The Myth of the "Poor Media Company"

If you listen to corporate media executives, you’d think the broadcasting business was running on empty. For the past year, newsrooms across the country have been hit with relentless budget cuts, sweeping layoffs, hollowed-out reporting staffs, and management warning that "times are tough" and the money just isn't there.

Except, as usual, corporate is lying to your face.

Fresh third-quarter earnings reports prove that while local newsrooms are being squeezed to the bone under the guise of financial hardship, the broadcast giants are making absolute fortunes.

Take Nexstar Media Group. Thanks to a massive windfall from the TEGNA acquisition and a historic flood of election-year political ad spending, Nexstar reported a jaw-dropping 78% jump in net revenue, pulling in $2.13 billion for the third quarter alone. Total political advertising hit an eye-popping $317 million, sending net income soaring by 284% to $250 million, while adjusted free cash flow rocketed up 166% to $443 million.

Over at Sinclair, it’s the exact same story of corporate hoarding. Sinclair rode a wave of record political ad spend to a 16% increase in total revenue, hitting $893 million. Political ad dollars hit $136 million—a 55% explosion over the previous midterm cycle in 2022. Sinclair’s net income skyrocketed from a measly $1 million a year ago to $43 millionthis quarter, leading management to enthusiastically raise its full-year financial outlook.

Let’s be entirely clear about what this means:

• Corporations cry poverty to justify shrinking newsrooms, killing investigative teams, and piling insurmountable workloads onto surviving producers, reporters, and anchors.

• At the very same time, billions of dollars in political cash are pouring right into corporate coffers.

The money is there. It has always been there. It’s just being funneled straight into executive bonuses, debt payouts, and shareholder returns while the actual people producing the local news are told to do more with less.

The next time a media executive tells you budget cuts are "unavoidable," remind them of their own Q3 balance sheets.They aren't broke—they're just greedy.