With yesterday's news that Media General and Meredith Corporation will be merging, rumors and speculation have got to be running rampant in the six markets where both companies own stations.
Ownership changes are not easy. Morale goes down, and staff start to dust off their resumes.
People generally don't like change, but there is one thing that is worse - the unknown. The time between an announced change and the change itself are tough for staff to deal with. Are we going to be sold? Will a new owner come in and change everything? Is my job safe? Should I retire or get out while I can?
Here in New England, four stations in two markets are going through that right now. Media General owns WTNH-TV ABC 8 in Hartford/New Haven, CT and WWLP-TV NBC 22 in Springfield, MA. Meredith Corp owns WFSB-TV in Hartford, and WGGB-TV in Springfield.
Today Mass Live, the online arm of the Springfield Republican newspaper, reported that the merger will result in WWLP being sold off. Meredith Media General would keep WGGB-TV, which Meredith finalized the purchase of in October 2014.
Employees of WWLP, said to have been briefed by company officials on Wednesday morning, confirmed to The Republican that the company would be selling WWLP. They also told the paper that a staff meeting was scheduled for 3:30pm Wednesday afternoon. The Republican said WWLP referred any questions to Media General, which declined comment.
There was no news out of WGGB said an inside source to New England One, which would have surely been told if they were the ones who would not be sold. A source at WWLP told us that no decisions have been made, and the only thing that is certain is that one of the stations will be sold.
We were also told that there was in fact a 3:30pm meeting at WWLP, but it was to brief staff on the merger news from yesterday. No decision had been made on which station is getting divested.
WWLP President and General Manager Bill Pepin told employees “At this point, those decisions have not been made. The company has not yet decided which station will be traded or sold.”
A decision on which stations would be sold or kept would be pretty rare the day after a merger was announced.
On March 21, 2014, Media General announced it was merging with LIN Media, WWLP's then owner. Like Media General/Meredith, both stations had overlapping markets. The announcement of definitive agreements to divest television stations in five markets, including Providence, RI, came five months later on August 20, 2014.
In the end, it might actually be WWLP that Meredith Media General decides to divest. It makes business sense. While WWLP is the market leader, and also the home of Media General's Northeast hub for master control, WGGB is home to three of the big four national networks.
With the merger of WGGB and WSHM-LD last year, the station is the home of ABC 40, FOX 6 (WGGB-DT2) and CBS 3 (WSHM). Because the Fox affiliation is on WGGB's digital subchannel 40.2 it does not count towards FCC ownership rules. WSHM does not count towards the ownership rules either because it is a low-power television station.
With the three stations airing "Western Mass News," more opportunity exists for advertising dollars. WGGB is also closely tied with WFSB in Hartford, as some operations for the station are run from there.
What will happen? You'll just have to stay tuned, because at this point no one can say for sure.
