The New Tegna Boss

Tegna has basically been floating along aimlessly since the day that the FCC/DOJ signed off on its sale to Nexstar.

Nexstar was in charge of the Tegna stations for hours, before a judge put the deal on hold, while DirecTV and a number of state AGs contested the deal.

Tegna CEO Mike Steib cashed out and hasn’t been heard from since the deal was approved by the FCC/DOJ.

FTVLive was the FIRST to tell you that Fox Television executive Patrick Paolini had left the company suddenly, and as we told you, was likely headed for another media group.

What we didn’t expect was that Paolini would end up running Tegna, but that is what was announced.

This could mean a couple of things. First, Tegna believes that the Nexstar lawsuit is a long way from being resolved, and therefore they need someone to captain the rudderless ship.

It could also mean that Nexstar and Tegna brought Paolini in a wink/wink nudge/nudge deal, to start getting Tegna ready to change over to Nexstar ownership.

It does seem odd that Paolini would take Tegna’s CEO job, knowing that he could be out in a matter of months. But, if the Nexstar wins in court and Paolini survives that, then you would think some sort of backroom deal was hatched.

We’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.

I would not be surprised if you don’t see cuts at Tegna, under Paolini. I expect you will see a big shake up with Tegna’s corporate structure.

Also, there are all the regional VPs of News that Tegna who were working under Adrienne Roark. I have to think that Paolini will make cuts in this area. It’s a lot of money, for very little work.

Sources at Tegna say that everything is at a standstill. Talent whose contracts have come up and finding out that many are in a holding pattern. One anchor was told that the station can’t make a new deal, because station management doesn’t know where things stand.

Stay tuned….