A federal judge has ruled that Nexstar Media Group violated a court order requiring it to keep TEGNA Inc. operating as an independent company while a multistate lawsuit challenging Nexstar’s proposed acquisition of TEGNA moves through the courts.
“This ruling makes clear that a court order isn’t optional just because a company finds it inconvenient,” said Attorney General Dan Rayfield. “When we sued to stop this merger, we did it to protect competition. Local news matters because it’s how people find out what’s happening in their city. When one company controls too much of that, Oregonians end up with fewer independent voices reporting about their community.”
In April, the court ordered Nexstar to keep TEGNA running as a separate, independently managed competitor until a ruling on the lawsuit was reached, and barred Nexstar from influencing TEGNA’s management. The multistate coalition later learned that Nexstar had installed its own top executives – including its CEO and CFO – on TEGNA’s five-member Board of Directors, where they approved TEGNA’s budgets and received regular updates from TEGNA’s management.
The court agreed with AG Rayfield and the 12 other states that sued that this setup let Nexstar control TEGNA from the inside, in direct conflict with the independence the order was meant to protect. The court’s ruling clarifies that current and former Nexstar officers, employees, directors, and consultants cannot serve on TEGNA’s board. The court also found that Nexstar failed to disclose the board appointments despite repeated opportunities to do so and admonished the company for its lack of candor with the court.
The court’s order requires Nexstar to come into compliance immediately and to file a status report within 10 days detailing the steps it has taken to do so. Nexstar must also respond to the coalition’s outstanding discovery requests within seven days and turn over TEGNA board meeting minutes, budget and forecast changes, financial reports, and any changes in TEGNA’s directors or officers on a monthly basis going forward. The parties have 14 days to propose a special master to oversee Nexstar’s ongoing compliance with the order.
The underlying lawsuit argues that Nexstar’s acquisition of TEGNA would substantially reduce competition in local television markets across the country, including in Portland, where Nexstar owns KOIN 6 and TEGNA owns KGW 8. The coalition is asking the court to block the merger.
