The Missouri State Conference of the NAACP has called on the Federal Communications Commission to approve the merger of Standard General and Tegna.
Adolphus M. Pruitt II, president of the St. Louis (Mo.) NAACP, told FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel in a letter that Standard General has “a history of investing in and improving local newsrooms and broadcast stations.” That’s something Pruitt suggested Missouri could use, asserting the state has been getting “less than its fair share of localized objective broadcast media coverage.”
Tegna’s owned stations include KSDK, the NBC affiliate in St. Louis.
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While critics of the deal have said it could lead to layoffs and less local news, Standard General and Tegna have said that is not the case and Pruitt appears to agree.
“Stations acquired by Standard General have reported that conditions for staff improved,” Pruitt wrote Rosenworcel, “with the company increasing the station employees’ health benefits, adding paid time off, implementing employee training programs and investing in station facilities.”
But while Pruitt’s focus was on bolstering local news and local ownership, which he said Standard General plans to do by localizing station management, he said diversity of ownership is a plus as well. “The proposed transaction would create the largest minority-owned and female-led broadcast station group in U.S. history,” Pruitt wrote.
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Standard General is headed by Soo Kim, a Korean American, so the merger would be the largest-ever TV station purchase by a minority. The CEO of Standard Media, who would head the combined station groups, is Deb McDermott, a woman and a veteran top station management executive.
The FCC is still vetting the merger and is currently on day 207 of its informal 180-day shot clock on deal reviews. ▪️
