeed TEGNA’s destiny, Steib announced mass-scale layoffs in a company-wide email on November 18, 2024. His 116-word message declared the “centralization” — i.e., eradication — of every marketing department in the country.

“Centralizing our marketing organization will make us stronger marketers,” wrote Steib in another leaked email. “Unfortunately, it also means that some of our teammates will lose their roles. I’m deeply sorry for this. Building a sustainable future for local news is hard…”

For newsroom novices, every station relies on marketing to conduct audience research and promote its programs. Yet Steib has officially commenced the fusion of about 64 departments staffed by hundreds into seven regional hubs staffed by 50… effective January 2025.

As emphasized by FTVLive, a website dedicated to news about TV news, editor-in-chief Scott Jones noted in a recent article that “it looks like promos at the local level, at least topical, are a thing of the past at TEGNA… but it’s not just marketing people getting whacked.”

Since Monday’s declaration, silent observers have noted an influx of mandatory AI training landing in their employee portals. They have furthermore noted a nationwide layoff of on-air meteorologists, investigative journalists and tenured sports reporters.

“TEGNA is panicking,” concluded another journalist. “Believe me, we see Mike’s point of adding AI to buff up newscasts because local news is dying… But this isn’t a gradual shift. It’s a mass exodus with AI in your face. AI all at once. AI all of a sudden.”

While the TEGNA Titantic has yet to confirm its impact with a pinnacle iceberg, crewmembers in major markets such as San Antonio (KENS5), Cleveland (WKYC), Memphis (WATN-TV) and Portland, Maine (WCSH), say the unsinkable ship is taking on water.

Despite its inevitable collapse, TEGNA (NYSE: TGNA) is up +2.05 (12.46%) this month.

This story may be updated.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy award-winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. Cut from a bloodline of outlaws and lawmen alike, he was the first of his family to graduate college which was accomplished with honors. Got a story idea or news tip for Andy? Email him directly and connect with him socially across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

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