CWA Groups, Common Cause Push for More Info on Standard/Tegna

The only way to know if merger conditions could make Standard/Tegna favorable to the public interest is for the FCC to grant public interest groups’ motion to require more information from the companies, said the Communications Workers of America's NewsGuild and National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians sectors and Common Cause in a call with Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and Media Bureau staff Thursday. “Without such information, neither the Commission nor objecting parties can even begin to assess how any conditions might be constructed,” said an ex parte filing in docket 22-166. The groups want additional information on how the combined company would staff and manage the purchased Tegna stations and seek “any document, such as a presentation, final agreement, e-mail or text communication” on future staffing plans “whether made to potential lenders, investors, board members, executives, or third parties.” The groups are also seeking more information about the investors funding the deal, the filing said. “Without that information, and regardless of how interests are portrayed as mere lending arrangements or passive ownership, it is not possible” to judge “whether they will be in a position to exercise ownership in ways that would require those interests to be denominated as attributable,” the filing said. The filing also asked the FCC to require submission of portions of the merger agreement that Standard/Tegna argued aren’t germane, including sections dealing with employee benefit plans, tax matters and indebtedness. Standard General didn't comment.